a southern gal in the north

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ONCE in royal David’s city Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a Mother laid her Baby In a manger for his bed:
Mary was that Mother mild, Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable, And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,  Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

And through all his wondrous childhood He would honour and obey,
Love, and watch the lowly Maiden, In whose gentle arms he lay;
Christian children all must be Mild, obedient, good as he.

For he is our childhood’s pattern, Day by day like us he grew,
He was little, weak, and helpless, Tears and smiles like us he knew;
And he feeleth for our sadness, And he shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see him, Through his own redeeming love,
For that Child so dear and gentle Is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on To the place where he is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable, With the oxen standing by,
We shall see him; but in heaven, Set at God’s right hand on high;
When like stars his children crowned All in white shall wait around.

Words, CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER
Melody, HENRY JOHN GAUNTLETT
Harmony, HENRY JOHN GAUNTLETT AND ARTHUR HENRY MANN
Arrangement, STEPHEN CLEOBURY

 
Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence
Caravaggio 1609
Oil on canvas, 268 x 197 cm
Palermo, San Lorenzo
Merry Christmas!

Listen to this year’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
(available til Dec 31st)

‘Behold a silly tender babe, in freezing winter night, in homely manger trembling lies, alas a piteous sight‘.
— A Ceremony of Carols Op. 28 (1942) Benjamin Britten **

We have been treated to a few freezing winter nights here in the Hudson Valley this week culminating today in a Winter Blizzard warning.  As any East Coaster knows by now, the storm started in the South and has worked its way up the coast and is dropping tons of snow on DC and Baltimore before heading up here tonight.

Predictions rang from five to fifteen inches as is the wont before a storm.  Often the Valley gets more (sometimes double) what is dumped on NYC – as we are further north and have less heat from the densely populated buildings to dissipate the snow.

I have been checking to see if there is a spot on the east side of the street as Monday will be the day for street cleaning on the west side where my car is right now.  After years in the South and then in the City carless, I am still getting used to dealing with snowfalls and cars.  And yes, as lovely as the snowfall is, the digging out of the car and clearing off the snow in the bitter cold does lose its charm.

However, Tales of Hoffman is on live from the MET in just a few mo and as it is one of my MOST favorite operas (on my top ten list) – I still remember the old production with Alfredo Kraus in one of his last appearances in the role (and not just because the night my first NY apartment was robbed . . . oh well!).

Today’s broadcast marks Levine’s first outing on the Sat broadcasts for this season since his return from his recent injuries.  Its also being beamed to movie theaters – still haven’t made it to one of these. 

Well, we are waiting for Levine to appear so now I am retiring to the sofa to continue working on the Christmas and Chunnakah presents and make a meat sauce to warm the kitchen.

**
After three very successful years in America, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears boarded a Swedish cargo vessel, the Axel Johnson, on the 16th March 1942 for their return to Britain. It was a long and boring journey that took nearly a month. U-boat activity was at its height so it was probably rather frightening too. At this time Britten had started ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia’ and a piece for Benny Goodman. He intended to finish these on board but customs officials confiscated the manuscripts on the doubtful proposition that they could be a secret code. (Britten managed to restart and finish ‘Hymn’ but as far as I know the Goodman Piece was lost forever). During the voyage they berthed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a book of medieval poems and some of these he set during the voyage as the ‘Ceremony of Carols’. It is an unusual setting for boys choir and harp. Britten had intended to write a harp concerto and so had been studying the instrument.   (read more here )

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its all knitting all the time here at chez southern gal

here’s the rundown:
   hannukah for the two jewish nephews,
   bday for one of them (23rd),
   christmas for another nephew and four sisters and two binlaws and mom
   sister bday the 2nd week of jan
   the other two nephews bdays the third week of jan a DAY apart. 

my holiday knitting piles up in a one month period (six weeks if you count all of hannukah) …

oy no wonder i want to lay in a dark room with a cloth and a stiff drink!

tonight am making a list of whats done and whats not and what yarn goes with what …

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ikea hacker: Lazy susan yarn swift
Porro made this cool yarn swift from a Rationell Variera pot lid organizer and Snudda Lazy Susan. It’s pretty easy to achieve too. Just mark the spots where you want to place the lid organizers. Drill holes and screw them in.

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here is the latest from this weekend

We went to the vet Saturday p.m. – a new local vet (love them) and saw a lovely young woman – Patricia Doherty .  She discovered that Emil has ulcers on his tongue which, with the fever and loss of appetite, is indicative of Feline Calicivirus or FCV.   The ulcers explains why he doesn’t want to eat as it hurts .  His fever was down to 103.5 (from 105.8 that morning), thank goodness.

Dr D did test for FIV (feline aids) and FeLV  (feline leukemia) and the tests were negative (WHEW).  We decided not to do a full blood work as the symptoms presented are pointing to FCV. 

We are continuing on the antibiotic Clavamox (Amoxicillin + clavulanate) given by the Veterinary Emergency Hospital from our visit on Thursday night and Dr Doherty added two days worth of doses of Buprenorphine which is a pain medication (more effective than morphine) to help Emil deal with the pain from the ulcers and thus encourage his eating.

So back home and settled in and after doses of Buprenorphine and Clavalmox, still no food interest and so then Emil slept.

Around 2 am I decided to try to tempt him with some tuna – he ate several ounces (YAH!) and then ate about a fourth of some Iams can food (YAH).  Still no interest in water, however I had added water to the tuna and he did slurp up some of that. 

So then a nice long sleep til about 9 with me dozing fitfully nearby on the loft bed.  I brought him down after a visit to the litter box (good) and a dose of Buprenorphine, ate a bit of Iams dry food, but turned up his nose at the tuna and the iams wet – oh well, its still food.  and again no water.  fever was 103.7

No interest in staying on the sofa – so he is back in the loft and has the morning dose of Clavamox (not easy to give as he really doesn’t like it – its quite a challenge to does a cat singlehandedly)

A bit later will take temp (rectally – oy the things i am doing !) and hopefully that will be lower than this morning and/or normal range.

sunday’s progress
Emil ate a little bit of dry food during midday and slept a lot – still no water though which is upsetting.  however he seemed a bit more perky (one of the vets at the emergency hospital actually used that).  continued with the medicine and antibiotics.  fever was down to 102.7

this morning we had a milestone – he actually came down from the loft and used the litter box and then ate some tuna and iams can cat food.. and then wanted to go back to the loft to sleep. 

big sigh and fingers crossed for this progress to continue.

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such a hopeless feeling.  my kitty emil (who will be one on new year’s eve) is desperately ill = 105+ fever since thursday (its sat morn) and not a drop of water nor morsel of his favorite Iams can food will he take. 

evening visit to the 24 hour emergency vet on thursday night.  $300 later and a shot of antibiotics and a passel of antibiotics to give twice a day…no idea what is wrong as the only symptom is the fever – no sign of injury or swollen belly or anything else. 

a call to a local vet (referred by former) says a followup visit and bloodwork will be over $200. 

here’s the rub – money is so extremely tight right now i had to dip into my reserves for the first bill and can’t afford the second one… so on top of the stress of the cat’s illness is the guilt of not being able to provide enough for him.

this economy sucks.

pray or whatever you do for my kitty that he can pull thru this…

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it was one of those days…

1. a $25 charge somehow became a $250 charge.  and of course the bank Customer Service closed at 7 pm and i discovered it at 10 pm when checking weekend activity on my bank’s website.  have left email and voicemail to/at the guilty party and will be calling the bank at 7 am when they restaff the CS lines to reverse the charge.  oh and the rent is due today – do not want that check bouncing down the driveway.

2. tried to get online at E-Z pass to add a second car to my account and couldn’t get pass the log on screen – wouldn’t take acct number and any combination of other things – login, password, pin, my first grade teacher’s name (not really) and of course – yes, the customer service line was CLOSED – it was only 8 pm when this happened.  argh!

3.  one of the computer programs i use for antivirus protection kept requiring a reboot (like THREE TIMES) for a version upgrade – very very annoying.

4.  while trying to relax watching a schmaltzy hallmark movie – but wait it had Joss Ackland and Jean Simmons as the leads – verizon decided to reboot the settop box not once but five times – yup forget that program. 

5.  i tried to sleep but well, to hell with it – it’s only an hour til seven am.

now where’s my bourbon… (nope, just some hot chocolate).

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The classic Cary Grant with the delicious Audrey Hepburn – perfect viewing tonight on a stormy windy chilly winter’s night.  Always loved this movie – its better and better every time.  how can you resist CG and AH at their prime?  And a romantic mystery set in Paris?  so fabulous.  during my only trip to Paris – four days – I tried to see all the sites from the film – and got most of them.

A quiet thanksgiving holiday -Village sister and her gang (DH and DSs) went South to our mom’s – Berkshire sister and her gang went east to Boston to cousins.  a quiet day – a walk thru the still village on a gloomy overcast day – lights on in houses thru the neighborhoods – families gathering around food laden tables.   home to cook a herb roasted turkey breast and brussel sprouts and brown rice.  then settling down to knit to TO CATCH A THIEF (another fabulously fantastic Cary Grant) and ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL (the third series – the last one with the original Helen and the end of the first production) with cats curled up on the sofa.

I love ACGS and since ALL seven series are available on INSTANT WATCH on Netflix (which I view on my Roku set top box) I can dip into them often.  Last Christmas after first acquiring the ROKU I watched the first four-five of the series but pettered out – so am picking up again – they seem best watched in the dark of winter – with lots of knitting and warm blankets piled on and snuggled on the sofa with a cat or two.

Series Three which I watched last night – is the last of the first round of producing this series.  These first three series are drawn almost wholly from the books by James Herriot (in real life Alf Wright).   The standards are very high – and the acting and writing is exquisite.  Robert Hardy, Christopher Timothy, Peter Davison (on the edge of stardom – he went on to be the 5th DOCTOR WHO from 81-84) and Carol Drinkwater along with supporting cast with Mary Higgett and dozens of Yorkshire actors and real farmers make these first three series an illuminating view at life in the Yorkshire Dales at the end of the pre WWII period. 

Appropriately the third series ends with the two main characters going off to the Royal Air Force and the question of what would happen to the Dales left unfinished for the viewers.

Due to popular demand, the series resumed production but with a lapse of eight years from the end of the third series which concluded in 1980.  The remaining four series were produced from 1988 to 1990.  There were several major changes – Mary Higgett had died just after concluding the third series.  A different actress was used for Helen – the original actress had had an off screen romance with Christopher Timothy (James Herriot) and it had ended and/or she decided not to continue or the real life Mrs Herriot (Mrs. Alf Wright) strongly opposed her reemployment due to the immoral situation as CT was married during the affair.   Several new characters were introduced – Calum Buchanan (John McGlynn) as an assistant vet as Tristan was working for the Ministry of Agriculture and then Deirdre (Calum’s girlfriend and then wife).

I am looking forward to continuing the series – it’s a real treat to watch Robert Hardy chewing the scenery as Siegfried Farnon – based on the real life Donald Sinclair who was quite a character according to Alf Wright’s son.

Opinion is divided as to whether Sinclair was as eccentric in reality as Siegfried was portrayed in the books, but it seems likely that even if his character was exaggerated, he was unique. Sinclair always refused to accept he was eccentric. However, former clients and colleagues, as well as Alfred Wight’s own son in the book The Real James Herriot, stated that Sinclair’s character in the novels was considerably toned down and that Sinclair was more eccentric than the Herriot books portrayed.

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it’s been one of those November days – not cold but chilly and damp and rainy off and on – little spurts of rain and general mistiness coming down.  and with the sun setting at 4:37 pm !!! the darkness draws the day in.

don’t know what possessed me but i finally tackled one of the few remaining projects from the “2009 Apartment Cure” .  those of you who visit here and read my infrequent posts may remember that for the first half of this year I did a major clear up and redo of the apartment – the den, the study, the kitchen.  Then in July I acquired a studio/workroom  in the basement next to my original storage space.  It was perfectly timed as I had just spent months clearing out youdontevenwanttoknowwhat stuff and giving away, throwing away (recycling and not) and just generally streamlining my possessions.  So i was able to take advantage of the new space and turn it into a studio/workroom (its part sewing/knitting studio and part workshop and part office).    I’ll do a post on the transformation soon.

At the same time I redid the afore mentioned rooms – the study, the den and the kitchen – well, the den was the only one that had a major redo – the other two were renovated (and isn’t clearing out and reorganizing a form of renovation?)

oh well, a long preamble to today’s project – which was one of those that was left over after the majority of reoganizing/clearing out was done in the study.  Three containers (file box size – two plastic file bins and one basket) FULL of folders and “THINGS TO FILE”

they have been sitting stacked on top of each other in a corner of the study – with just enough space to get by … so they could be ignored. 

but today for some unknown reason – their day had come.  i started out planning to just do one box and then, well, you know how it goes – three hours later – all done.  of course it wasn’t just a matter of taking things out and filing them – the filing drawers had to be rearranged and cleaned out and new labels written and so on and so forth.

the result –  a sense of satisfaction and knowing that papers etc are in their right places. 

and now the reward – potatoes boiling and a little shell steak to grill  (organic – from the lovely deli down the block on main street) and a slew of britcoms to watch while knitting.

then tomorrow … errands and.. well, we will leave that for then.

ps the winter white camellia bush is blooming – photos when the rain stops.
pps sorry no photos, but photos of file drawers full of files is kinda borrowing non?

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