Advent Scavenger Hunt 23 and A pause for Advent 2017: 4: something hand-crafted for Christmas.

As you may have realised as a long-term reader of this blog- that every year, I write a song for my school children to sing at their performance at the church.  Now that I have been doing this for a good few years, I have built up quite a lot of the parts of the nativity service- one year, a Donkey song, another year, a Census story, a subsequent year, a Wise Men and Herod song, another an introductory song, another an Inn-keeper song, several others and finally last year, a Shepherd song.

This year I wanted a celebratory song to be inspired by a song I have used with the choir a few times called, "Ring out the bells" by Roger Emmerson, published in Voiceworks Christmas (published by OUP) - you can listen to it here on Youtube.

I began writing this one on a horrendous journey home where I was delayed for over an hour on the train- so I sat on the train and subsequently in the waiting room, writing the tune and lyrics.  Often this is how it happens- I will not be at an instrument, I will just hear it and write it down somewhere random.

Ring out the bells:

Ding- dong, Ding-dong

Ding- dong, Ding-dong

Dingdong Ding-dong

Dingdong Ding-dong

Ding-ding, dong-dong Ding-ding, dong-dong

Ding-ding, dong-dong Ding-ding, dong-dong

Ring out the bells merrily, 

Jesus is born verily

Angels above in the sky, FLY!

Hear Bethlehem shout for joy,

"Unto us is born a boy!"
Ring out the bells merrily, ring!

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

Shepherds in fields play your tunes,

Your time to pipe's coming soon,

Gather your flocks ready for news!

Angels will sing, "Gloria!", 

Praise God with euphoria

Hurry to seek Bethlehem soon!

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

Kings from the east watch the stars,

Your journey will take you far,

A star is now ready to shine!

Choose finest gifts for a King,

Gold, Incense, Myrrh offering,

Hurry to seek Bethlehem soon!

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

Ring out those, ring out those, 

Ring out those Bells________

(Build up of repeated ostinati with the effect of bell peals)

Ring out the bells merrily, 

Jesus is born verily

Angels above in the sky, FLY!

Hear Bethlehem shout for joy,

JOY!

Ring out the bells merrily, 

Jesus is born verily

Angels above in the sky, FLY!

Hear Bethlehem shout for joy,

"Unto us is born a boy!"
Ring out the bells merrily, ring!

Words and music by K.Allin (c) October 2017.

It strikes me in retrospect that it would have been nicer to end with a final verse inviting everyone to join in the celebration, so maybe I'll add this in in:

Join us to now praise the King,

There's room for you all to sing,

Everyone is now welcome to join!

Jesus is for everyone,

Lift up your voice for the son,

Ring out the bells merrily, ring!

The recording is of my children singing at a concert a few weeks ago. The balance isn't great as you can hear one girl very strongly and less of the others, but it isn't bad.

One other point in the writing of this song is that the time signature is 5/4- that means there are 5 beats in a bar which gives it a slightly lopsided wonky feel- trying to cover different times, genres and musical teaching points with my songs.

 Whilst the composing of this happened before Advent, this is always part of my preparation for Christmas, one which I relish and enjoy.

My children also performed 2014's song and in addition, the younger choir sang my very first song- Manger Lullaby which sadly, I didn't get a recording of- maybe I'll ask them to sing it again in January so I can get a recording of it!

This is my pause for Advent with Ang et al ( a day early!) and it works for my Scavenger Hunt with Julie because it is indeed, something handcrafted for Christmas! :-) 

Julie's list:

• Letterbox
• Something handcrafted for Christmas
• Favourite Christmas recipe
• Christmas book(s)
• Stained glass window
• Robin
• Bell(s)
• Sleigh
• Christmas Bauble
• Holly and Ivy
• Snowman
• Angel
• First Christmas card received in the post
• Christmas crackers
• Tree before dressed
• Tree after dressed
• Christmas wrapping paper
• Mistletoe
• Stocking or Christmas Sack/Bag
• Wrapped present(s)
• Winter
• Father Christmas
• Nativity
• The Night Before Christmas

Hope you enjoyed it!

x

Advent Calendar Scavenger Hunt- Day 15- Mistletoe........and murder!

I was wracking my brain to think what I could post for Mistletoe for my Scavenger Hunt and then I suddenly realised what the title of my last book was!!

Anyone who has read this blog for a while should know that I am an ardent 'Whodunnit' fan. The majority of my reading material is this genre- historical fiction.  I picked up this Daisy Dalrymple murder mystery in the Summer but knew I wanted to save it for Christmas to read, along with the various seasonally-named British Crime Classics such as 'Mystery in White', 'The Christmas Murder' etc.

Daisy Dalrymple is an amateur-sleuth. She is the daughter of a peer but now married to Alec Fletcher, Chief-Inspector at Scotland Yard.  She is invited along with all her family to Brockdene, the ancestral home of Lord Westmoor under the orders of her mother, the dowager Lady Dalrymple. 
But when they arrive, they discover that the Norvilles, Lord Westmoor's poor relatives live there and Lord Westmoor has no intention of attending.  There are plenty of interesting stories about the place and tension over relationships.  But then, another guest to the house is found murdered in the chapel on Christmas day.  It seems curious because most people had no motive to murder him but Daisy and Alec dig up the truth!

This was a jolly good adventure with lots of 'Jolly Hockeysticks' language and spirit.  The characters are very likeable and fairly well written. I enjoyed the unravelling of the murder and thought the murderer being revealed was fine but I did feel that Daisy plucked the murder a little out of the blue to a certain extent. I do like a good festive murder and I enjoy this series which is  bit like a cross between Agatha Christie and the Famous Five, but I wasn't so convinced by the denouement!

Have you read any of this series or any festive fiction?




Julie's list:

• Letterbox
• Something handcrafted for Christmas
• Favourite Christmas recipe
• Christmas book(s)
• Stained glass window
• Robin
• Bell(s)
• Sleigh
• Christmas Bauble
• Holly and Ivy
• Snowman
• Angel
• First Christmas card received in the post
• Christmas crackers
• Tree before dressed
• Tree after dressed
• Christmas wrapping paper
• Mistletoe
• Stocking or Christmas Sack/Bag
• Wrapped present(s)
• Winter
• Father Christmas
• Nativity
• The Night Before Christmas

Advent Calendar Scavenger Hunt Day 11,12,13- Sleigh, Father Christmas and First Card received in the post

Hello there!
Sorry about the being late with my posts.  I've been staying at school till 6.30pm and by the time I've got home, it's been about 8.00pm. Oh...and we now own a house!!

Sleigh

Another reason, I didn't post yesterday was that we went to see Star Wars, the Last Jedi.  CBC had the impromptu idea that we go to see it with his old house mate so we did!  As we left after it- I saw this sleigh suspended in the dome of the Atrium at the front of the cinema.

It was flanked by reindeer.

First card-received in the post

This was the first card I received in person actually. Not sure what came first,

Guess who this was from?

Father Christmas....

...can be spied how many times in the above bunch?


Hope you are well!x


Julie's list:

• Letterbox
• Something handcrafted for Christmas
• Favourite Christmas recipe
• Christmas book(s)
• Stained glass window
• Robin
• Bell(s)
• Sleigh
• Christmas Bauble
• Holly and Ivy
• Snowman
• Angel
• First Christmas card received in the post
• Christmas crackers
• Tree before dressed
• Tree after dressed
• Christmas wrapping paper
• Mistletoe
• Stocking or Christmas Sack/Bag
• Wrapped present(s)
• Winter
• Father Christmas
• Nativity
• The Night Before Christmas

May Photo Scavenger Hunt

A little late, but here I am linking with Hawthorn Spellweaver's May Scavenger Hunt
1.Path

Back at the start of May, we visited the beautiful Blue bell woods and took a myriad photos here.  The paths were just surrounded with beautiful English Bluebells! This isn't the best picture but it is the best path picture!

Hairy

 Minstrel is enormous! And he decided to get in the box! What is it with cats and boxes. The bigger the cat, the smaller the box it wants to squeeze into! He's got fur rather than hair but compared to me, he is very hairy!

Edible

 Gem-like roasted vegetables pre-oven.

And the first of many patisserie visits in France!

Small

 He may be small but he's jolly loud! Mr Blackbird again!

Poem

Hands

Two interpretations of this.

The ornate hands on this German Cuckoo clock in 'The shop of 1000 cuckoo clocks'

or year 4 boy as he prepares to conduct electricity and make music with graphite!

Vintage

I really didn't take anything Vintage this month except this Vintage Maugham book!

Shadows

The dappled shadows in the park.

View from a window

CBC is enjoying the view from the window of this strange wooden-contraption we found in the Primeval forest in Enz!

My own choice

This may not be the most beautiful photo but I adore the refraction of light through my front door in the morning- there are beautiful rainbows all over the wall!

Did you take any photos this month?

xxx

Hawthorn Scavenger Hunt

Hello there!!!

I am joining in with a lovely Scavenger Hunt hosted by Hawthorn Spellweaver at I live, I love, I craft, I am me...

Here's the list. You can go over and join the fun at her blog!

Feather:

 I saw this 3 shades of grey feather on the Saffron trail walk last Saturday.  It looked a bit ragged but still beautiful in my eyes. You can be scruffy and still beautiful, not dressed in the finest feathers!

Orange:

 These sweet potato crisps from Tyrells are delicious and a delightful orange colour. Makes them more healthy of course! My husband didn't get a look in. I hid these!

 Something Fresh:

Oh my! If you knew the amount of hours I spent squeezing oranges and lemons!  If you want to know WHY I was doing such a tiresome task, it was because we had an organisation called 'Conductive Music' in at school doing a music technology project with a class.  It involved connecting up pieces of fruit and veg to a makey-makey board and using the fruit as a sort of 'fruit piano' with an online keyboard.  I had to provide 20 oranges, 20 lemons, 2 potatoes, 20 carrots and 20 apples for the workshop which were then used a few times by 3 groups of kids from 2 classes.  I bought it from Lidl opposite school and in the time it took me to cross the road, I had lost the receipt (?!?!??!?!!) so I couldn't claim back (I didn't ask but I presume I couldn't without one. They're very strict!).  Thus, I was left with 100 pieces of fruit and veg which I was JOLLY WELL GOING TO REUSE since I had had to pay for it (AND I can't bear to chuck away anything without really trying to recycle or reuse!) . Thus my fridge was full of 20 lemons and oranges (carrots had been made into soup, apples into apple amber, potatoes donated to year 4 teacher) and I had to do something with them. I zested all 20 lemons and juiced them, then juiced about 14 of the oranges just using a handjuicer.  My wrists are really tired!!   But the fresh juice was amazing!

Horizon 1:

It's always exciting to see OSR on the horizon and even better, right in front of you!!! The joys of living CLOSER to the countryside with a husband who drives!

Horizon 2:

But even a less vivid horizon still has its beauty.  This was on the Saffron trail too getting close to Felsted!

Wet:

 This was our Easter Sunday walk in Haltwhistle.  We'd only been out for 10 minutes before it started pouring with rain.  The fields were rather wet and a tractor had been churning up this field.

 Luckily, when the sun shone again, it reflected onto the water and shone like gold!

The next day, on Easter Monday, we went to the Cheviots and climbed Windy Gyle where I took my first step into Scotland. It was also rather wet higher up but the views were great!

Sticks:

I couldn't seem to find any stick pictures so I found this picture from Easter Sunday and thought the large amount of branches are essentially uncut sticks. This was really hard to climb under!

Growing:

The flowers are growing beautifully by the gorgeous cafe!


Craft:

Made some cards over the holiday with some stars. My craft mainly consists of cards and the occasional brooch!

Memories:

I love blackbirds!  It all stems from this particularly virtuosic blackbird who suddenly started singing in my garden about 9 years ago. He had a particularly tuneful riff or little pattern that he repeated quite often, with other less memorable variants. I always knew when he was in the garden because I heard it.  He sang it every year for a few years.  From hearing that tune, I could always hear the blackbirds. My mum and I always imitated him.  Moving to this house, there are suddenly blackbirds.
Mum and I were gardening a few weeks ago and a blackbird was singing in the next garden. We sang back to him and he came and sat on the fence for about an hour along with a robin on the other side.  Now, he comes and sits on my blogging tree daily and sings to me (I like to think it's my own personal concert! How terribly egocentric!) and I sing back to him in imitation. I caught him on the branch in these pictures.

Own choice:

The final view of the Cheviots after our Windy Gyle walk- beautiful river meandering against a myriad shades of green!

Scavenger Hunts are great fun!!!

xx

Scavenger Hunt

Hello my possums! 

I'm rather late posting my Scavenger Hunt pics and one or two may be familiar but nonetheless, into the fray!

Joy

This might not look a particularly joyful photo to you but I was really really joyful. I was at my old church for the carol service by candlelight. It was warm, glowing, I had a candle in hand, with old familiar friends round me in a place I've known since birth and we were celebrating Christ's coming! What more could I need!

Together,

Two foxes, reunited together by some nefarious person!

Tree

The Disney tree at St Pancras.

Ornament

I saw these darling tin hot air balloons at a Christmas fair and was rather taken with them/

Light


The advent wreath exuded a warm, glowing light.

Christmas

Jesus in a manger at Christmas!

Sparkle

I stopped in West London to photograph this sparkly wreath!

Giving

Forget seven swans-a-swimming, there were six million swans gathered together as someone was giving them food! there were also geese (not a-laying!)

Food

Boxing day Vegetarian goodies!

Red

Robin Redbreast and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (who is apparently a FRAUD!)

Kitchen

The only picture I could find set in a kitchen! Apologies to anyone in the photo who is displeased at seeing themselves! I figured most people are a bit blurry so they shouldn't mind too much!

Whatever you want

I like this tin full of enamel pins! Can you spot the satsuma pin I bought??? Where's Wally, the brooch edition!


Linking to the Scavenger Hunt with Greenthumb.

xxx

January Scavenger Hunt 2015

Another last minute scramble for photos. I am much better at this job in the summer...

Without further ado, here is my set of photos in response to the prompts at Greenthumb's Made with love Blog



Something new



My something new could have been many things but I decided to use the photo of the new Cheeseboard my Mum bought us for Christmas which CBC and I christened today. He laid it out so nicely with cheese, pears and bread that it deserved some note.

Landscape


Two for you here.  I took a walk in the park 2 Sundays ago and it was a brilliant day for taking photos, so sunny and bright. You could almost believe it was summer here!



The other is a photo I found of my Grandad's garden in its glory days. Oh what halcyon days they were, spending summers in this paradise. This wasn't the extent of it either.


Words


We went over to Grandad's house today because it is soon to be sold and there are still things to be cleared out.
Grandad had an enormous collection of books which I thought I had seen most of but I came back with a few books including the hugely interesting Dictionary of Place Names.  I finally discovered where my birthtown's name came from and it wasn't what I expected! If you want me to find out yours for you, just pop me a comment.



Oh the words on the tea boxes are so intriguing!!! Mmmm, hawaiian cocktail flavoured tea???
Cold


My goodness, it was cold in the woods that day! 

Bottle


Had I but thought of it, there have been great opportunities for this prompt! Alas, I was left to scamper around the house looking for an interesting placed bottle. This one won for the sheer bizarreness of what was behind it!

Up high

I thought the view of the school tower up high with the smoke blowing in front of it was rather a picture.

In the fridge

I tried taking pictures inside my fridge. Horrid.  So you get the view of our rather cluttered fridge.

Texture

Dragon eye upon textured branch.

Hidden

Somewhere under the rocket, egg, peppers, Souper Green soup is some vermicelli.

Blue


A view of the ceiling in Les Deux Salons in Charing Cross, London.

Big

Big blue cockerel in Trafalgar Square on the Fourth Plinth.

What ever you want



Due to the amount of cooking in our friend's house as he cooked us a roast, the windows were steamed up. I naughtily drew some feet onto the window in the condensation and was struck by the eerie image cast by the lamp light behind

Have you taken part in the Scavenger Hunt? Do try and join in if you can! Go and join Greenthumb and crew to see more photos!