Start to Christmas

The traditional start to the Christmas festivities in our house begins when the 'Christmas First Box' (as I've labelled it(!!) comes down from the loft.  Its the box which contains the advent calendar, the Christmas CD's, and Christmas cards.  This year Jamie and Mike put up the advent calendar and so the countdown began. 

Jamie Organising the Advent Calendar after Cubs

We love our advent calendar which we have now used year after year after year and it is always a joy to get it down and set it up.  We buy little treats for Jamie to get every day, the traditional chocolate pennies (or Euros are they seem to be now!!) or little Christmas chocolate treats.  He loves it and Mike and I don't get a look in.  I love the advent calendar because we start the Christmas period with a strong reminder about what the season is all about, not the presents, the over indulgence, food, wine etc, and not even the TV specials but about the birth of a very special baby.  I think it sets a great tone for the rest of the month.

Mike and Jamie, Binnie has spotted the chocolate (but none for her it's bad for her!!)

We didn't really have to wait long either in December for the weather to become very wintry, here is a picture of Mike doing what he said he would never do which is walk Binnie in her pink coat.  You can see that we had had our first fall of snow.  It was to get a lot worse. 

Mike walking Binnie in her PINK coat



Our park looks amazing in the first snow, the pond already frozen solid



Ciao

Sue
XX
Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Buddhism - Jamie's Project and A Visit to the Temple in MK

Jamie has been doing a project for school on Buddhism and this has been really interesting for all of us, as we have all discovered a whole lot more about Buddhism and its philosophy.  We are lucky enough to have a Buddhist temple here in Milton Keynes and I am ashamed to say that we had never got around to having a look around it, even though we have walked past in many many times.  So as part of Jamie's project we headed camera in hand to explore The Peace Pagoda and the Nipponzan Myohoji Temple which are both at Willen Lake in Milton Keynes.  Photographs largely courtesy of Jamie as they were for his project.


A view of the Peace Pagoda from the Cedar Tree

Here are some photos from the outing, there is another blog to follow about a very unusual thing which happened to us while we were walking around, but here are some views of The Pagoda and The Temple.  The only other thing to say is that both Jamie and I were quite caught by some of the Buddhist philosophy and beliefs and I suspect we will be exploring more of those in days and weeks to come.  If you ever do come to MK then I can heartily recommend a trip to Willen Lake, The Peace Pagoda and The Temple - then possibly followed by a drink the pub on the other part of the Lake!!

The Cedar Tree



A memorial to the Buddhist Monk who was head of the Temple and died in a tragic accident about 4 years ago.

A frieze on the Pagoda telling of The Buddha Life and Road to Enlightenment

A view of Willen Lake from The Peace Pagoda



Jamie stood in front of The Pagoda





A statue of The Buddha





TheNipponzan Myohoji Temple



The above statue is called Hiroshima and is by Ronald Rae, it was created in 1988 from 470 million year old Scottish granite and part of the plaque reads "The nameless pathetic, scarcely human form conveys only the appalling history of innocent men, women and children suddenly extinguished by nuclear bombs.  Ronnie is also remembering those today who die in the world's continuing conflicts".

'After Hiroshima' installation by Edna Eguchi Read, "One seems to hear a kind of music in the ash covered things, the chairs, the teddy bear, the tennis racquet......It is the sound of the screams that were never heard - extinguished with all the lives in that death flash" Jun Furusawa, Founder of the Annual Yokosuka Peace Exhibition.

This was moving because it consisted of such normal things, things which would be left after such a tragedy as Hiroshima.

The gardens were lovely and so peaceful......

The Peace Pagoda is just peeking over the top of the hill .... behind the prayer pole .....

Inside the Temple was peaceful and striking.  There were many gifts and donations which largely consisted of food for the monks at the temple.  Lots of images of Buddha and the founder of this branch of Buddhism.

The Samadhi Garden - a zen garden with raked stones, in a variety of directions.

The Memorial Stupa

The Japanese Garden, which represents a microcosm of the world we live in ....

Jamie at The Stone Lantern

This was a fascinating and informative visit and I am so glad we all had the chance to explore and gain some understanding of the religion, philosophy and culture - it was a lovely and valuable experience.

Ciao
Sue
XX

Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - need to get my reading head on again  (not off my reading challenge)

And the Rest of the Week

And the rest of the week, well a couple of weirdy ones to start. Here is Jamie's arm covered not in real blood but in our fake blood as he was having a couple of days playing CSI - he was Mac and I was Stella!! The blood we made was quite good actually and had loads of bits in it too to make it really authentic, I do now of course need to get some more red food colouring. Oh and it did take a bit of work to get it off skin, hands, worktops etc!!
Jamie went around photographing the evidence a la CSI and was having some good fun!! The murder weapon perhaps with our fake blood. And talking of blood check out this from youtube it is so funny - I love all of these children's funnies - Jamie shows me them and they make us laugh so much (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6tzQ8cW9E0 or search for Blood Not Funny on youtube) I made a flower arrangement for home just for fun - doesn't happen much at the moment - but like this one a lot! Lots of phormium tenax, chrysanthemum, gerbera and calla.

I decided to bring two interests together here, so in preparation for my window display assignment I have made a scrapbook style banner saying Happy Easter, which I think looks fab!!

I really enjoyed putting this together and found some Hot of the Press papers from my scrap crap which I must have been given as I didn't buy them, which worked perfectly, found a template on the web and used some chipboard letters I already had as templates, lots of cutting and sticking but enjoyable. I then used a cropadile for the holes and strung some green either Karen Foster lime floss to string the eggs onto. I was really pleased with the result. I had hoped to put some flowers on too, but ran out of time to finish them in that way but will finish them during the summer.

I hope the banner works on the window display - I have a feeling it might! I am thinking of fastening artificial forsythia along the length too to bring some 'real' flowers through the window display.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Songbird by Josephine Cox