LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE DARKNESS

It's a night for sitting in front of the fire. In fact we've had a few nights like this lately as the weather is now turning distinctly colder.  We've had several nights of frost this past week.

I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's book "Sunshine on Scotland Street" which is the perfect fireside read with a glass of wine and my feet up.

We enjoyed a bottle of wine several weeks ago to help send off friends who were heading off for a 3 week cruise to Antarctica. This bottle of French wine "Latitude 45" was given to us by French friends who visited us in August.  The candle holders are 2 little glass boats that hold tea-lights.  I bought them in Helensburgh a few years ago.

Our fireplace is a wood burning Aga brand which sits on a plinth Iain erected and covered with  Caithness slabs left over from the garden "sit-ootery" that he and Duncan created.

It's getting dark now earlier and earlier.  What does one do with candles found languishing in the cupboard but light them and place them in the window?

The black wooden candlesticks are ones Iain brought back from Malawii in the 1970s and the brass ones are my  mother's.  She gave them to me some years ago stating "Here ... you have these as you polish things; I don't!"  The lighthouse is a wooden ornament that sits on my bedroom window ledge.  I just like it.

A cup of tea is so much better if it can be kept hot ... and where better?  We recently replaced 6 of our everyday mugs (china ... I insist on this) with new ones all having a bird theme.  Here is the pheasant one.  (Replacing them was A Good Move ... must tackle a few more things that are looking distinctly past their sell-by-date, so to speak.)

This mug is on the coffee table alongside a gift from a Swedish friend, Christine.  It is the Orrefors glass candle holder which she gave us some years ago when she and Inger and Helga were visiting from Stockholm.

Yesterday I bought this candle at the Norwegian Society's Julebazar or Christmas fare in which Inger assists in the sale of crafts and Norwegian food.  It was hand made by Ragne who also knitted the lovely mitts I purchased last year (shown here.)