Happy 1st December, everyone!
It’s a fabulous time of year for all sorts of reasons, but here’s a couple to be going on with:
Snow
I adore snow and especially snow in art. I don’t particularly like going out in it, but love to look at it. So I am always very happy on 1st December when we bloggers get snow on our websites. And, although I am happy to look at snowy pictures at any time of year (just as I can happily eat a turkey dinner any time!), it seems particularly fitting now to gaze on a few favourites:
Street in the Snow, Camille Pissarro
The Magpie, Claude Monet
Snow at Louveciennes, Alfred Sisley
Advent Calendars
It doesn’t matter how old you get, it is always such fun to open windows on an advent calendar. There are plenty of physical and virtual ones to choose from these days. I particularly like BookRiot’s Literary Advent Calendar. Today’s window is a sumptuous poem from e e cummings quoted on The Poetry Foundation’s website:
Little Tree, E E Cummings
My favourite of all, though, is Jacquie Lawson’s beautiful animated calendar. This was gifted to me by my dear friend Lady Budd and will be a source of huge delight and pleasure today and for the next 24 days. Thank you so much Becky! 🙂
Screenshot of Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar
Beautiful snowy paintings, and I love the virtual advent calendars. I am looking forward to 2 Dec on the literary calendar. What will be on offer?
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It’s so exciting…!
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Happy 1st December to you also, Liz! Love those artworks – and I’d forgotten about the snowy blogs! (If only I were blogging at the moment …) I love the Jacquie Lawson calendars although mine is being a bit awkward this year. I’ve not had any problems in the past so I’m sure I’ll sort it out. The literary advent calendar is new to me – lovely! I’m going to enjoy that one alongside the alpine village. Enjoy the start of the season 🙂
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Hope the JL calendar sorts itself out, and have fun with the literary one! 🙂
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I love snowy pictures too and am a real child when it snows! ‘The Magpie’ is a favourite picture of mine and I also love the snow paintings of Anders Andersen Lundby. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=anders+andersen+lundby&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidteKSmerXAhXK16QKHUv6AoMQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=637
I always buy my daughters and also my friend Wendy, who has two grandsons and who is a teaching assistant at a primary school, a Jacquie Lawson Advent calendar. She takes the calendar to work and the children love to take it in turns to decorate a tree or make snow flakes.
Thank-you very much for the link to the Literary Calendar!
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Love, love, love the Lundby images – thanks so much for the link 🙂
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My pleasure, Liz.
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Oh, that poem is so lovely! Just perfect in every word. I like how the Monet painting, in particular, captures the special light and shadows of a wintry day. I’ve always liked this Hassam winter painting, too:
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/at-dusk-boston-common-at-twilight-32415
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ah, that’s a beauty Kerry – thanks so much for adding it to the snowy collection! 🙂
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I love this time of year and this post gives me the best beginning to the Christmas Season!
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😀🎄❤️
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It is already the 3rd…. and it is snowing on your blog too. It might be in Scotland more than in London. Enjoy the real snow too!
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No snow so far here in Edinburgh, but we can see the snowy hills of Fife from our apartment – gorgeous!
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Snow is great, when viewed from a warm room. Although that satisfying crunch of that first step into a great swathe of pristine white is fantastic. The artwork is wonderfully romantic, although after Christmas I tend to loathe the snow…I’m not so romantic, it seems hehe.
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