Festive joy: offer a gift of Christmas Kindness today

Festive joy; offer a gift of Christmas kindness today

Christmas is the time for giving and sharing and there is nothing quite like the pleasure of watching your family unwrap the presents you carefully prepared for them, but as for shopping...sheer bliss! Everyone in high spirits, traditional music floating in your ears as you try to find that perfect gift for your mum or dad, brother, baby sister, aunt, niece...the list goes on.

But what about the people who don’t have family close by? How about the elderly? How do they cope at Christmas? And what of the homeless? What is the festive occasion really like for them?

Statistics and research indicates that Christmas can be a very lonely time for some people as they prepare for a day on the streets again or all on their own without the love and kindness that we so often take for granted.

Would you like to help vulnerable, old or lonely people at Christmas? There are several organisations whose mission is to do just that. Have a look at www.crisis.org.uk, www.caringatchristmas.org.uk and www1.salvationarmy.org.uk to get some ideas as to how to ease the burden for so many people at this festive time. Do you like the idea of taking food to the homeless? Perhaps entertaining the elderly? Maybe you could talk to your friends and all come up with an idea as to how to make Christmas a happy time for vulnerable people.

If you are the crafty type, creating your own Christmas cards is a great way to make someone feel special at Christmas as it really shows effort and consideration. Why not gather some glitter and foil, a few stars and ribbon and make an extra unique one for an elderly person this Christmas?

If you are creative and have a love of words, what about making up your very own Christmas poem to raise a smile for a homeless charity?

A Christmas Dream

He visits the dreams of the young not old

Travelling the starry skies

A very jolly man the tale is told

Who eats too many mince pies

Squeezing down the chimney in eager pursuit

To deliver gifts galore

Leaving many a present that will only suit

A child who doesn’t want more

A reindeer or two, a sleigh so bright

A home he won’t leave out

Stealing through the Christmas Eve night

No one knows that he’s about

But I know he comes and I know it’s true

Others to believe is so hard

He left me a gift that no one else knew

A reindeer in my own back yard!

On the theme of creativity why not compose your very own festive CD? You could download from the internet your own compilation for some deserving people that you have in mind and use your artistic skills to make a stunning album cover...

Making a special hamper needn’t cost a fortune if you would like to take one to a person who is all alone this Christmas. This is such a personal gift, they will know you have put real thought into it. You could take a small box and wrap it in Christmas paper. Consider decorating it with tinsel and place small Christmas crackers, mince pies, nuts and even a small festive calendar inside to make it really Christmassy.

Whatever you decide to do this Christmas to make someone feel special, you will be rewarded by knowing you have contributed to making them feel a little less lonely knowing that someone cares. Just that alone will make the traditional saying of peace and goodwill to all that much meaningful for you...

Merry Christmas!

Exploring the Autumn Countryside

Autumn is almost here!

If you enjoy trampling through orange, russet and gold leaves, darkening your hands from picking blackberries and listening out for a woodpecker or the familiar song of the Robin Redbreast, then this time of year is for you. The hedgerows are bursting with colour as bushes produce their distinctive berries and trees such as chestnut, beech and hazel begin to prepare for spring and start to make seeds that mammals may pick up and hopefully drop on fertile ground faraway. Birds arrive and others leave on migration and animals get ready for the cold of winter. This is the time to explore!

Autumn is the time when leaves start falling from the trees and squirrels begin to collect nuts for the winter. It is also a time when people collect food for the harvest and fruit is ripening, the nights grow colder and it gets dark early. Rather than feel down that summer is over, think of all that you can do now the cooler months are with us! Trekking around our beautiful countryside has to be one.

So what can you look for when you are out rambling? Autumn is the season when the days are rapidly getting shorter and the sun is becoming lower in the sky. So you need to bare this in mind when you are out. The autumn equinox, when day and night are of equal length, is on 23 September. There are often amazing sunsets in Autumn, so look out for them and the stars can seem brighter at night, and on some mornings mist hangs over fields and parks; perhaps a perfect time for a walk? This is the season of nature's plenty.  Examine the wonderful hedgerow harvest of blackberries, rose hips, crab apples, hazel nuts and seeds. Many wildlife species benefit from this fantastic harvest to build up reserves of fat for migration or for hibernation. Autumn serves many purposes.

This is the time of year where birds gather together to form flocks; look out for flocks of rooks and carrion crows on an autumn evening or parties of long tailed tits and consider an early morning walk to catch a spider constructing his web. You will see his web outlined in dew on hedgerows and prepared to be amazed how carefully he creates his web! Consider visiting beech woodland just to catch a glimpse of the magical colours of autumn; leaves are turning yellow, gold, red and orange and are beautiful to see.

Fancy blackberry and apple crumble or maybe blackberry jam? Now is the time to go! While you are out you will spot other wildlife taking advantage of the autumn harvest so look out for the sleek blackbird, mice and voles as well as squirrels, hedgehogs and other hungry birds.

Also, why not gather some conkers and sweet chestnuts? You can split open the green shiny case of the horse chestnut fruit to find the shiny brown conker within and sweet chestnuts are delicious roasted on an open fire.

Another autumn hobby is wild mushroom picking but remember to follow the country code such as close gates, be quiet and respectful, etc. Cut fungi at the base with a knife and only collect a few from each troop as it is good to leave some for others and for nature.

If you fancy stunning views and a historical encounter of times before, then consider Dartmoor for an autumn excursion. Dartmoor is an area of over 250 sq miles of open moorland with a few small villages and river valleys to explore too. Wrap up well though as the elements can be especially strong over Dartmoor and it can be a considerably wet place to explore. Look out for birds of prey, small mammals and the changing colours around you as well as the beautiful Dartmoor ponies.

Consult http://www.walkingindevon.co.uk/ to download free walks in Devon to explore the autumn countryside. This website contains all the information that you need to get walking in the glorious Devon countryside. Similarly http://www.walkingincornwall.info/ also contains free walks in Cornwall for you to have a look at and decide the best walk for you.

Think about the most appropriate time to go for a walk. Perhaps a morning when the dew will show the appearance of many fungi from fairy rings and puff balls to the shiny red caps of fly agaric mushrooms that have successfully pushed their heads through the fading yellow leaves that are on the ground all around. Red admiral butterflies additionally are special to spot. Look out for them feeding on ivy flowers and fruits that have fallen while the colourful Jay is around looking for acorns as is the squirrel. They are storing food for the coming months that will be colder in temperature.

Cornwall is awash with cycling, horse-riding and walking trails, long and short, easy or more arduous. So leave the car at home and take the fabulous Discovery Trail in Newquay, which stretches all the way from Hollywell Bay to Mawgan Porth. Fantastic! What a way to explore what autumn has to offer.

Consider easy walks to Dartington from Totnes, or maybe exploring Castle Drogo and Sharp Tor from Fingle Bridge. A little harder walk is Countisbury and Watersmeet from Lynmouth and don’t forget the Plym valley from Plym Bridge. Also if you wish to gaze upon stunning autumn trees and foliage, think about visiting Saltram Park and Hardwick Wood. Take a look at http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walks/walks/walk_list/Devon/ for more examples.

Autumn is meant to be an abundance of beautiful colours, birds chirping and singing and seeds and leaves dropping to the floor for you to wade through. Why not take your camera and capture autumn moments on film to share with your friends and family. You never know what rare sighting you may snap that will have them in awe of your exploring capabilities!

Enjoy our beautiful autumn countryside today.

A day in the life of a soggy brochure

I was outside again today; dripping wet. And you know something else? I fear for my survival; I really do. I’ve glimpsed others like me, thrown unceremoniously in the bin without any regard whatsoever. That could happen to me. I just know it. And it seems so wrong really. It certainly isn’t my owner’s fault. She so carefully placed me in a protective bag, lovingly put a friendly note and order slip into my glossy pages and I could sense her hope when she slipped me through a letterbox. She was so tired; she’d walked miles with my brothers and sisters, delivering them through similar letterboxes and occasionally very hostile humans would grimace at her, even shout abuse. One actually slapped my brother onto the top of a car! I don’t envy her her job, if you can call it that. I mean, she spends hours preparing my relatives and myself for others to view our pages, then she goes and collect us and most of the time (and this is just between you and me, mind) we’d hardly even been looked at. My older sister got munched by a dog! My baby brother actually got used in a bathroom and I have never seen many of my brothers and sisters again. I can only imagine what awful atrocities they faced.

I sympathise with my owner. I have watched her sigh with disappointment when she flicks through us to see if a customer has filled in our order slips. She has to have a certain amount of orders to earn anything and she looks so dejected when she realises that yet again she hasn’t earned even a penny. All that work and no reward. It makes me so angry when I think of the people who created me. They certainly aren’t short of a bob or two!

I wish with all my heart that she would give it up. Maybe then I could reside in a bookcase or perhaps on a table. I really wouldn’t mind being jammed between paperwork or for my glossy surface to be adorned with coffee mug circles; it has to be better than what I think fate has in store for me. I’m very lucky, I know, that I haven’t been lost already. I have been delivered three times in total and all those occasions I was left outside for my owner to collect me. I can recall her gazing at me with relief. At least me being outside meant she didn’t have to ring the doorbell and receive a torrent of abuse.

She has to pay for me, you know, and my brothers and sisters. That certainly cuts into her nonexistent commission. Daylight robbery! We are only used once and then disposed of, unless we are very lucky and she keeps us to refer to.

Then it takes time for my owner to put any orders through online, even more time to put the products together and then off she trots again, only to face the same chaos similar to when she picked up my relatives; people aren’t in, they haven’t got the money, they will never have the money, they have gone to Africa, the dog ate their money, they have suddenly realised they are actually allergic to what my owner is selling, they are allergic to my owner, they’ve gone to prison and they won’t be back for a few weeks; and she smiles graciously and reassures them that she will return for more punishment the following week.

She has exploited all means of earning extra cash such as giving us out to pubs, colleges, hairdressers, prisons, fire stations and strip clubs...

She smiles constantly (in fact her face is frozen in that way now; she looks a little like Jim Carrey on a bad day) and she is bubbly and friendly but I know she feels conned by the company she ‘works’ for; she’s not really self employed; she is their lowly paid, downtrodden slave.

I think she’s beginning to realise that persisting with this venture is as pointless as granny using age defying cream to rid her of her deeply embedded wrinkles...but will she give it up, I ask you? With the shortage of jobs around, does she have a choice?

All I know is that it is pelting down with rain again and I realise that no one will be able to look at me now; I’ve lost my glossy look, my pages are all stuck together and I await with a dismal, pathetic expression on my very faded, colour run face for my owner to pick me up and take me home where its warm and dry.

But I get a feeling that today is the day she’s decided to give it up and I’m happy for her, but not for me. I’m not happy for me, not when there is a dog coming my way; a dog that looks keen to take his revenge out on the products that used to be within my pages that were tested on animals at some point...my fate wasn’t what I thought it was going to be after all...

The End

Ghost Writing Service

I am a writer; currently writing for the Oracle magazine in Plymouth and I have written articles and letters for magazines as well as educational resources. Please contact me if you would like anything written; this can be articles, letters, poems, business papers, academic work and even novels! I am also a qualified proofreader and editor. Just contact me and I will help.

Avon and animal testing

Hoping that people may be interested to learn that Avon buy and use animal tested ingredients. Uncaged, who are an animal welfare organisation, have reliably informed me. They actually drive the demand for new animal tested ingredients and they put much effort into misleading people about their stance.
I suggest boycotting their products. They never have been a good company, despite all their advertising.
Don't buy from them.

Memories

It was Christmas Day of 1985 and the lights twinkled on the Christmas tree while the brightly covered packages below invited delight and curiosity. I stood for quite a while gazing at the tree and the presents, allowing the magic of Christmas to wash over me. Even though I’d reached the grand old age of 15 years, Christmas continued to enchant me. A part of me still believed in Father Christmas and our family seemed closer, united in celebration, more tolerant and contented. I loved this time of year.

I returned to my pink decorated bedroom and smiled at all my presents in the large pillow case at the bottom of my bed. I was eager to see what they were but I was waiting for my brother to join me. We always opened our presents together. I could hear him shuffling towards my room and giggled when he finally opened my door and emerged out of breath. “Come on, hurry, “ I urged him, “It’s time,”

“I know, I know,” he replied, struggling to lift his pillow case onto my bed, “This is heavy,”

I gazed at his presents with awe, “Crikey, I wonder what you have in there,”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” he replied, glancing at me with green sparkling eyes, “I’ve waited ages for this,”

“A whole year,” I smirked, pulling my pillow case up on to the bed, next to his, “Okay, shall we start together?”

“Hush,” my brother suddenly looked concerned and I listened. We could hear crying.

“What is it?” I asked with alarm.

My bedroom door opened and our mother came in with our father who was holding her upright. I searched my father’s face for an idea of what was wrong and when he spoke the world around me came tumbling down. “It’s Grandma,” he muttered as our mother sobbed, “She died. Early this morning,”

I heard my brother gasp and sink onto my bed. I stood rock still, unable to react, incapable of feeling anything but shock.

“But why?” I whispered.

The question lingered in the air and couldn’t be answered. Christmas was over before it had begun.

Richard, my 17 year old brother, coped by wanting Christmas to continue. I knew how much he loved Grandma but I dealt with the situation by drifting off into my own private dream world. Our poor mother; whose own mother had died, probably thought we didn’t care but we did, very much. However, being young, I had yet to learn how grief could affect me and stay with me for many years to come...

I loved my Grandma very much. When I was experiencing bullying at school I turned to her. She listened and empathised. She promised we would have a midnight feast one night and forgave me when I forgot to wake up. I spent many hours talking to her when she fell and cracked her ribs making her bed bound. How I must have bored her! When she was better, we had a wonderful time together one year by the sea with her sister, my great aunt, and I knew these memories would never fade. However, I was unable to express my emotions to my family and I became immersed in my own isolated world. I confided in no one but I made an exception for Sebastian. Sebastian was our family dog and I felt I had a special bond with him. Every Christmas he and I pulled a cracker together. I’d take one end of the cracker and he thought it was a game and would gently pull the other end with his teeth. Then when the cracker banged he would jump up at me with excitement and try to rush off with the contents with me dashing after him!

Christmas of 1985 I found Sebastian to be subdued. He didn’t want to pull a cracker. He loved Grandma too. I spent many hours with him, stroking his soft fur and gazing into his chocolate brown eyes. He understood what I felt and how when I heard my mother sobbing I just couldn’t go and comfort her. Demonstrations of affection were lacking in our family and I felt very awkward and confused. My father walked around with a grim expression on his face and my brother argued with my mother when he wanted to open his presents. I stayed on my own; thinking and wishing. I knew I was never going to forget this Christmas Day.

Many years have gone by now but every Christmas I remember my Grandma. Sometimes, even now, the memories are painful and I long for her and Grandpa to still be in my life. My mother copes by visiting her grave every year and we talk of times gone by. I regret not being able to express how I felt that sad Christmas Day but I know that Grandma understood. In my mind I can take a trip down memory lane and recall events and places with my grandparents that I hadn’t thought about for years. Maturity in some ways has enhanced my loss but I’m glad I remember; my Grandma really was the best in the world.