A balmy 2 degrees and calm. Ten Wigeon ducks in the rock pool and a Mistle Thrush feasting on the bread crumbs on the lawn . Mistle thrushes are high on the endangered list so seeing one is definitely an early Christmas present.
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The young gulls are still in their juvenile plumage. There must be a thousand lining the shore. They greet the sun rise with a wall of sound.
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The wine shop is open early. Angus has ordered a dozen bottles of a New Zealand wine as Christmas quaffing for the villagers. The owner is keen to open a bottle but Angus isn't at all keen. Drinking red wine at this time in the morning is the sort of thing best left to younger metabolisms.
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On our way back to the house we pass an exam room being set up for the mornings student influx. I'd have to say the chairs look rather more comfortable than the metal framed versions with stretched canvas seats that were standard in our day.
Time for the 1st link to Christmas music . An old favourite sung by some Norwegian youngsters with annoyingly good English pronounciation :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGQZwIlWiU
I have to say the wine is very generous gift, as a quaffing wine for the local villagers. I just looked up the price for a bottle in NZ. Having said that we have discovered that NZ wine exported can be purchased overseas at a lot less than we can purchase on the domestic market. I will have to agree that drinking red wine in the morning is an activity left to those with a younger constitution.
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the now regular carols to be expected in the Angus-vent and a very fine version it is. Enjoyed afresh. YAM xx
I'm so pleased that the Christmas music is back. One of my favourite features of this blog. (There are in fact too many favourite features to list here.) A proper feast of Norwegian-ness this morning! I turned it up loud to drown out Suella Braverman on the radio...
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
WFT - Although I thought Nick Robinson was brilliant interviewing her .
ReplyDeleteThat was a lovely version of the song - thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love the Christmas table decoration and am looking forward to seeing the rest of your festive decorations as they appear. Big question - will the Nativity be complete with the lady in the blue frock?
ReplyDeleteNothing adventurous or glamourous here, but i have found my Ikea Advent candles and plugged them in!
Remember seeing your first Christmas choice some years ago, it never fails to delight.
A short flashback to exam season, the Holiday season is much more fun.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking yesterday that I hoped the Christmas music would begin soon. And now I imagine many of us are waiting for the Nativity, although I will miss the flashing tree from France. I can't recall whether it stayed with the village along with the Font's wreaths, but I will choose to think so.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent beginning to this year's Christmas music, glorious sunrise pictures, and the glass tree is a beauty. Thank you for such an elegant beginning of my day.
ReplyDeleteLisa in France - The flashing tree together with a variety of Christmas baubles stayed in France and will be illuminating this years vin d'honneur in the Salle de fetes.
ReplyDeleteThe glass tree is lovely and I am so happy the Christmas music is back! My Norwegian grandfather had a very proper English accent his entire life. He was always correcting his American raised grandchildren on grammar and pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteThat second photo of the storm clouds and gulls is a beauty. As is the glass tree. I don't remember seeing it before.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your Czechoslovakian Nativity scene. Thank you for the Christmas music.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to delete this comment if you wish, but as I always love your annual Christmas music selections, this year I wanted to send you a song in return which is the “it is not Christmas until you hear this played” song for my friends and extended family, in case you or your readers have not heard it before.
ReplyDelete“Snoopy’s Christmas” by The Royal Guardsmen (an American rock band), is perhaps the most requested Christmas song on the radio, in shops, and in people’s homes in New Zealand since it was released in 1967. I have listened to this song every year since 1967! While it starts with gunfire, the lyrics are about true Christmas spirit based on events at the Western Front in 1914.
Watch YouTube first https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEolESPGQg and then if you would like to know more read https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018918502/snoopy-s-christmas-proves-to-be-an-enduring-hit-in-nz
Wishing you and the Font peace at Christmas.
What a delightful start to the Christmas music tradition! And Angus, so many other traditions your ardent blog readers always anticipate...including the inevitable sporran search!
ReplyDeleteThe glass tree is lovely. Would it be too much to hope for a picture of the flashing Christmas tree in the Salle des Fêtes for this year's vin d'honneur?
ReplyDeleteI too eagerly await the (re)apparition of the Nativity.
To you and yours, and all readers of this blog: Happy Everything!
Let the Christmas hunts ... plural... begin! We always do a "I wonder where that ... is?" This year our grandchildren are putting the decorations up, and the result is "somewhat random". We may need to check the security now they've headed home for the evening.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the Mozart Kugeln chocolates. We first "discovered" them when on our first European trip in 1979, and ever since we have bought one for each place at the Christmas table.
Along with Liz Hamblyn, I do hope you got that Martinborough wine for considerably less than we would pay over here!! The New Zealand price is huge! I hope it is appreciated.