frankbean

I have been practising planned giving instead of sending Christmas cards - last year was Cancer Research (I think) and the year before that was the Nomad Trust (my memory is a little shaky...). I usually just send them a cheque for what I would spend. This year went a little differently.

This year, as I was walking through an underpass, full of festive cheer (it was snowing) in my local city, I saw a guy that I've noticed begging a few times. I know he sleeps outside, and I know that people ignore him, even when he just wants a chat and not money. It's a hard, hard life. He was wrapped in a very tattered blanket and looked so cold and pinched... So, dear friends, I gave all my Christmas card fund to him.

Sorry if you think this is a bad move, but he looked so cold and sad, and I was so thankful that it wasn't me sat there... Maybe he'll spend it on alcohol and dogfood (I know he'll definitely spend some on dogfood), but he'll have a choice and I'm guessing that there's precious little of that in his life.

Then we went to M&S to spend some vouchers we had on luxury food - I've never shopped for food at M&S before - that was an experience! The lovely lady who packed our groceries at the end of the shop was collecting for the local hospice, St. Barnabas. So I put my Christmas card fund in her tin as well.

I spent twice as much and haven't sent any cards, I hope you are all OK with that.

I love you all very much - the friends that I've met, and the ones that I only know via keypresses thousands of miles away. You have all enriched my life and supported me when I've felt low. If Christmas is about giving, you have all given me the gift of your time and support for years now. Thankyou :-)

I hope you enjoy your seasonal festival - whichever face of God you choose to venerate.

So, I picked Ellie up after school finished on Friday. Lots of jollity and shouting greetings deadened by the sound of the snow underfoot. This is the first wintery Christmas season that I remember (I'm sure there have been others, but they've slid past unnoticed if they existed), and it makes everything slow and beautiful.

As I picked Ellie up, I noticed that Pre-School had put out their real Christmas tree for recycling during their clear up of the classroom. It was a lovely tree - a 6ft Norwegian spruce in *good* condition. A bit of needledrop, but nothing too bad. It had only been up for two weeks...

I sent Tim back the next night to see if it was still there. It was, so he brought it back home, I seated it in a bucket of sand and water and stood it outside the front door. I've long harboured the desire to have two Christmas trees - one in the hallway and one in the living area. I've no idea why, but there you go. The rented house isn't big enough to put one in the hallway (the hallway is barely big enough for all of us to be putting on our coats at the same time!), but I thought that outside was nice, too. I've just spent a very happy half hour decorating the outside tree with home-made baubles and thingummies. It looks lovely, and I am particularly happy with the dried orange slices made from the Christingle that normally moulders away in a corner until I compost it. When you add the home-made wreath from our friend Jason (the campest straight man in the history of mankind) and the mistletoe that I picked up from the organic kitchen garden people at the Farmers' Market yesterday, I feel confident that I have the most festive, recycled and green entranceway in the village!

We spent yesterday busking at the Farmers' Market in the Castle Square in Lincoln. It was *beautiful*. I don't think the temperature got much above freezing all day, but the cobbles were clear, and we were all cheerful and dressed as Victorians. We sang our little hearts out and met some *lovely* people. We sold a few CDs, and lots of people put something into our collecting basket. We certainly made enough to afford a nice pizza today (avoiding Roast Beast until the 25th!), which is a treat for everyone... And when we had finished singing we went shopping at the market to buy Christmas Comestibles.

We picked up our organic turkey (payment for the first singing engagement of the year!), bought a large local organic ham (OK, for the sake of brevity, let me just establish that everything was local and organic, yes?), lincolnshire sausages, streaky bacon, sausagemeat, sprouts, cabbage, parsnips (although I'm going to try digging my own as well), three different types of cheese, stoneground flour for fresh bread, smoked mackerel, venison steaks and a few other things I can't remember! It *just* about fitted into my wicker basket (with the exception of the meat which stayed in the cooler in which we were given it) and we walked back to our car around the cathedral, dressed in Victorian clothes, carrying baskets full of wonderful local produce and feeling pretty darned happy.

As Tattercoats has said in other circumstances - I'm keeping that day...

Just had notification from Robb Johnson that the album Tim played on - "Ghost of Love" - has been nominated as The Guardian's "Album of the Week"!!! Apparently there will be a review and announcement in tomorrow's paper.

WOW!!!!