Happy New Year all!

May the good get better and the bad get gone.

Auld Lang Syne - Sex and The City

Next year it will be different...

So as the old year lurches to its end, inevitably we review what has happened. It's been a slightly below average year for me, no great new passions or directions, pretty much same as it ever was. On the positive side are the cats, Thomas my young friend, my constant source of amusement, and my dear old Emma who has made it through another year and can still give Thom what for if he gets out of line. I discovered  new places to holiday (Nelson Lakes and Golden Bay - it's always good to have a bolthole or two). Movie and book-wise the year has seemed unremarkable, can't think of anything that has been even vaguely memorable. I was EQC'd and survived. The quakes have died down, but of course, we still live with the thought that there might be another Big One. The weather has been unpleasant, two snowstorms and too much cold weather for my liking. One of my customers came in the other day and complained about the heat (30 degrees). Stupid, stupid woman, just enjoy it while it lasts because we get little enough of it.
    Of course, next year will be different. It will be a marvellous year, full of adventure and weight-loss. I'll travel business class to Italy to live the life of Reilly in my Tuscan villa. The (young, gorgeous) man of my dreams will sweep me off my feet and will help me spend the millions I am going to win on Lotto. I will retire early. I will buy a little red sports car and get everything lifted, so that I don't embarrass my young man. My talents as an artist and writer will flame into incandescence and a trilogy will be filmed from my first book. I will become both a popular and a cult heroine. I will appear on American Idol or something and Simon Cowell will weep at my feet in adoration. Kevin McCloud will design my caravan, and Posh Becks will do my toenails.
     Not.

The lillies of Christmas

 

Here in New Zealand, a perpetual joy of the Christmas season is the flowering of the regal lillies, (Lilium regale) commonly known here as Christmas lillies (natch). Fortunate us, here in the Southern hemisphere Christmas comes at midsummer, and no Christmas would be complete without the glorious fragrance of these beautiful flowers combined with the smell of drying pine-needles (from the tree) and whatever food is being prepared for the annual feast. We've had a large vase of them on the desk at work, and customers come in asking "what's that beautiful smell?". Lillies appear in force on the Christmas altar too, filling churches with their own particular incense.  The scent is such a part of a NZ Christmas, and one that evokes an instant trip down the nostalgic path of Christmas past.
My Dad used to grow them right at the end of our quarter-acre, in the shade of an ancient pear-tree in deep, rich soil created from years of leaf-mulch. Every year we would send a large bunch to Mum's church (Dad was an atheist, but didn't begrudge his lillies for the enjoyment of others).

 

Other lillies also arrive around the same time, usually just a little later. White Madonna lillies (Lillium candidum) are a nice reminder of the Annunciation, but I have a burgundy one in the garden which seems a lot more pagan. These also have a powerful scent.

 

 

 And last but not least, the Asiatic and Oriental lillies, of which there are many, many cultivars.

 

 

 

 

Back to normal

    Two days after the season of goodwill and TV is back to normal. Criminal minds, CSI etc.etc. are back with the usual slew of psychotic slayings, the more twisted the better. Does anyone else think there's something just a little hypocritical about this? TV says "OK, the season of goodwill and peace is OVER, get it, and we're back to the bloodfest". And Christmas Eve viewing was more suited to Halloween than Xmas - Disney's Christmas Carol was real dark and creepy, and the Corpse Bride? Weird choice, guys. Of course, we can't show anything religious, that might offend people who aren't Christian. Even though it is a Christian holiday, and if it wasn't for Christianity we wouldn't have a day off at all.  Now, I am an atheist, but I really think that since one of the foundations of Western civilisation is Christianity, like it or not, then perhaps it should be celebrated. Bring on the hymns and the story of the Nativity and the star shining at midnight, the shepherds getting their socks washed and the Three Kings orienteering across miles of trackless waste, following a star and a hope. Isn't that magical? Isn't that better than a three-day greed fest? It is, but it doesn't make any money, of course, so kick that to the kerb. Christmas now is more full of humbug than it ever was in Dicken's tale.
     Grump, grump.

The way it was

 

Woman magazine, Family Christmas cookbook insert, 1963

 

They'll be eating that giant pud till next Christmas.

Wallace & Gromit 03-snowmanatron