Hallelujah!

The Messiah was really lovely. Thank you for asking.
[ skip down for the last decorating installment if you don't feel like reading about Handel ]
It was interesting hearing it sung in an ecclesiastical setting rather than the Concert Hall. We were further back than I'm used to, but the acoustics were close to perfect so it didn't
matter, except that every time gorgeous David Hobson got up to sing, the very, very large woman in front of me craned her head out over the aisle blocking my view. GRRRR. I wanted to see His Gorgeousness just as much as she evidently did. She also spent most of the first half fidgeting around on her very very squeaky plastic cushion ... forward, back, side to side, squeak, squeak, squeak ... and talking / giggling with her friends until we were all just about ready to strangle her.
In her defense, she may well have had a spinal or arthritic pain-management problem that was causing the fidgets because she wasn't there for the second half. Her rather rude companions have no such defense: they were the only ones in the Cathedral who didn't stand for the Hallelujiah Chorus. They also found something very amusing at several points in the proceedings judging by the giggles.
Anyway, despite this, it was memorable. In the past I've seen/heard The Messiah many times and often one of the soloists lets the side down - a Bass who should've hung up his tonsils long since or a strident, metallic soprano, but this quartet: David Hobson [ have I mentioned yet how gorgeous he is? ] Joshua Bloom, Rose Nolan and Natalie Jones - were all wonderful. Young Mr Bloom is a real treasure and as he's about 10-15 years short of his prime years as a Bass, well, let's just say, I want to still have my hearing in the early 2020s !! Australia has a real lack of decent bass voices. David H looked marvelous and was in far better voice than I've heard him for at least the last ten years - both for pitch and for volume - although he did seem to have an alarming facial tic at times so I hope he's ok. Probably just extreme tiredness with the schedule he's had lately.


Okay enough music talk - on to the decorating:
We've been right round the house:
Rumpus room - Santas and reindeer, occasional angels,rustic country style trees
Missy's room and bathroom - bears
My room and the Big Room - Edwardian/Victorian with silver/crystal trees
so now we're in the kitchen





which is where the snowmen reside:




greenery and crochet stars/snowflakes on the ladder over the bench -
there are more crochet flakes at the window but it's hard to get a decent photo of them




the tree in here is mainly decorated with kitchenalia - miniature sugar sifter, egg whisk and colander, brass teaspoons, gingerbread men candles, candy canes and cookie cutters






The kitchen is the only place in the house where blue is allowed at Christmas ... which always surprises people who know how I love blue. It really can be traced back to the last house which was blue, blue, blue, blue, blue top to bottom including paintwork and carpets. If I decorated blue at Christmas you just couldn't see it :]
That nine foot swag is home to my collection of feline decorations - and it's not easy to find well designed ones that aren't too twee either.





Luckily for me, Maz painted these ones [ and the cross stitch was a present from sadly blogless Tracey]





...and given the prevailing colour scheme, I thought that these knitting art cards by Jejeune were too nice to put away... and btw: the two china elves and the drowsy child are from my early childhood