HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 I have not done much writing this year and I don't really have an excuse for it. Never mind. That is the luxury of being a self-published author, I can stick to my own pace, I don't have an editor breathing down the back of my neck.

I am working on the second draft of a Sergeant Alan Murray crime novel. I hope to have it ready for publication by March/April next year. It is always fun when things come right, when the plot resolves itself into a twisted but logical finish and all is solved by the inimitable Alan Murray. I hope to be more active in 2024. A lot of readers have been complaining that I didn't write a Christmas feel-good novel this year. Sorry, sorry, everyone. I will try to do better.

I wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas and everything that is good in the New Year. It is a grim time in the world and we all have to work hard at projecting a warm light into our little spot on this troubled planet. Let's hang on to our dreams and wishes and all the love we have for family and friends.

The Season for cozy reads and some musings on friendship

 Every year I put aside the crime novels I have on my TBR pile and get out my Jane Austen novels. I know them all by heart, or, to be, honest nearly all of them as I never could get into Northanger Abbey. I have just started Sense and Sensibility. It's like visiting friends you haven't seen for a year. I know what to expect and it is all going to turn out fine. We all need that feeling in our lives and there is no better time for calling it up than the dark winter months before Christmas.

Speaking or should I say writing of friends, made me stop and think for a minute. In my latest Christmas novel CHRISTMAS AT THE WISHING WELL writing under my Romance pseudonym Peggy O'Mahony, one of the characters says: "There are people for short journeys and people for the long haul. Knowing the difference means understanding friendship."

Short haul people are very often the people you have a good time with when you go out. You can chat to them at parties, wave at them across the tables at restaurants and know they will wave back equally enthusiastically. But they are not the people you confide in when life kicks you in the solar plexus. Someone once said that real friends are the people who, when you have made an atrocious horse's rear end of yourself, don't think it's a permanent job. Real friends, few and far between as we all know, are the ones who know you and still like you. Now that is a comforting thought.

Back to Sense and Sensibility. I sometimes ask myself why the novels appeal to me so much apart from the feel-good aspect. As a writer, I have a fairly critical eye. Jane Austen stays true to her characters. They don't change into something else. In Sense and Sensibility, Sir John, a warm-hearted type with not much brain, ends up promising a puppy to the villain of the story when he sees how upset he is over Marianne, although he is very fond of the Dashwoods. That makes him very human and very believable.

One thing I know, I never can write like Jane Austen and I don't intend to try. I expect every author writes what is in them to write and we all hope that our readers will like it.

Happy Christmas 2021 to everybody!

I wonder if anyone else managed to cut a finger on a cinnamon stick while making mulled wine? Only me, was it? Oh well, it could be worse.

The mulled wine was delicious, at any rate, and everyone was asking for the recipe. I don't have a recipe, it is a process of pouring in the red wine, adding a dash - or is that a splash? - or two of port, some red (Irish) lemonade, slices of orange, cloves and the aforementioned cinnamon sticks. Warm everything up, turn off the heat and let it "mull" for an hour, then re-heat gently.  Delicious.

Mind you, drinking mulled wine at a Christmas market under a starry sky, feet turned to icicles in the frosty air, is what I call enjoying the run up to Christmas. I love the time from the first Sunday in Advent, usually the last Sunday in November, to Christmas Eve. I remember how excited the children were when we lit the first candle in the the Advent wreath. They would start to count off the days until school holidays. The Advent calendar was another hit, opening those doors the height of fun, even though there were usually only very indifferent chocolates behind them. 

As I write this, we are almost there. One week more and it will be Christmas Eve. I will be celebrating with family in Germany where Christmas Eve is the big day and the presents are distributed. Santa doesn't come, of course. St. Nikolaus comes on December 6th, although he does not bring the main presents. He is not the fat, jovial figure of the advertisements. He is a bishop with a bishop's mitre and crozier and he is quite slim, as befits a bishop, I guess. Children learn that he was a bishop in Myra in present day Turkey. Sometimes he comes with Ruprecht, who carries a stick to beat naughty children, although this is pure legend, whereas Nikolaus really did exist and was good to the poor.

Whatever you believe in, Christmas is a time of good will, a time for meeting up with friends, for visiting older family members.

I wish all my readers a peaceful, happy Christmas!

Christmas Markets

I'm just back from a short trip to Frankfurt to see my daughter and grandchildren. I only decided on the spur of the moment and now I'm glad I did. One thing I really miss, living in Ireland, is the atmosphere around Advent, that feeling of anticipation of Christmas being on its way.

The Christmas market in Frankfurt is not perhaps the most famous one in Germany but it has it own atmosphere. I love the smell of aniseed, gingerbread, the spicy tang of mulled wine and the fragrance of pine from the Advent wreaths.
 

The main part of the market is held in the old part of the city, the Roemer as it is called, with its cobblestone square and town hall and the Nikolai Kirche. Nothing compares to sipping eggnog in the chill of early evening surrounded by lights and general good cheer. Of course I sampled my favourite  goodies:  Kartoffelpuffer (potato cakes) with apple sauce, warm waffles with Nutella. Yummy.
Yes, celebrating Advent is a wonderful idea, it makes the Christmas holiday much longer. I recall the excitement in our house when the children saw the first candle being lit on the Advent wreath. We usually baked biscuits in the shape of Christmas trees and half-moons, generously sprinkled them with icing sugar and piled them on a colourful plate with red apples and nectarines.


 So this was a trip down memory lane. Last year I spent Christmas in Frankfurt but arrived too late for the market. This year I can say I truly savoured it all. 
 Happy Advent to all my readers.

Happy Christmas Everyone

A very Happy Christmas to all my readers!  I hope the festive season is filled with joy for you.

I will be spending Christmas with my daughter and her family - I have two boisterous grandchildren to keep me occupied!  It is a wonderful time for children and always takes me back to my childhood in Ireland.  We didn't have a lot of material things but we certainly knew how to enjoy what we did have.  My mother made the Christmas cake and the Christmas pudding in November and I can well remember the excitement of watching her mixing in the ingredients. If I close my eyes now I can get that unmistakable whiff of whiskey - a very rare thing in our house as none of my parents drank much alcohol.  Us children were allowed to stir the pudding and make a wish - I don't recall what I wished for or if any of my wishes ever came true.  More likely I had forgotten about them by the time Christmas arrived.  On Christmas night the neighbours came to play cards with my parents and we were allowed to stay up late which was a treat in itself.

I'm not going to say that things were better or worse long ago.  We were often told by the older generation that we "never had it so good".  Looking back now, I have to smile a little - we didn't even have television until I was a teenager but we listened avidly to the radio.  Radio Luxembourg was the station for pop music and innovative quiz shows!  I think Christmas is still a very special time and from what I have observed when walking round the city, children are still awed by the lights and the Christmas tree and all the trappings.  Long may it last!

God bless you all this Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all readers of this blog

I am gearing up for Christmas. My trip to Germany and tour of the Christmas market have got me into the excitement of it all.  I love everything about Christmas starting with the first Sunday of Advent when the first candle is lit on the Advent wreath.  In Germany everyone has a festively decorated plate with oranges, nuts, apples and homemade (or shop bought in my case) cookies which they put out on the coffee table so that you can pick at all the delicious bits and pieces all afternoon.  The smell of woodland from the wreath combined with the aroma of gingerbread, cinnamon, cloves, honey and mulled wine really goes to my head!  Outside it is growing dark and it is so comforting to be in the warmth looking out at the houses with their Christmas lights.
Last evening I went to a church carol service.  It was all so peaceful and pleasant to be singing the old familiar carols and a few I didn't know. The church is really old and looks like something out of a nostalgic Christmas card. I walked the few blocks home afterwards feeling at peace with the world. 

When I was a child we got a lot of Christmas cards and I loved looking at the various pictures:  snow covered streets, old churches with the warm yellow light of candles showing at the windows, horses and carriages and ladies dress in long skirts.  I really wanted my Christmas to be like that but mostly we didn't even get frost let alone snow and we walked to Midnight Mass.  I do recall one frosty starry night which held a special magic because I could imagine the shepherds guarding their flocks on such a night.
  
I can think of no better quote for this time of year than from Charles Dickens:  'I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.'
Happy Christmas to everyone wherever you are.

Mirror Mirror

Help!  I spent yesterday shopping or at least trying to shop for a few sweaters.  No big deal, you might say.  That's what I thought until I stepped in front of the three-way mirrors in the fitting rooms.  Front on I looked OK, tolerable from the back but that sideways view was as deflating as ten burst balloons.  Deflating might even have been the best option.  My question then and now is:  how did I manage to gain so many unsightly bulges?  I have to go up one size in order to get anything to fit and even then.....

I can now understand Snow White's step mother asking that mirror on the wall the all-important question, only mine would have been "do I look big in this?" and the mirror would have no option but to answer "you sure do."

I didn't buy anything.  Instead I told myself I was going on the strictest of strict diets for the next 12 months.  Next question is of course:  how's my self-control? The answer is:  I don't have any.  I like cooking, I like food, I like sweet things like cake and chocolate and we're coming up to Christmas when all these things are going to be even more saliva-inducingly displayed (yeah, I know saliva-inducingly isn't a proper word but right now I have other things to worry about).  And I'm a great believer in the old adage "you only live once".
People with a bit of meat on their bones are usually cheerful, happy, outgoing people or they used to be until the advent of the super-skinny brigade.  Now I suppose they all agonize in private over the extra pounds.  I am trying not to do that.  At the same time I have to confess that when I came down with a bad cold last month (no blogs written as you'll have noticed) I actually lost two pounds in weight and I have been delighted with myself ever since - until I went shopping yesterday that is. I haven't weighed myself again for fear I've gained those pounds again. 

It's all a bit crazy isn't it?  If you meet someone for the first time do you automatically write them off because they are carrying a few extra pounds? I suspect you do what we all do, see them as a whole person and not as a load on a weighing scales. If we are healthy, get enough exercise, eat lots of fruit and vegetables and then have the occasional treat of chocolate or cake, shouldn't that be enough without worrying about being too fat?   That's what I've been telling myself since yesterday when those mirrors revealed the true me.  Of course, I'm going to cut down a tiny bit and eat smaller portions from now on.  With Christmas coming it won't be easy.

Let's look at this weight business again in June of next year, shall we?  In the meantime, a happy Advent season to everyone.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I forgot to mention that I was away last week visiting family and friends in Germany.  Apologies to anyone who looked for a new post from me.  And I'm afraid this post is going to be short because I have a lot of shopping and stuff to catch up on.

Disappointingly, there was no snow on the ground in Germany, in fact it was mild and rainy.  This didn't stop me prowling round the Christmas markets and slurping mulled wine and - my favourite - eggnog with cream.  Yummy. I just love the smell of cinnamon and aniseed and the all pervasive aroma of bratwurst (German fried sausage, as I expect you know). And of course I couldn't resist buying some Christmas ornaments and a few scented candles.  But a bit of snow and a frosty sky sparkling with stars would have been a nice backdrop. 

I often wondered why we like to have a white Christmas.  I was reading Jane Austen's Emma for the umpteenth time recently and came across the passage where that pesky vicar gets into the coach with Emma and her father and says "ah,snows a little I see" and then goes on to say "Christmas weather!  Quite seasonable!" So all those nostalgic Christmas cards depicting carriages or robins in the snow are not so wide of the mark for us insular Europeans.  Snow was apparently wished for at Christmas and was not unusual in Jane Austen's time.  And it does give us a warm, safe feeling if we look out the window at a white world as we sit in the warmth.

Whatever the weather, wherever you are, I wish you all a very Happy Christmas!