Christmas this year was probably the best it’s been for a long time. On Christmas Eve we went into the centre of Newcastle to enjoy the scents of gingerbread lattés and stollen wafting, we battled our way past throngs of people and had a lovely time just browsing. We collected our 10lb free-range bronze turkey and our gammon from the local farm-shop and managed (just) to find room for them in the fridge. Christmas morning was wonderful, with presents unwrapped at an ungodly hour, we dressed ourselves up to the nines and on my new record player we listened to a wonderful Frank Sinatra Christmas album and Mum and I waltzed around the room - and Mr. VP was there with camera in hand to capture the moment. A moment in time I won’t ever forget.

But it is rapidly approaching 2008, Christmas is almost over and although I’m coming to terms with having to put the Christmas tree away (but not quite yet!) I still can’t bear to stop listening to Sufjan Stevens’ “Songs for Christmas“, so it is still the thing that wakes me up every morning on my iPod.

2007 has been a very quick year in so many ways. I have a theory that there are “good” years and “not so good” years - the latter not exactly bad but not memorable or as special as a “good” year. 2006 was amazing, it had to be the happiest year, whereas 2007 was quick, with quite a few good and bad points.

In February I took the decision to get rid of Blogger altogether, as it was bulky (and my distrust for Google apart), it was not as fully-featured as I had wanted and so the domain VintagePretty.org was bought. It went live on Valentine’s day, and has gone from strength-to-strength ever since. Thanks to technical leaps and bounds I was able to keep all of my old posts and comments, so VintagePretty stayed as it ever was. Blogging has become for me more than I had ever envisaged, not only is it a place I can ask questions, discuss every-day things, I get to be heard in my own little way. I feel I can make a small difference.

This year we moved one step closer to our dream of being free-ranging, farming folk with the addition of chickens and all the problems they suffered in the first few months of their lives. They still worry me senseless, but I’ve learnt so much about them now, and however many problems they may have there is something magical about linking yourself to your food. To being an active part of how it is produced.

The garden was a big disappointment this year, the weather all over the country was awful with days and days weeks and weeks of rain in the middle of Summer and very little warmth or light. It was also the year I gave up on carrots completely (carrot fly) and have decided to that I won’t plant 20 runner-beans next year, as there is only so many runner beans that a person can eat! We did have some lovely early-flowering plants in the flower borders to make up for the lack of much else. Oh and the potatoes were excellent, too! At the moment it’s hard to ever envisage much growing in that dull, cold space but I know that now the days are getting longer and the sun warmer, it won’t be long until I can get back out there and start growing again.

This year was also my 21st and, in the inimitable words of Frank Sinatra, “When I was 21, it was a very good year“, I feel that although I might be perplexed at the lack of things I’ve achieved materially, things I’ve actually got physically done, I do feel I’ve learnt so much about myself. Almost a silent exercise in emotional education, I think I’ve grown as a person and have achieved things that a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have thought possible. This is the first year that I’ve felt anywhere near comfortable in my own skin. I don’t know if it’s an my age, or whether life experience has given me the ability and understanding to be this way, but like a pair of new shoes, it took a while to work-in but they are a lot more comfortable than they were. Reading not only my blog posts but my diary writings shows how my inner “self” has grown and changed, from the beginning of the year to the end.

We had ourselves a little road-trip to Scotland in May which was a much-needed break, although it wasn’t exactly restful because we were buzzing around the peninsula all the time, it was stunning and took our breath away.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary, which was very surreal indeed, and now coming to think that we’ve been married over 18 months, how time has flown-by since our big day. I look forward to our second anniversary, which due to the leap year will be on the 20th rather than the 21st of June, as we have opted to follow the solstice date rather than the calendar date.

I’ve taken over 3000 photos in just over a year, mostly of things in the garden, or things I’ve made (which you do realise you can see in the gallery, right?!)…

I’ve written 161 posts on all number of things, from farming to food, gardening to knitting and all in-between.

When I was 21, it was a very good year. But I hope that now it’s almost 2008 (in just over 12 hours!), and now that I’m almost 22, that it’s going to be an amazing year. So wherever you are reading this from right now, from my home to yours, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year and a wonderful year to come. May it be filled with wonderful things a-plenty.

[A mighty pile of presents awaiting the big day. We hope the dogs dont get any ideas in the night...]

The tree has been up for 3 weeks now, and in the early evenings, especially on grey days, I’m taken back to my childhood. I can’t quite rationalise what my earliest memory is - I have lots of memories from around the same time, though I can’t work out which event came before or after. The first few memories I have come in a funny back-to-front timeline. So I thought it’d be nice to share a few with you seeing as it’s Christmas Eve and what more magical a night can one have?

One memory which I believe is quite an early one, when I was maybe only 2 or 3, was Mum forgetting the potatoes for Christmas. At least I seem to remember it was around Christmas. I think it was Christmas eve, it was a really grey and cold day, so my coat went on and Mum and I went to the local corner-shop. I used to get the Playdays magazine and I seem to remember having it that day as well (anything to keep me quiet!). The house when we got home from our little 10-minute walk was busy, as well as Nana, Mum, Dad and me, I believe we were expecting visitors. Though I know that various bits of that happened, Mum can’t remember it at all. I think as a child you remember different things to the grown-ups who tend to be wrapped-up in the busy-ness of life we sometimes forget to notice the small things. As far as I can remember Christmas went without a hitch!

Then there was the year I found out that actually, Santa doesn’t quite exist as I had been told… I was 7 years old when I found out about Father Christmas. Of course I’d had my suspicions for years, but I’d quashed them because of course Santa was real - who on earth got everyone their presents on time? The way I found out though, was quite funny, at least it is to me now - it definitely wasn’t back then! It was a couple of days after Christmas and I was being useful around the house, I was making the beds. I’m not sure why I’m making the beds, perhaps as a thank you for the presents or to get out of doing something else; who knows! On the corner of Mum’s bed is her handbag, though I don’t notice it until I shake the duvet and out of her bag rolls a very crooked-shaped carrot that I had left out for Rudolph a few nights previously. I chose a bizarrely-shaped one, for some unknown reason, but it was definitely the one I’d left out the night before. I remember being so devastated and angry about being lied-to. After finishing the bed I confronted Mum who confessed that Santa wasn’t real and that she was and always had been Santa. Even the fairy-dust she left on the floor. Having gained years of knowledge and experience I can honestly say that Santa does exist¹ if you believe hard enough!

Then there was the year of gastroenteritis. I must’ve been quite young, under 10, when I wanted desperately to be able to see my friend to give her a Christmas present. I was told we couldn’t go because she and the rest of her family had caught a bug, but I begged and begged and we went round to their house. I did catch the afforementioned bug and was completely out of it for most of the surrounding days of Christmas. Mum was so worried about me she rang a local GP but I was so completely and utterly exhausted and physically drained that I managed to be fully examined without even waking up. Not a Christmas I remember fondly!

[Our cranberry-glazed Christmas ham, with local, wonderfully-reared and loved pork]

Today we made some new Christmas memories, I cooked the most beautiful Christmas ham, from locally-reared and wonderfully cared-for pork. It bubbled away for 3 hours and the smell was intoxicating. It made the season seem so real and vivid. We also picked up our free-range bronze turkey, which has had its giblets cooking in a pot of the most splendid spices and herbs to make gravy tomorrow. After the journey to pick up the turkey we had a trip into Newcastle to make the most of the pre-Christmas atmosphere. Watching the queues of children at the Fenwicks window display (complete with pushy-mothers!) and how excited they were, seeing men in Marks & Spencer trying to find the “right” gift for their lady-loves and soaking up the wonder. We even treated ourselves to gingerbread lattés and a trip to a Polish supermarket. And every moment was wonderful, without pressure or angst - just to wander and enjoy. It was lovely.

Tomorrow there’ll be present-opening, Queen’s speeches and over-indulgence of all the senses. But the best thing in the whole world, the most indulgent thing I can partake-of is the luxury of family. The chance to be around those I love most and to send fantastic warm-wishes to those I can’t be with on the big day.

I hope everyone who reads this blog has a wonderful Christmas, hopefully spent with family and friends, without any sadnesses. For heaven’s sake make sure your turkey is cooked well - and don’t overdo the Baileys, especially when you know Aunt Mabel likes it so much! But most of all, have the best Christmas! I’ll see you a little later on in the week. Merry Christmas!

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Now playing: Perry Como - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

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¹Because heaven only knows you’ve got to believe in someone who is a kindly, wonderous and magical soul who you can love with all your heart.

As it’s the first day of Mr. VP’s extended Christmas break, the mark of our 18-month of wedded bliss and the shortest day all at once, Mr. VP said perhaps we should start a new tradition and open one present to each other today. Not entirely sure whether this went against the whole spirit of Christmas or not, he persuaded me. He handed me a small, book-shaped parcel with “First Edition” as the only clue to what was inside. I was absolutely amazed when I unwrapped this unassuming parcel and saw the words:

The Vintage Pretty Almanac

 Volume One
Escape From Quarry Cottage
April 2005 - June 2006

 

N.M.

On the inside I was absolutely stunned whenI saw in perfect, printed format all of my blog posts from the very beginning (i.e. when we moved into this house) to just before we got married. Not only was it incredibly surreal but so very, very emotional that my wonderful Mr. VP had done this all for me!

He urged me on to read the Foreword which, to my utter astonishment had been written by the ever-beautiful Mimi describing my blog in the most generous way which did send me a little over the edge into weepiness. Not only did I feel that all my Christmasses had come at once, but all my birthdays too.

Reading old posts and seeing just how far I’ve come is a lovely way to be able to look into the past and enjoy reading about things I’ve achieved and how things have changed in such a relatively short period of time.  I don’t think I could’ve found a more wonderful, romantic husband if I tried.  And a huge thankyou to the most wonderful Mimi who wrote such wonderful, moving things about this blog and was complicit in the secret with Mr. VP!  A copy will be wending its way to your door-mat in the near future Mimi!

Can’t you just tell what’ll be on my bedside-table this evening forevermore?

As much as I would love to be able to talk to you about last weekend, I’m not. Things didn’t go well with a certain in-law, we didn’t see eye-to-eye in the first place, now we don’t even see in vaguely the same direction. I can tell you that I drove all four of us in my little car, my first time driving it on a motorway, all the way to Corbridge, having a strange deja vu moment when we remembered the same time last year when they visited (which was an entirely nicer affair!).

The upshot of it all has left a very un-festive note to the weekend, a bitter cherry in an otherwise sweet chocolate; one that I’m very much trying to put behind us for the sake of my sanity!

We also had to make a mercy-mission to the local large country-store to find something medicinal to stop a beak-wound that Gooseberry had somehow been afflicted with. We came up trumps after finding something called “septi-cleanse” and she seems to be (touch wood) ok for now.

I started writing this post on Monday and haven’t even looked at the computer since then. Between work, preparing the house for The Big Day, and trying ever so hard not to fall asleep when I am half-way through conquering the enormous tower of ironing. I thought today would be the day I got around to it all - but seeing the 278(!) posts waiting to be read, it seems I won’t get to read and comment on every single post. But I will try to get around to everyone to read and comment as much as I can, because tomorrow is the shortest day, Mr. VP’s last day at work until the second week in January (oh the luxury at having him to myself for a whole 3 weeks!) and our 18th month of wedded bliss. It is also only 4 days, ohh… 10 hours and 4-odd minutes until Christmas day. I can’t wait!

[365, Day Fifty-Four, Thursday 13th December 2007. The sea with its beautiful blue sky, and the endless horizon.]

You know I mentioned that I had a doctor’s appointment? I was dead-set against going, hoping and praying that it’d get better before I had to drag myself out into the freezing day to go. But as these things happen, it got worse, so I did reluctantly walk to the surgery yesterday morning and I am very glad I did. I came away with a hefty dose of antibiotics and a diagnosis of a UTI. Just what is needed the day before the parents-in-law come to visit! Perhaps I was a tad hasty when I said that if I’d escaped November without much hassle, I was on the home straight.  Pride before a fall, eh?

I think I’m a bit run down, as Anastasia said, and with the stress of the new car, getting the mounds of paperwork and phonecalls made (if I get put on hold one more time I may pop…), plus P-i-L visits it’s all been a bit much. You know, I’ve got to work on this Zen thing.

After the trip to the doctor I covered the inside of the car with lots of blankets (oh the brilliance and weirdness of having back seats again!) and took G on her first outing. She loved it. We walked along the beach which was all but empty, only a couple of people walking in the distance, G pulled me into rock-pools, stalked suspicious-looking rocks and frolicked. That is one of the reasons we needed the car, she’s a big dog and having a car with back seats is priceless.  Though we’ve had her for 3 years, we used to have Mr. VP’s car, which we sold last year, as a way of transporting the Furry Madam.

The photos look like they were taken at sunset, the days have been so short, but it was actually only 1pm.  It is very surreal watching the sun set at 3.30.

So this weekend will be a whirlwind, as I type the parents-in-law will be travelling northwards, and there is still so much to do. Rooms to be tidied, dining tables to be set, bathrooms to be scrubbed and vacuuming to be done. Excuse the lack of posting in the coming days, but with one thing and another I need to get both mind and body de-stressed.  I hope you’re all having wonderful weekends and I’ll catch up with you after the merriments.