Celebrating LOVE

 

My Beloved George and His Father In Simpatico

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Joy With Her Keeper at The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

To All Best Friends

And if money were no object I would hot foot it to Philip Mould's Mayfair art establishment to secure my Valentine's heart's desire. This totally romantic painting (pastel) by Rosalba Carriera c1725, "Cleopatra Holding a Pearl". Totally swoon worthy, no? It's enough to make a gal's heart melt.

Burns Night Fun

 The Mr and I are out galavanting tonight. We've booked tickets to a Burns night at a local historic house, Thornbridge Hall.

Photo By Frances Milburn

The dress code is glam, dress to impress. I've pulled out a sensational Northern Lights green skirt that I bought in Norway a couple of years ago that I have never worn. Coupled with a lightweight knit with gold details on the sleeves and a pair of boots also not worn before. They have a slight iridescence when they catch the light, very on trend, ha ha. I do have some Camilla Elphick shoes that would look gorgeous with this skirt but unfortunately they do not fit too well and keep slipping off. Sadly I have to face the fact that I need to sell them on. No point in keep getting them out of their box, trying them on and sighing when I can't walk in them. Brutal realisation.

I love all the fanfare and Scottishness of a Burns night supper. Very excitingly there will be pipers and an address to the haggis. Burns wrote the address in 1786. All very thrilling. The Mr is especially thrilled with the Whisky flight that will be served with the meal, doubly so, as he will be drinking mine too. A cab has been ordered!

Gareth Morrison addresses the Haggis in this Youtube short. Fabulous.

The Maestro Has A Spa Day

 

Oh how happy is The Maestro now he has had a spruce up? The poor love had some very old twine stuck in his throat, filthy eyes and a nasty dirty robe.

I hand washed his little garment in an especially mild detergent and carefully dried it. I used barely moist cotton buds to clean his glass eyes, ears and hands. For the rest of him, fabric etc I used something called a smoke sponge.

I volunteer in a textile department within a local stately home, and this type of sponge is fabulous for cleaning antique and important fabrics. Good to know my friends if any of you have similar work to do. The idea is it lifts the grime without wetting any delicate precious materials. It can be used on books as well, so I'm told.

I'm away now to put his little robe back on and to clean his metamorphic Victorian dolls chair which happily came with him. A Marionette needs a choice of chairs methinks.

May I Introduce The Maestro

 My it has been perishing cold has it not? Our trusty log burner has been wonderful and a nice hot water bottle has been most welcome during the chilly nights. For some strange reason I have had some lower back pain which has been annoyingly persistent. I think it may be due to the fact that I have not been able to engage in my usual exercise classes and swims after having flu over the Christams season. My dear friends I have seized up ! Happily this morning I returned to my Aqua Oki class, yes, we sing (loudly) as we cavort, a lot of fun.

In other news I have been using up some of my mixed fruit stash, inherited from my late mother-in-law.  I don't often make cakes but decided it was time for a fruit cake, to have with a good pot of tea or two. A simple recipe from the kitchens of HRH Queen Camilla. This particular fruit mix had cranberries and apricots in, very tasty.

I also wanted to show you the latest member of our family. I found him at a local auction house, and after my initial fear of his grumpy chops, I found him most friendly and needless to say charming, with a lovely energy about him. The name Mephisto popped into my head, but having subsequently researched who Mephisto was , I have decided to call him Maestro. He is Victorian and quite a large chap with enormous hands. I told my son I would smudge Maestro with a large amount of sage before he settles into our home. Our son is convinced I am bringing the Devil in, ha ha. But I am smitten. What do you think?

A New Dawn & A New Year Let's Give It Our All

 My besom was busy today, brushing away the bad luck from the house, straight out the backdoor and brushing with intent the good luck in through our front door. A feeling of a job well done. A fresh beginning with a new year to look forward to.

 

2025 was largely like most recent years generally okay, except for our personal family losses which were huge. So a sad year for us. But ..........................

2026 has huge potential for the Mr and I and our family and we are excited about changes to come. 

I would like to thank all of my followers on this here tiny blog. We are a small community I know but a worthwhile one methinks. I hope I manage to transmit as much joy as I recieve in 2026. Good health and joy to all of you.

Charming image by Shawn Braley

God only Knows

 

A sweet and intoxicating rendition. I hope you enjoy this my chums.

Very Best Wishes to All My Blogging Chums.

The Madonna of the Magnificant by Botticelli 

I'm here to wish all of my blogging chums a very merry Christmas and a happy new year in 2026. 

But I have to say in this particular countdown to the season I have felt bombarded by the hustle culture, you know the one that tries to get us to over consume and buy huge amounts of rubbish we don't need and certainly should not be gifting to our friends and family. 

One of the worst offenders is Gobal Player !! I normally enjoy listening to Classic FM, but for weeks now anyone tuning in has had their musical enjoyment poisoned by an aggressive campaign to sell tickets to enter a 'competition' to win increasing amounts of money. Literally every 20/30 minutes the presenters have been banging on about it. I tried to change to a couple of my other favourite stations but they too are under the Global Player umbrella, and so the 'message' was the same. The whole thing really saddens me. It feels like their overriding message for this season of goodwill is GREED.

Anyway, this for my blogging chum Cranky Crow, a bookmark of someone she will recognise.

And a message for the universe.