365 Project, Week 43.
27 Dec 2009 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatAs you might expect there is something of a festive theme to this week's pictures - but a there are a couple which aren't about Christmas, honestly. Included is a picture of THIS YEAR'S CAKE. For newer friends, every year my daughter and I have a long planning discussion about the decorating of the Christmas cake, which over the years has featured 'Christmas present', a penguin acrobatic display team, a Christmas stocking, a reindeer... all sorts. We do the decoration from scratch with lots of fondant icing and a good deal of laughter...
So, under the cut are pictures of
Monday's picture is of one of my nativity sets - they have a candle bridge behind them for illumination and the baby is, of course, not there yet. He gets put into position after midnight on Christmas Eve.
Tuesday is also Christmas themed - I thought of them as Santas - but after D-d's comment about some of the other Santas looking like the choir of the Unseen University I am beginning to think of these guys as rather rotund wizards as well...
Wednesday's picture is of this year's Christmas cake - I did one with candles on for a friend and decided it looked good - D-d decided this cake needed four.
We finally cut into it yesterday - and it tastes very good - it is the rich fruit cake we made before D-d went back to York in September, and it has matured very well.
Thursday was Christmas Eve, we finished off the preparations, and I wrapped presents into the night! D-d and I went to take presents, and last minute shopping, to my Mum, before going to the evening candle-lit service at Church. We passed through the village of Laxey and stopped to take a picture of the Christmas Greeting from the village commissioners -
They are the only ones I know who wish us all a Happy Christmas in Manx.
Friday was, of course, Christmas Day. One of my best presents was a lovely eternity ring from S2C - but there are no pictures of it yet, as he had, knowingly, got the wrong size as they didn't have the right size, and he wanted that particular ring - if you see what I mean. So I had to leave it in the box and take it back this afternoon for them to get the correct size in for me.
The other best Christmas present was my own Archbishop Sentamu to go onto the tree! How brilliant is this?
He came, of course from York Minster, courtesy of D-d.
Yesterday was Boxing Day - we have a wee family get together, currently at our house, as my sister's house refurbishment is not yet finished and they are still in a small flat. My sister has actually been quite unwell over the whole run up to Christmas, she wasn't even well enough to come to church on Christmas Day, so D-d and I started the afternoon by going north to collect Mum.
This picture is actually of Ramsey harbour as it shows all of the general cargo capacity to get bulky stuff on and off the island - the three 'Ben boats' the Ben Ellan, Ben Varrey and Ben Maye, owned by Ramsey Steamship Company, and the Silver River owned by Mezaron, an even smaller local company. Christmas is the only time that you will see all the freighters in their home port together. On Christmas Eve there were even more small fishing boats in the harbour but some of them had sailed by lunchtime on Boxing Day.
Today we went to church and had a Carols of Praise Service - two prayers, one reading, and ten carols chosen my members of the congregation, with brief explanations as to why they chose them. There was a friendly relaxed atmosphere - so much so that when we got to 'Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning' and the organist started to play the tune in the hymn books a chorus of voices went up 'No! Not that tune!" and there was a short interlude whilst she looked through three other books and tried various tunes until there was a chorus of"Yes" That's the one we remember!" and the service proceeded.
After lunch I went into Douglas to go and see a jeweller about a ring... I parked at the far end of the promenade and walked along it rather than up the street. This route took me past the sculpture to commemorate the saving of the crew of the St George in 1830 by a volunteer crew led by Sir William Hillary. The three dimensional memorial stone is much more recent, of course - it created some controversy when first unveiled three or four years ago. It seems to be one of those things you either love or hate - I really like it -
Now we have all sorts of Christmas food to eat up - good thing there are twelve days to Christmas to get through it all!
So, under the cut are pictures of
Monday's picture is of one of my nativity sets - they have a candle bridge behind them for illumination and the baby is, of course, not there yet. He gets put into position after midnight on Christmas Eve.
Tuesday is also Christmas themed - I thought of them as Santas - but after D-d's comment about some of the other Santas looking like the choir of the Unseen University I am beginning to think of these guys as rather rotund wizards as well...
Wednesday's picture is of this year's Christmas cake - I did one with candles on for a friend and decided it looked good - D-d decided this cake needed four.
We finally cut into it yesterday - and it tastes very good - it is the rich fruit cake we made before D-d went back to York in September, and it has matured very well.
Thursday was Christmas Eve, we finished off the preparations, and I wrapped presents into the night! D-d and I went to take presents, and last minute shopping, to my Mum, before going to the evening candle-lit service at Church. We passed through the village of Laxey and stopped to take a picture of the Christmas Greeting from the village commissioners -
They are the only ones I know who wish us all a Happy Christmas in Manx.
Friday was, of course, Christmas Day. One of my best presents was a lovely eternity ring from S2C - but there are no pictures of it yet, as he had, knowingly, got the wrong size as they didn't have the right size, and he wanted that particular ring - if you see what I mean. So I had to leave it in the box and take it back this afternoon for them to get the correct size in for me.
The other best Christmas present was my own Archbishop Sentamu to go onto the tree! How brilliant is this?
He came, of course from York Minster, courtesy of D-d.
Yesterday was Boxing Day - we have a wee family get together, currently at our house, as my sister's house refurbishment is not yet finished and they are still in a small flat. My sister has actually been quite unwell over the whole run up to Christmas, she wasn't even well enough to come to church on Christmas Day, so D-d and I started the afternoon by going north to collect Mum.
This picture is actually of Ramsey harbour as it shows all of the general cargo capacity to get bulky stuff on and off the island - the three 'Ben boats' the Ben Ellan, Ben Varrey and Ben Maye, owned by Ramsey Steamship Company, and the Silver River owned by Mezaron, an even smaller local company. Christmas is the only time that you will see all the freighters in their home port together. On Christmas Eve there were even more small fishing boats in the harbour but some of them had sailed by lunchtime on Boxing Day.
Today we went to church and had a Carols of Praise Service - two prayers, one reading, and ten carols chosen my members of the congregation, with brief explanations as to why they chose them. There was a friendly relaxed atmosphere - so much so that when we got to 'Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning' and the organist started to play the tune in the hymn books a chorus of voices went up 'No! Not that tune!" and there was a short interlude whilst she looked through three other books and tried various tunes until there was a chorus of"Yes" That's the one we remember!" and the service proceeded.
After lunch I went into Douglas to go and see a jeweller about a ring... I parked at the far end of the promenade and walked along it rather than up the street. This route took me past the sculpture to commemorate the saving of the crew of the St George in 1830 by a volunteer crew led by Sir William Hillary. The three dimensional memorial stone is much more recent, of course - it created some controversy when first unveiled three or four years ago. It seems to be one of those things you either love or hate - I really like it -
Now we have all sorts of Christmas food to eat up - good thing there are twelve days to Christmas to get through it all!
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no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 06:02 pm (UTC)Wishing a Happy New Year to you and yours.
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Date: 27/12/2009 06:12 pm (UTC)I love that nativity set myself - and there are a couple of others around the house, too.
Happy New Year to you and yours, too.
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Date: 27/12/2009 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 07:40 pm (UTC)I do love that nativity set, greatly - it is one of my favourite Christmas things.
no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 06:35 pm (UTC)Nollick Ghennal as Blein Vie Noa!
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Date: 27/12/2009 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 07:20 pm (UTC)Nice cake - that's a candle for each of the important beings in the household, I assume?
We've just polished off an entire tray of mince pies - suddenly the sixty I made and froze uncooked looks a little less than sufficient!
no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 08:00 pm (UTC)I thought three candles slightly set to one side - but D-d has a more orderly mind and didn't fancy there being an are of plain white on one side!
We are still on out first dozen mince pies!
no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 12:06 am (UTC)We had a visitor this afternoon (
no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 07:39 pm (UTC)And I like the photo of Ramsey harbor. It is so like home, and yet not, if you know what I mean. But yes, it brings a whiff of sea air to mind. I've been looking at too many waterfowl lately, and I found myself wondering what varieties were swimming into harbor....
I'm a music minister at my church, and your story about the Carols of Praise Service made me smile. How treacherous church music can be! Good for your organist, keeping her head and finding the desired setting in the end.
Thanks for including Archbishop Sentamu. I did a little reading about him. It's always nice to see and learn something new.
Lastly, I will say that now I know how to spell "Merry Christmas" in Manx, but how do you say it?
no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 08:10 pm (UTC)Archbishop Sentamu is a truly Godly man - and is admired greatly by many of the students in York.
Manx is more phonetic than Irish or Scots Gaelic - so it is Noll-ik Genn-al (with a hard G as in 'get' rather than as in 'germ').
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Date: 27/12/2009 08:41 pm (UTC)Yes, I was quite impressed by what I read of Archbishop Sentamu.
And thanks for the language lesson--stress is important too!
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Date: 27/12/2009 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 08:23 pm (UTC)The carols were fun - but it was the fourth service in 8 days and so by today some people were missing! My sister had been organising it, only she'd been ill, and so it hadn't occurred to her to check the music in the hymnal - which is often not the tune we know...
There were a couple of visitors in church - they must have wondered what sort of place they were in when the congregation pointed out, loudly, that it was the wrong tune!
no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/12/2009 11:35 pm (UTC)Glad your sister is feeling better now, it's horrible to feel unwell at the holidays.
Thanks for the Christmas card-it's lovely.
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Date: 27/12/2009 11:51 pm (UTC)My sister is the church secretary and so was fretting because she would have been quite involved with all the organising over Christmas - she felt guilty that others had to do it - but really none of us minded. She had a chest infection and then infected sinuses and really felt grotty, poor thing.
As for the card - it was my pleasure.
no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 12:38 am (UTC)sweeeeeet!
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Date: 28/12/2009 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 11:46 am (UTC)I like that memorial stone - I forgot to put in the post that the good news is that they did manage to save everyone off the St George.
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Date: 28/12/2009 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 11:52 am (UTC)There will be a picture, but only when it has been resized and I can actually wear it.
no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 06:14 am (UTC)Can you do an approximation of the pronunciation of that greeting? I can't believe it is pronounced as it looks to me, because that wouldn't be logical.
I kind of like that memorial stone too, although I can see that people who want their perspective to be right, might not.
Happy New Year to you all.
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Date: 28/12/2009 12:02 pm (UTC)My own personal Archbishop Sentamu is one of the high spots of the season I think.
Blein vie noa! (Year happy new!) The pronunciation is at the same point on the link above!
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Date: 28/12/2009 05:36 pm (UTC)And I forgot to say, this morning -
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Date: 28/12/2009 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 12:21 pm (UTC)the baby is, of course, not there yet. He gets put into position after midnight on Christmas Eve
What a brilliant idea! I never thought of that.
Did you get your ring sorted?
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Date: 28/12/2009 02:03 pm (UTC)I took the ring back and a nice young man set about ordering the identical one in the correct size. He asked one of the girls a question and she asked exactly what he was doing - and when he said 'the lady got it for Christmas but we didn't have the right size,' she said 'A pity the giver didn't know what size; we could just have ordered it...'
I said 'He did know the size - he brought in a ring that fitted,' and before I could say any more she said 'It would be your husband, then. Husbands always leave it too close to Christmas to come in and then there isn't time to order the right size!'
no subject
Date: 29/12/2009 01:35 pm (UTC)LOL!
Mind you, who else would buy an eternity ring?
no subject
Date: 29/12/2009 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/12/2009 04:15 pm (UTC)I love Tuesday's pic of the wizard Santas. Of course he has to be a wizard to accomplish all he does. It looks like you had a lovely Christmas.
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Date: 28/12/2009 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29/12/2009 02:27 pm (UTC)Pretty pictures! I like the little bishop ornament, and I love the memorial stone. People hate that? Really?
no subject
Date: 29/12/2009 06:41 pm (UTC)Archbishop Sentamu is a truly Christian man - but he is also a rather cute Christmas decoration!
Some people didn't like the odd perspective in the plaque that gives the real sense of depth - they thought it should either be a sculpture, or an engraving, not something in between :~(