Lockdown Diary - Sunday 3rd January 2021

Although it's not yet twelfth night, today is the day I'll be taking down the decorations, lights and trees.  Twelfth night is in the week and both I and son #2 will be working again by then, so we'll not have the time - certainly not during daylight hours. I am hoping that I will have help from my sons, especially with the trees as getting them outside without making a mess requires two people.

Same old, same old as far as Sunday goes.

I've started taking down the decorations slowly, mainly as I'm the only one up, so far. My first task is to remove the chocolates from the tree: once these wouldn't have lasted until now, but as the boys have grown older they are not that interested, though they will help eat them once removed.  I think only son #3 and I have eaten any of the chocolates whilst still on the tree. Guilty!

I wait patiently for the emergence of others, but the impatient part of me just wants to get it done and out of the way.  Son #3 rises first: he informs me has work to do for uni, so won't be available until after lunch.  He also tells me son #2 was still up at around 5:30 a.m., which means that son #1 was probably up to and also that neither will emerge any time soon. Son #2 will struggle to get up for work tomorrow, but that is his choice.

As patience and I are uneasy bedfellows - to be fair I am a lot more patient than I used to be - I decide to start removing the decorations from the trees even though I don't yet have access to the boxes they need to go back in to.  Once son #3 takes a break from work I can get into the cupboard in the roof space that is accessed from his bedroom. I bought a couple of new handmade decorations this year one for each tree, to be hung near the top. They were made by a favourite artist who trades as Agni Prasada Burning - her site is here, if you are interested. I'm keeping these separate from the rest as I want them to grace my office, once I've worked out where they can go that's in line of sight. They look like this

Next step is to remove the lights, though this is a little trickier with one, so when it starts to become difficult, I decide I'll wait until son #3 (or another, if they surface) to be available.

Son #3 takes a break from work for lunch and so we rustle something up together. 

After lunch son #3 helps me take down the lights from the trees and also, more importantly, to get the trees outside, ready for chopping. Chopping will have to wait for another day as there still too much left to do, including taking down the lights outside.

As the sun begins to set, son #2 appears and briefly helps wrap some of the tree decorations before returning them to their boxes.  I finish the boxing process, and decide to wash the red cloth that normally adorns the table which holds the tree in our living room.

After all the boxing, the vacuuming.  Strangely the tree that was in the living room shed almost no needles, but the one with my wife, which was subject to the least temperature changes, was more prone to shedding as we took it outside.  Luckily that one is on a wooden floor so a bit of sweeping cleared it all away.  Obviously we will continue to find the odd needle in obscure places until it's almost Christmas this year, but that is all part of the joy.

Having dried the red cloth, son #1 and I put all the boxes away until next year, whilst son #2 started on the dinner, with my help.  I'm pleased to have got all of this clearing away done, even though it took longer than it could have.

Dinner is eaten with the next episode of 'Raised By Wolves', before getting organised for bed.

Today's tune comes courtesy of the Observer newspaper's feature titled 'Feed your soul: the 31-day literary diet for January' (which can be found here - well worth a read!).  Kate Bush's 'The Sensual World' is inspired by / based upon Molly Bloom's soliloquy, which is the final chapter of James Joyce's novel 'Ulysses'. If you are familiar with the chapter, then most of the lyrics will remind you of what Molly says, which is one of the most sensuous pieces of writing as she recalls with longing her first encounters with the man she married.  Originally Kate wanted to use the words from the novel, but the estate of James Joyce refused (until recently they have frequently blocked attempts to publish letters or to allow his works to be reused in other works of art).  Subsequently, when the works came out of copyright, Kate re-recorded the song under a different title - 'Flower of the Mountain' - directly using Joyce's words.  The original version, from the album of the same name, seems to work better in this form, with Kate's perspective.

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