Another Shepherd's Warning

Like Red, his Lordship noticed this sky at a time when I had eyes only for newsprint.
With the immortal words of a seasoned blipper's partner, 'If I were a blipper I would take that sky' my three cameras were out, each taking a picture but only one capturing the intense colour and bruising to the east.
Five minutes later it was gone and an almost uniform greyness prevailed.

My Fife cousin is coming for lunch today - a soup and sandwich affair-
butternut squash soup from the LadyFindhorn cookery school, and sandwiches from Mr Sainsbury round the corner.

As usual, there will be many a 'do you remember 'while his Lordship stifles a yawn at not being a party to the memories, although since it's nearly always the same do you remember, he should feel as though he knows what we are talking about.
The funniest of the do you remembers was the Christmas when my cousin hid a tape recorder under the settee at the family gathering and recorded my aunt and uncle having words in the background over some finer point of the meal preparations.
When it was played back they were mortified.

All this was against a background of Tiger Rag played on one of those enormous free standing radiograms one can only see in a museum now.

The Christmas day meal to us children was a time for all the aunts and uncles to get together and reminisce. It was a teetotal meal in these days with an array of lemonades of every hue to choose from. I can't imagine a meal today without wine.

I do remember my father having a bad headache every Christmas Day at the thought of all that socialising with my mother's family, but I loved it.

This is not the time to recount to the blippers born post 1970, the intricacies of ironing the last year's wrapping paper and untangling saved string to use again. These times have gone and no-one except bus pass users remember when we were not a use and discard nation.

Christmas is a time of reflection on past times and of family members no longer with us but still close to our hearts.