Wishing You Were Here

This year's calendar captures highlights from our Easter Break trip to England last April (except where otherwise noted). So even as we look forward to a year of new adventures in 2018, we will be remembering fondly our family visits of 2017, wishing we were there!

January
(photo from October 2016)
The Magical Wishing Well at Auntie Jan's

February
Tulips in Rosanne & Ron's Front Yard

March
Wrought Iron Re - finishing on the Crosby Waterfront

April
Easter Bunny at Auntie Tina's

May
The Ladies: Rosanne, Tina, Amy, Ella, Lucy

June
Dinner at the Sparrowhawk, Near Formby

July
Visiting the Bristow Family at Worth Hall Lodge

August
Lunch at the The Crooked Billet, Near Reading

September
Auntie Margaret's Back Garden Pathway

October
(photo taken October 2016)
Autumnal Blooming Gaura, South of England

November
(photo taken October 2016)
On the Little Crosby Footpath

December
A Game of Chess at Auntie Jan's

CALENDERS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS
Everyday Custom & Ceremony ~ 2012
Mona's Clothes ~ 2012
Moons of Wintertime and Beyond ~ 2013
Never Quite the Same ~ 2014
Homes That We Love ~ 2014
814 ~ Where It Was Almost Always Christmas ~ 2015
Time for a Moondance ~ 2015
Love Me, Love My Cats! ~ 2015
A Day in the Garden ~ 2016
Team McCartney ~ 2017
Full Moon Night ~ Full Moon Year ~ 2017

Countdown to Christmas

A year ago, I posted a few of our favorite
Advent candles.
Now for some favorite calendars:

A Miniature (6" x 8") London Scene from Auntie Jan

A Little Library ~ Thanks Kathleen!

A 3-D Playmobile Set from the McCabes
A childhood gift to Ben & Sam . . .

. . . with toys for a snow scene
tucked inside each box.

Another charming gift from the McCabes,
a reprinted 19th C German calendar:

Another German import
from our friend Rebecca
for Ben's First Christmas ~ 1990

Advent Calendar
"Bethlehem in Germany,
Glitter on the sloping roofs,
Breadcrumbs on the windowsills,
Candles in the Christmas trees . . ."

~ by Gjertrud Schnackenberg (b 1953)

Click here to read the continuation of this
beautiful poem (under copyright protection).
Stanza by stanza, Schnackenberg,
captures every magical image portrayed
on these classic paper Advent calendars.

**********************

Also from Auntie Jan ~ sent from England
for Sam's First Christmas ~ 1993
Victorian Cats Advent Calendar
by Liz Underhill

A new choice this year,
more adorable felines!
Cats by Lesley Anne Ivory

Dear to our hearts, from previous years . . .
Art Institute of Chicago

Norman Rockwell's Stockbridge Village

The New Millenniun

And Jostein Gaarder's Christmas Mystery,
a novelistic Advent journey in book - form! See my book blog for more Holiday Favorites.

This Little World, This England

Sunnyfields in Fall & Spring

Only a year behind in posting these these autumnal
favorites from last October's trip to England:
2016 ~ England in the Autumn

And a mere six months late with this batch
from our English Easter Break:
2017 ~ England in the Spring

Guara Flower

You might think that this picture is from the Spring album, but no -- I took it last October in Auntie Jan's backyard, in the south of England. Imagine such a delicate pink blossom thriving in October!

I also love this one for its more conventional autumn tone:

Apple Harvest (with pear as punctum)
[See also 2025]

Auntie Jan's Dreamy Wishing Well
~ in October 2016 ~

~ in April 2017 ~
(with little blue toy car as punctum)

Aerial View

"This other Eden, demi-paradise . . .
this little world . . .
This precious stone set in a silver sea . . .
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England . . ."
~ Shakespeare ~ from Richard II ~

Winding Lanes

"Custom was the keystone of life. . . . the underlying deep continuity that represents the nature of England itself. . . .

"The ancient roads, the witnesses of prehistoric life and travel, still persisted in the medieval landscape. But they were joined by other highways in the historical period. Many winding lanes between farmstead and farmstead, many sunken hollow - ways leading to the village, deep - set and drowsy on a summer afternoon, were constructed in the twelfth century" (7, 119).

from Foundation: The History of England
From Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors
by Peter Ackroyd, British cultural historian (b 1949)

From Auntie Jan's to Auntie Margaret's

From Auntie Margaret's to Auntie Tina's

Almost to Grim & Gram's

Out for a Walk

To Sunnyfields

Down the Back Lane

Swins

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWIN BRUCIE!

Siamese Twin Cookie Cutter
from the Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities, Philadelphia

FROM THE SUBLIME . . . Gerry's Auntie Jan recently visited the first Benedictine Monastery at Monte Cassino, as part of a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Benedict, the patron saint of students, protector of Europe, and twin brother of Scholastica, the patron saint of nuns and convulsive children. From her travels in Rome, Norcia, and Subiaco, Jan sent us this postcard, with the message:

"Amazing what a pair of non - identical twins can achieve!"

Benedict & Scholastica


The Holy Twins


TO THE RIDICULOUS
(but true!)

. . . You taught me that!
My birthday card from Bruce last year . . .
one of my all - time favorites!

Gnome Sweet Gnome

Favorite Greeting Card
From Vicky D. McL. ~ 2020

Shroud of the Gnome

And what amazes me is that none of our modern inventions
surprise or interest him, even a little. I tell him
it is time he got his booster shots, but then
I realize I have no power over him whatsoever.
He becomes increasingly light-footed until I lose sight
of him downtown between the federal building and
the post office. A registered nurse is taking her
coffee break. I myself needed a break, so I sat down
next to her at the counter. "Don't mind me," I said,
"I'm just a hungry little Gnostic in need of a sandwich."
(This old line of mine had met with great success
on any number of previous occasions.) I thought,
a deaf, dumb, and blind nurse, sounds ideal!
But then I remembered that some of the earliest
Paleolithic office workers also feigned blindness
when approached by nonoffice workers, so I paid my bill
and disappeared down an alley where I composed myself.
Amidst the piles of outcast citizenry and burning barrels
of waste and rot, the plump rats darting freely,
the havoc of blown newspapers, lay the little shroud
of my lost friend: small and gray and threadbare,
windworn by the ages of scurrying hither and thither,
battered by the avalanches and private tornadoes
of just being a gnome, but surely there were good times, too.
And now, rejuvenated by the wind, the shroud moves forward,
hesitates, dances sideways, brushes my foot as if for a kiss,
and flies upward, whistling a little-known ballad
about the pitiful, raw etiquette of the underworld.

by James ~ Tate
in his book of the same title:

A Friendly Gnome to Greet Us
At Auntie Jan's House

And Pixie - Sized Figures for the Dollhouse

A Collection of Gnomes From Steven

Including this Little Pixie;
along with a Chrismtas Lobster, stuffed peppermints;
and a Christmas Carol Pop - Up Book from Igor

Flannel Sheets from Lands' End

And Hand Towels