Autumn and Beetroot = Early Start for Christmas Breakfast!

Beetroot boiled and pickled ready for Christmas breakfast - as the leaves start to fall on us and the darkness comes earlier.

Something Told the Wild Geese

The other day, Mum mentioned the following poem after noticing something on a dog walk up at Newtonhill Croft in Caithness.  I always think of it whenever I see the 'v' of a flock of geese making their way across the skies in preparation for winter. 

I think it's one of those things that justifies that early Christmas feeling, don't you?

I think nature tells us a lot about when to start preparing for things.  I'm not very good at the natural world (some members of my family, including contributors to this blog, are excellent naturalists, but I'm not really.  However, I have noticed the high quantities of berries on the bushes and trees, which even I know to be a sign of the hard winter.  Time to go out and buy fat balls and seed-cakes for the birds to help them survive the coming cold weather.

Driving down from Newtonhill, the fields really were golden.  But, indisputably, something is telling me to get ready for Christmas!

 

 

Something Told the Wild Geese

by Rachel Field

 

Something told the wild geese
It was time to go;
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, - 'snow'.

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, - 'frost'.

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly -
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

Peas and Goodwill

Peas freshly picked by Clemency,  from Robert's croft, were shelled last night and frozen this morning at seven minutes past the witching hour - labelled as such AND " for Christmas dinner ".  This is the first item to go into the freezer for Christmastime. At Christmas we love to eat or use things which friends and family have given to us through the year as it prompts thought and remembrance when everything is so busy-busy-busy.

Welcome to the Bers

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

A Christmas Carol; Charles Dickens

 

I know that many people would throw their hands up in horror at my suggestion that the Christmas Season, at least in part, began today.  But that's the way with the younger members of our family: the "bers" (September, October, November and December) bring Christmas with them.

 

That's not to say that we throw up the decorations at the first possible whiff of a frost but, on the first of September, we begin to look forward to the festive season.  Planning presents, ensuring that old traditions are maintained and (dare I admit it) playing the first Christmas music.

 

The kind of Christmas music that you'd play at the beginning of September wouldn't be Silent Night or It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.  It wouldn't even be Stop the Cavalry or Do They Know It's Christmas?.  It's Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band's amazing concept album: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

 

Anyway, back to business.  I should really have begun by welcoming you to our blog.  The idea behind it is to share memories, traditions, gift ideas and many, many other aspects of our family Christmases.  We always tell everyone that "no one does Christmas like the Crow Family", and now we're going to put some things out there that might explain why!

 

Prepare to be taken on a festive journey, empty your minds of the troubles and stresses of everyday life and get into the Christmas spirit.  Or, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!