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Diary – 2017 December
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
1 December
This Nativity scene is outside a church in Upminster, it looks perfectly
weatherproof but I would like to paint it some colours!
2 December
I like this little forest at Cannon Street Station in Central London. There are
deer and animals walking through the forest. We went on to Clapham
Common. The old cattle drinking troughs that remain are often used for
plants.
We went to Winterville on Clapham Common. I think it needed a bit of
snowfall to make it more wintery!
This is the station at Clapham, a very very narrow platform with tracks
both sides, a bit of a fright in rush hour. We stood at the top of the
stairs until our train was coming. These pyramid-shaped trees (plastic)
are outside the pyramid-shaped Shard building.
3 December
We went to see the first Santa Dash in Priory Park. They did lots of warm-up
exercises to music and then a group photo with a Mexican wave
They ran all round the park, then off down the High Street and
ended up in the market square. There was a lot of mizzle towards the end
but it did not put anyone off.
6 December
This is Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London, it is 3,500 years
old. It is guarded by two Victorian sphinxes.
Here is Big Ben covered in scaffolding. It's real name is Elizabeth
Tower and Big Ben is the largest bell of the set. We saw the Christmas lights in
The
Strand and will come back another day to see all the Christmas street
lights in London.
We went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We spent ages going round as
it is so big.
I liked this new ride, a giant lit Christmas tree with bauble seats on
the bottom branches. This tower has Nativity figures on each floor,
going round slowly, quite a contrast to the noisy rides.
My favourite is the double-decker carousel, with wonderful animals to
ride on, dragon, tiger, killer whale and this huge eagle, and more
upstairs. These animal legs are seats outside one of the snack bar tents, I
wish there had been people sitting on them!
A very fast and noisy switchback, rather them than me though. There were
mountains of sweets. The best are the fried egg shaped ones, but none of
us were keen on the wiggly worm ones.
The Ferris wheel has lights that chase and change colour.
Lastly we watched the skating for a while. It is the biggest ice rink in
London at Christmas, and the only circular one.
10 December
Proper snow at last and it makes the robin even more obvious outside the
kitchen window. He always gets some bird pellets when we see him. This
is the net over the pond, it is usually invisible.
It was a cold wait on the station platform but the carriages do have
heaters down by the feet. In Greenwich Park people had brought their
sledges.
We came to see the Pantomime Horse Race. They have a series of short
races between the local pubs. Here they are arriving at the start line.
The real police horses were much more well-behaved.
It started to snow but they just kept on. Here are the musicians walking
on behind the horses.
14 December
We went to the Bluewater Shopping Centre. The theme for the decorations
was the Twelve Days of Christmas. All these look like card cut-outs, but
I think it must be something stronger than just card. Fortunately the
shopping mall is a giant triangle, so you end up at the start again,
without having to walk all the way back!
The trees in the shop window are made of bottles and the globes are made
of corks. I like this 24-hour world clock, but I did feel I wanted to
colour it all in!
This clothes shop had a window full of old sewing machines. If it makes
people think about sewing, they might make their own clothes and not buy
them in the shop. We saw the ice skating rink, but it was not crowded at
that time of day.
15 December
Today we went to the Christmas Tree Festival in Erith. The big fir tree
outside was decorated, so we knew it would be a taste of things to come.
It was just as beautiful as last year, and soft carol music was playing
all the time.
Here are some of my favourites. This tree reminded me to make some paper
chain decorations this year. The next one was full of white butterflies
and other white decorations.
These two were the most glowing ones, and the second one looks like a
fireworks display, with trails going up into the sky and a starburst at
the top end.
16 December
The sunlight is bouncing off the bevelled edge of the wardrobe mirrors
in the nearby bedroom, a much better display than the lights during the
day but it will soon disappear.
18 December
We made another visit to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park in Central
London. All the hired boots are blue, so when we see white skate boots,
we know they belong to the person and start to expect some more expert
skating! One person had LED lights on his skates. It would have been
wonderful if everyone had illuminated skates.
This popcorn booth is shaped as a giant popcorn bag with the contents
piled up. I wonder if anyone posted anything in the Santa Postbox. I
hope it was not just litter that went in! Santa will know who did it!
Afterwards we came back through Trafalgar Square. There were carol
singers under the big tree, and near Nelson's column was the giant glass
case with the spotlit wooden Nativity figures.
The sheep is very thoughtful, and the donkey seems to be contemplating
something else as well, maybe he is just glad to have a rest after
carrying Mary from her home to Bethlehem.
19 December
A glowing sunset, and when it had gone, my lights at the window took
over until bedtime.
22 December
We went to the Croydon Winter Festival funfair at Ashburton Park. Here
families are queuing to see Santa.
The whole grassy area is covered in this thick tough mesh material, but
watery mud was seeping up in places. No rain is forecast so I think it
will hold up quite well for the remainder of the Christmas season.
Lots of loud Christmas music, bumps and happy screams going on.
This is the Runaway Train roller coaster, a lot more screams here, and
being a fairly short ride, the train goes round twice. I prefer these
swans and other characters, which can be made to fly upwards.
23 December
I made a Christmas card for friends with a photo of my Christmas tree, a
holly border and a handwritten greeting. I also used this photo of my
robin sitting outside my kitchen window when we had some snow a few
weeks back.
I stick our Christmas cards on the wall around the mirror, and this is
my favourite, birds at a snowy bird table, and another with a selection
of traditional special occasion biscuits that we wish we could eat
today.
My favourite decorations on the tree are the plastic icicles, as they
reflect everything and seem to glow, and the robins on top of the
mirror, which is surrounded by green tinsel. There are about ten robins
sitting amongst the holly and mistletoe sprigs, and one white dove in
the middle.
24 December
Every year we watch the Norad Track Santa page, here he is somewhere
near Latvia.
25 December
Christmas Day started very grey and rainy. We like to have the Christmas
lights on all through Christmas Day. There were lots of parcels under the
tree.
I got out the special plates to wash them. Dino decided to count the
plates on the draining board, to see if there were enough for all the
food.
Brown Teddy has noticed the almost overflowing gravy/custard boat. He thinks it was Dino who decided how many spoonfuls of custard
powder to put in the saucepan! Even Dino could not eat it all, but he
will save some for later.
We finished in time to see the Queen who spoke about her first
television Christmas broadcast.
These children are singing for the Queen. Dino's highlight of the day is
playing with the wrapping paper, mainly because of the noise it makes,
and in case there is a stray sweet underneath.
27 December
Our wood pigeons are clearing up the waste bread and they do a good job.
31 December
We have some more kneeling pad foam circles to add to the previous lot,
so the fish have some cover. I set up the new bird bath which was a
Christmas present. It needs some bricks on the bottom to keep it from
falling over when a pigeon lands on it.
We saved these chocolates for New Year's Eve, which is quite a feat with
a big Dino around. We stayed up until midnight to hear the fireworks, as
we do every year.
You can use the space on your 404 page to help find missing people by embedding info from notfound.org See Yellow Teddy's 404 page
Where to report a lost or found teddy or
toy in
the UK:
https://www.facebook.com/LostboxTeddyBears
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