Thursday 26 December 2019

Only slightly late.....HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!



Happy Christmas, belatedly.  I prepared some photos.... but life took over, and I was too busy to blog. 
But it's still the Christmas season till 6 January, so hopefully you're still in the mood to see some Christmassy cherubs...


and some Christmas trees....



These little trees, riding on tree ornaments shaped like landrovers (what will they think of next?) were part of the highly creative window displays at V.V. Rouleaux.  This charming ribbon and hat trimming shop is tucked away in a back street in London's Marylebone, and when I cycled past the other day I saw they'd decked the whole shopfront entirely with ribbons for the festive season. 


I also saw that Fortnum and Mason's has turned the whole shop into an  
advent calendar. It happens to have 24 convenient windows (there's another row which is not visible in the picture). I have an idea that they might do this every year but usually I'm too focused on their  famous Christmas window displays to notice. This year the Christmas windows were uncharacteristically dull, actually...
... so here is a Fortnum's window from times past. All the windows on the ground floor usually share a common theme,  and this window, from 2015,  was the Royal Coat of Arms, with the Lion and the Unicorn.  I hope they'll be back on form next year! 


And here are some of our Christmas lights, which I thought looked rather cosy, together with our faithful gas fires which date from the early 1950s and were in the house when we arrived.  I always loved the look of these fires; they have some sort of finish that glistens with "interference colours"  and are a nice old fashioned shape. Their brand name is "Gas Miser"  because although they are so powerful that you can feel as if you are in Borneo instead of London, they're also adjustable down to a barely visible flame that keeps the chill off the room for long periods and costs hardly anything. Ideal for old places with large high rooms and rather bad insulation, and everyone likes to gather round them too. They don't "go" with the original Victorian mantelpieces but you can't have everything!


Enjoy the rest of the Christmas Season, and Happy 2020!

50 comments:

  1. I do so love tiny ornaments of real things like those Land Rovers. My grandson got an ornament this year that was a tractor. Every day he would take it off the tree and play with it. That charms me.
    Your gas fires are pretty. We have gas logs in our fireplaces and they are very good at heating a room. I love that mantel.

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  2. Happy Christmas to you, too, Jenny! Your lights and the fire look cosy, I often wish I had a mantel and fireplace in my flat.

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  3. Hello Jenny, Happy Holidays to you and your family! Even if you pass January 6th, take heart in the fact that Chinese New Year is arriving quickly, January 25th this year.
    --Jim

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  4. Belated Merry Christmas to you, too - and a Happy New Year!

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  5. How wonderful, and not too late at all, as the holidays do keep us from one thing to another adventure. You've chosen the most delightful and freshness of festivities around your lovely surroundings. What joy to read and view your photos in your post. May your new year 2020 celebrations be filled with love and good times too.

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  6. And a good 2020 to you, when it comes!

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  7. I had a smile at the gas fire. That was exactly same one that that my parents had in the living room. Oddly there was no gas in the other downstairs rooms but there was in the 'big' bedroom.

    I was very impressed with the' ribbon shop'.

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  8. Lovely to see this post :)

    Enjoy the rest of your Christmas Season, and I wish you a Happy 2020.

    All the best Jan

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  9. The V.V.Rouleaux shop decorated with ribbons is absolutely amazing! That must have taken a lot of work to create. Also, the shop which has been transformed into an advent calendar is so unique!
    I hope you had a pleasant Christmas, Jenny. My very best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful New Year.

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  10. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!! :):)

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  11. Happy Christmas to you and yours also!
    The gas fire I had in London, excellent machine, worked by 50p coins at the time.
    Great heat and adjustable, central heating is not the same.
    The Victorians would have loved them.
    Enjoy the rest of Christmas.

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  12. And a Merry Festive Season to you, too! Decking the V. V. Rouleaux shoppe with ribbon is a gorgeous idea - how many little elves did it take to festoon it, I wonder?

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  13. It is never too late for good wishes. All the very best for 2020.

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  14. It's nice when stores make an effort in these times. Your place also looks homey and warm with that 'fireplace'.

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  15. You've put on a happy display, especially your Gas Miser. You have a wonderful new year.

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  16. Lovely photos. Hope you have had a blessed and beautiful Happy Christmas!

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  17. Wishing you a wonderful new year too and thanks for all of your posts and photos.

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  18. Very Happy New Year to you and yours, Jenny. Wonderful photographs, as ever, especially the amazing ribbon shop. Great to see the good old Gas Miser being properly respected - a thing of beauty as well as efficiency.

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  19. I always love your discoveries, Jenny. The ribbon decked shop is delightful. You are very brave to cycle around London as you do. Without the cycle lanes we have here, I think I’d be too nervous. By the way, we also had gas fires like that in our house in London when I was a child. They produced huge amounts of condensation on our single glass windows as I recall. Happy New Year to you and your family!

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  20. Lovely to see your photos of the Christmas season Jenny. I think it a lovely cute idea of Fortnum and Mason to turn their building into an Advent Calendar. Also the shop covered in ribbon is totally charming. What a great place is London at Christmas. It is ten years this week since we went at this time of year, and I have lovely memories. Even a bit of snow here and there, and frost on the leaves, and in the pools at Trafalgar square. Such a contrast to our heat and bushfires!! Happy New Year to you and yours Jenny.

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  21. And to you too, Jenny, all the very best for 2020 and beyond. I will look forward to your always challenging, well-written posts, and have no doubt that you will finding interesting corners of Britain for us to vicariously explore. And if this is the year that the Durrell book gets completed I will be very keen to read that. With my very best wishes, David

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  22. I hope you and your family had a wonderful christmas.
    Here in Japan, we are now busy preparing for New Year events.
    Happy New Year to you all.

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  23. What a lovely evocation of the Christmas period. Happy New Year to you and your family.

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  24. Belated Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2020, Jenny. Love the shots - Fortnum and Mason is such a splendid shop! I remember fires like that - you certainly don't see too many of them these days!

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  25. Jenny, on my blog you left a comment about your daughter having made a card that looked like a comic. I wonder if that's what I see on your fireplace mantle, the first card on the left.

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  26. I can see I am way late to comment but you can do Christmas for any days more as far as I am concerned. Lovely and nostalgic photos!!

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  27. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! I think the Advent calendar look is very clever...and your decorations are very cozy!

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  28. Happiest of Holidays to You & Yours Jenny!

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  29. I hope you had and are still having a wonderful Christmas period with your loved ones, Jenny. May 2020 treat you kindly and bring with it all that you wish for... :)

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  30. I love your gas fireplace Jenny, I have the electric one in my dining room.
    Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones
    Happy new 2020 year!

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    Replies
    1. Jenny, thank you.
      You are a writer and you know that the title of the post must be accurate. I was wrong to name the post that way. I think the title of the post should be "Academy of Fine Arts. Sphinxes." I'm right? I fixed it.
      Thank you for your good wishes!

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    2. Jenny, now about your plant Indigofera Pendula. If it grows in a pot for a long time it seems to have a 'bound root system'. This means you could plant Indigofera in any time- spring, summer or autumn. You only must water it well before to pull it off a pot.
      More to read and to see pictures here:
      https://www.rootsimple.com/2014/04/how-to-deal-with-extremely-root-bound-plants/

      Delete
  31. Oh, only just caught up with your new post. I love the be-ribboned ribbon shop. That must have taken quite a few hours of painstaking work! And I love all the Christmas cherubs, complete with lute and fiddle players.

    The Fortnum and Mason advent calendar is ingenious. So how does it work? Do the windows open one by one to reveal something unexpected?

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  32. I wish I could make an extra trip to England in December just to go to V.V. Rouleaux or Fortnum or see the lights throughout London! But thanks to you I get a little peek at how lovely it is and how festive. YAY! And I love your gas fire and mantel with the pretty lights. I'd leave the lights all winter -- they're so cheery when it gets dark early and is so cold!

    I really want to see those ribbons! Happy New Year, Jenny. I look forward to many happy returns this year!

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  33. Happy and healthy 2020 to you and a tip of my hat to say thanks and happy writing!

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  34. Goodness I am so late and can't remember if I wish you a merry Christmas but most of all a better New Year for us all.
    cheers, gayle and the gud dugs.

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  35. May 2020 be a happy and great for you!

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  36. Love the Advent Calendar windows, very creative. I'm just back from the States, and now have to pack up all the Christmas decorations. I noticed that nearly every store in the US appeared to be selling a bauble that featured a car or van with a tree on top. Obviously the thing to have this year. :D

    Happy New Year!

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  37. loved these Christmas themed images dear Jenny :)

    nicely taken and lights you shared here are delightful
    hope you had wonderful Christmas with precious family
    wishing you a happy new year filled with health ,joy and peace,amen!

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  38. Hello! Been hard to get to leave comments lately but I am popping in to say happy 2020 to you!
    On Jan. 6th, we went for walk at Monastery here in Conyers...it was just the right time to go into the church for a service. I wish you could have seen it, the sun was setting and the last rays were softly lighting the stained glass windows, with soft blues and purples. The Nativity scene in the front of the church had bright red poinsettias beside it with fir trees with white lights. The silence, the serenity... and then, the monks chanting, the same chants that have been going on for centuries. Peace.

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  39. So enjoyed seeing London in holiday time. I will be there in July and will stop by for ideas on places to visit.

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  40. And later still, Happy New Year to you!

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  41. Dear Jenny - Belated Happy New Year! Life has gotten back to the normal but there are still titbit of New Year events around me. Thank you for showing us what London is like in Holiday Season. The Advent Calendar window from the past is so creative and fun to look at. Wish you a happy and healthy year with pleasant adventures.

    Yoko

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  42. Yet another belated Happy New Year! Rarely if ever do we get the tree down by the prescribed date. We always get a real one and try to make it a bit magical. As for gas fires, we had, until recently, a microwave that was at least 30 years old. It worked fine - we just decided we couldn't rely on it being electrically safe anymore.

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  43. I was just reading what you wrote (thanks for dropping by!) on my Sackerson blog about Derek Jarman and Prospect Cottage. I recently saw this and wondered if you'd seen it.
    There's a move to raise money to preserve it... https://www.artfund.org/get-involved/art-happens/prospect-cottage?fbclid=IwAR0a3sNIh_afbGuDzfG9QfoyBBOGjoQgw8qCeuzKpphZu7GxPUl-W7kyxoU

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  44. Well, Merry Everything and Happy New Whatever! :-) I think I'm well past the official cut-off date (is there one?). Hope everything is fine and dandy.

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  45. Look forward to more up to date posts please.
    I was taken with your main picture - aeroplane with view through wing - I have some like it after our short, very short - 24 hour - stay in Israel. We had to come home because of the corona virus.

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  46. dear Jenny i am here to drop my well wishes for you and family
    hope you are perfectly fine and just taking break

    stay well and healthy my friend!
    hugs!

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  47. How are you? Now is one of the best times to see beautiful flowers. You are very lucky to have a view of cherry blossoms from your house.

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  48. I love the idea of turning their building into an advent calendar, even though they aren't part of my Christmas traditions. And your lights around the mirror are lovely. Bill once remarked that here in the north the change in the seasons is as much or more about daylight as it is about temperature, which I think may be true. When dark nights come, nothing better than to accept it and make everything cozy!

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