December reflections

Even though I’ve missed the first few days, I do like this idea of December reflections that Susannah Conway has initiated, www.susannahconway.com/2014/11/lets-close-out-the-year-in-style/ so I will at least try to join in a bit!!

1. Drink – easy, my friends went to some trouble to find me cherry juice for my birthday, knowing I like it and it’s never available around here! Apparently not that easily in Germany, either…

2. Lights – well, at this time of year, I’m spoilt for choice but having just inserted a new set of lights into some pretty lanterns in a dark hallway, I think they qualify!

3. The Best Day of 2014 – there were lots and I’m very lucky, but I think the weekend for my 50th has to be top of that list! So happy to be in Avrona (www.avrona.ch) 🙂 Those two dots are chamois grazing just outside the inn… even in Switzerland not too common an occurrence! Anyone interested: avrona.ch and there will be more about it here soon.

4. Red – another easy one for December! This would be my supersimple Advent wreath this year, using some of my Hergiswil glass (www.glasi.ch/de/) –I am nothing if not indecisive (I like to keep my options open!) so I do have a second candidate for “red”, which has given me much pleasure in 2014: my Braven 600 speaker received last Christmas. I adore the sleek design and matte red colour and the sound is excellent, too, just right in our small house both for music and audiobooks. We had some trouble with the on/off switch that my clever husband managed to fix, and apparently that is its weak point. Otherwise, highly recommended (and this is not sponsored by anyone!).5. The poinsettia is known as a “Christmas star” in German and the flowers aren’t really flowers but leaves, so that is my choice for today! 6. T is for…  anTique lace, which enables me to update my last post about the knitting “recipe” found in Great Aunt Joyce’s little book. I managed to work out what the old-fashioned knitting code was – X means knit 2 together, it seems, at least, when I then applied my solution in practice, I turned out a nice little swatch (albeit at a much too large a gauge – it’s intended for fine cotton and tiny tiny needles as an edging for baby things). And I have a use for the pattern, too – all will be revealed at a later date (it’s going to take a while to do all that lace edging!) but at this rate, it will something of an heirloom :).

7. The best book of 2014 – hm, I’ve read a lot this year but have also been disappointed by some books, which I didn’t expect. So I think I will nominate Jeeves and the Wedding Bells, which made me grin delightedly (manically?) throughout, it so well catches the tone of P.G. Wodehouse – well done, Sebastian Faulks! I would beg Hugh Laurie to do the reading of it as an audiobook – he and Stephen Fry epitomise Jeeves and Wooster to me and Hugh also did a wonderful job of Alexander McCall-Smith’s Professor von Igelfeld stories, which are an absolute riot! 

Today is the 2nd Sunday in Advent, so two candles are burning…