feeling festive in Riga

December 4, 2018December 4, 2018 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

The shops are not full of images of Father Christmas, the cafes and restaurants are not heaving with fairy lights. Yet Riga feels a lot more festive than most cities in Western Europe. Yes it does help that is is cold and everyone is wrapped up in big coats with fluffy hoods, that there is snow on the ground and there is a whopping great Christmas Tree in the square next to our hotel, but there is more too it than that.

We attended the lighting of the tree ceremony on Sunday. As it was obviously all in Latvian we didn’t understand a word, except for the countdown. I think that is universal. There was no need for barriers, I think I saw two policemen, the small square was full of people enjoying the Christmas market, drinking Black Balsalm or hot chocolate and enjoying browsing the stalls. There was no brash commercialism, just people having fun.

Before

and after.

Also, did you know that the first ever Christmas tree was from Riga?

I am feeling festive in Riga because there is no loud Christmas music blaring out of every shop, there are no plastic Father Christmases, no tinsel on every till. Just a beautiful tree, a lovely market and other people feeling festive.

love Gillie x

simple

September 4, 2013 ~ Gillie ~ 8 Comments

I had a eureka moment this summer. Actually that’s a lie, it was more of an aaaaaaaaaah realisation moment. One of those moments when stuff that has always seemed a bit out of kilter suddenly makes perfect sense.

I have always thought of myself as an autumn/winter person. The kind of person who loves snuggling up by the fire with the dogs and a good book; crispy winter walks; big rambunctious winter casseroles. And indeed, I do love all those things. But I love warmth and sunshine and long summer days more.

Perhaps because of our wonderful summer this year, following the dreadful excuse for a summer we had last year I have been outside much more. The garden has been more productive and the foraging has been superb. It’s been wonderful. I don’t want it to end, I don’t really want winter and darkness. I want the light to last.

I tried to cheer myself up with the prospect of Christmas. And that is when I began to panic. I have always gone full pelt at Christmas. Not necessarily spending money but in making, baking, preparing, decorating, gathering.

I don’t want to do that this year. Having spent all this time taking things out of our house I do not want to bring any back in. But that’s not all there is to it. It isn’t just a question of things or stuff it’s a question of attitude.

I want simple. I want a simple Christmas. Simple decorations, simple food, simple celebrations. It doesn’t make them any the less valued or special but the thought of a heavily decorated house and a freezer full of meals that will probably still be there in January makes me feel just a little bit ill.

I can’t stop the present fest on my own. The Boss and I tend to give each other things we need. Last year we both unwittingly gave each other saltpetre for preserving and smoked salt which we both love. Not perhaps the most traditional of presents but it made us laugh that we had both been thinking along identical lines. Or we give days out. That’s how I got to spend a weekend at Taste The Wild and a fabulous overnight at The Crab and Lobster. But I can wear the present fest down. I can do simple.

simple

August 31, 2013 ~ Gillie ~ 12 Comments

At the beginning of this journey I was like most new converts an evangelist and an extremist. There are some who would say I still am (most notably the teenagers who are, I suspect, stockpiling plastic as I type). How ever I have clearly mellowed for yesterday I did something that I would never have done back in June.

I bought a magazine. To be fair I did um and ah for a while, I did go off and do some other shopping before I finally handed over cash for a disposable item. I finally justified it by reminding myself that all our magazines go to the local dentist or doctor. Their waiting room reading matter is prehistoric or ghastly rags written by a spirocheate on a bad day and attempting to be a poor copy of a 1960s edition of Readers’ Digest.

So I bought this.

A bit of a contradiction in terms no? A magazine about Simple Things. But I have read the entire magazine. There was no article in which I wasn’t interested. I have book marked some recipes and some events, I even saw a photograph of the first flat I ever owned (94 Landor Road, London SW9 just in case you are interested 🙂 ) in a wonderful article about The Edible Bus Stop, it is amazing (the story not my flat) go and read it and maybe even plant one yourself. As a final added bonus it feels good, the cover is just a little heavier than most magazines, the photographs and the LO just a little less in your face. The only thing that grated was the standard bit at the beginning of every lifestyle magazine, two double page spreads on “beautiful things for your home”. Wouldn’t it be lovely if instead there was a double page spread of “beautiful things you probably already have in your home”.

So in that vein, here are some of the simple things around my house that make me happy, make me smile and make me glad to be who I am.

The first cup of tea of the day. I drink a lot of tea, I like it strong and black. I am not a very nice person until I have had at least one cup. The teenagers go so fed up of me asking for cups of tea when I was working upstairs that they bought me my own kettle and tea caddy for the bedroom.

Fresh roses from my garden. Their perfume is heady and goes beautifully with my first cup of tea. One of my greatest thrills is to be able to fill the house with flowers and foliage from the garden. You just have to be inventive, it doesn’t have to look like a bouquet. In winter I bring in armfuls of redberried holly, winter jasmine, bare branches, anything that catches my eye.

Clementime curd. I made this yesterday after repeated requests from the Dancer. The recipe comes from the amazing Karen at Widehaugh House. It is sublime and is a family favourite but never lasts long. It is best eaten with a teaspoon out of the jar 🙂 The result of any curd is a bucketload of egg whites. We are a bit bored with meringue and I am the only person who likes Angel Food Cake so I made Nami Nami’s Egg White Cake instead. Next time I will reduce the sugar content, but it was good to use up the ingredients in something I knew would be eaten.

My favourite bookcase, or rather the bookcase with my favourite books. Foraging, gardening, the Desert Fathers, meditation, living off the grid.

Freshly made bed. I cannot understand, particularly in these days of duvets (though I can still make a pretty mean hospital corner thanks to 11 years at boarding school) why so many people don’t make the bed. I can’t bear getting into an unmade bed and will make it before I get in if I have to!

Open windows. I can’t wait for the icy winds to pass so that I can throw open the windows and the doors. Sadly I am alone in this. The Boss doesn’t really notice and the teenagers must have some kind of cold blooded reptilian DNA as they close windows and doors as fast as I can open them. I am winning 🙂

The Floor of Singer 2’s bedroom. You will notice that there is nothing on it. Singer 2 is the one child who has my tidy gene. It makes me as happy to see her room as it terrifies me to see those of Singer 1 and the Dancer.

Finally my Inuit bear. My father spent many years in Toronto and Montreal and collected a lot of Inuit Art, both carvings and prints. I have much of that collection, but this bear is my favourite. She has been with me since I was at university, travelling from London to Yorkshire, back to London to Scotland and finally to Durham. I don’t know if she is the first thing I would grab in a fire, but she is pretty close to the top of the list.