24 Small Squares for Advent: Christmas Hygge Through Christmas Hiraeth Day 2

When I wrote the other day of Advent Calendars, it set me off thinking. What was Advent like when I was small? To be honest, I think Advent was something we celebrated more at school and not particularly at home. I seem to remember painting at least one Christmas scene to be covered over by numbered paper and revealed in order. I do know that … Continue reading 24 Small Squares for Advent: Christmas Hygge Through Christmas Hiraeth Day 2

The Wreath on the Door: Christmas Hygge through Christmas Hiraeth Day 1

Almost my first act on December 1st is to put my Christmas wreath on the front door. I have a special hook permanently in the door and, indeed, for the past ten years have had a wreath which alters according to the season on the door. I like having a wreath there. I like the symbolism. When I was a child, I don’t remember ever … Continue reading The Wreath on the Door: Christmas Hygge through Christmas Hiraeth Day 1

Christmas Hygge Through Christmas Hiraeth

Wales crashed out of the World Cup last night. I’m really sorry for that, and even sorrier that it had to be England that crashed them out. Thanks to a Great Grandmother, I am one eighth Welsh, and immensely proud of a small little nation that has such a sense of self-worth and history that it can stand against the bigger nations of the world … Continue reading Christmas Hygge Through Christmas Hiraeth

Advent Calendars: So Much More than Chocolate.

Way, way back when I was a child, advent calendars didn’t have any chocolate pieces in. They were card, with thinly translucent paper behind doors that sometimes proved difficult to open. You could have winter scenes, with rosy-faced children on sledges or Santa working in his shirtsleeves to create rocking horses, pull-along wooden trains and dolls with improbably wavy hair or, as we used to … Continue reading Advent Calendars: So Much More than Chocolate.

Feeling Low? Free Ways to Find Some Hygge

It’s Monday 17th October in the UK. We don’t do politics in hygge, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that, whoever you support, the country is in a deep pit of stressors and they are only getting worse: cost of living, international financial markets, worldwide worries and political machinations from every side. It’s enough to drive you to drink, except we all do … Continue reading Feeling Low? Free Ways to Find Some Hygge

Book Friday: My Hygge Home by Meik Wiking

Yes, it has taken me two weeks to write the review. Being honest, it took me until last weekend to stop running long enough to read it. I’m happy being busy… but at the moment I feel too busy and with stuff that doesn’t feed my soul. Never mind. I took the weekend to stop and breathe and read, and this week has been slower, … Continue reading Book Friday: My Hygge Home by Meik Wiking

Book Friday: The Green Sketching Handbook by Dr Ali Foxon

I don’t know how time works: I just know that some weeks the time is everlasting and sometimes it flies. We’ve been watching The Lazarus Project on Sky recently, and the idea that there’s a reset point (on July 1st every year) that only some people remember if the machine resets is intriguing. Messing with time is dangerous, especially when we try to fit too … Continue reading Book Friday: The Green Sketching Handbook by Dr Ali Foxon