Christmas Day 2010

Went to the Christmas morning service in the local church, once more as temporary member of the church choir. It is customary in the church here to have a few moments of quiet contemplation - well, it was far from quiet. Just beforehand, a group of small children had rejoined the congregation after they had been to their own Christmas "service", if you like. And, small children being what they are, they had to obviously tell mum and dad what they had been up to. It was quite funny really.

The day was quite sunny (but not warm). My father served Xmas dinner around 1.30pm (turkey, stewed pears and potatoes), after which we went for an amble in the Castle Country Park to walk it off. It was still very snowy, and the ponds were mostly covered in ice. Nobody was skating, an indication that the ice was not thick enough. At the end of the walk, we visited my uncle and then returned home for the evening. Sunset here is at 4.30pm, which was the time we got back. Watched a bit of telly in the evening, including a film about a young lad in wartime Holland - the film is called Oorlogswinter (Winter in War).




The Shell Gallery - covered up against the frost


800 year old tree


Trees, bent under their load of snow


The Castle and Orangerie



The Torck School