Scraps Of Mind

And to round off the Christmas Season…

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Today is St Stephen’s Day. So let’s round off our Christmas Season with the ever popular Christmas Carol set on this day (this one’s for you, Seona)

And just a bit of background to this Carol. It was first published in 1853 and the words were written by John Mason Neale. However the music actually originated 300 years earlier in Finland. Good Kink Wenceslas was actually the King of Bohemia back in the 10th century. He was assassinated by his brother Boleslaw and his own saint’s day is September 28. He is the patron Saint of the Czech Republic.

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath’ring winter fuel

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Stave 1: Marley’s Ghost

arley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance — literally to astonish his son’s weak mind. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names: it was all the same to him.

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often “came down” handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!”

But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call “nuts” to Scrooge. Read the rest of this wonderful Christmas Story here.

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant,

C. D.
December, 1843.

Most of us have seen movies or musical adaptations of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Some are good, many are dreadful. But I suspect there are quite a few people who have never actually read the story in Dickens’ own words.

In my opinion, apart from The Nativity Story, A Christmas Carol is the definitive Christmas Story. It is not a long read, one of Dickens’ short stories, but well worth taking the time to read, rather than just watching an adaptation.

The transcript is free on the Internet (see above) and I would heartily recommend you take an hour out of your busy Christmas schedule to sit down and read it if you have never done so before. I must admit, I read this book every Christmas. It’s as much a part of my Christmas traditions as putting up the Christmas Tree and making mince pies.

So go have a read, and maybe it will become part of your Christmas tradition too.

What do you consider a Good Read?

There’s a saying that you are what you eat. But maybe it’s truer to say you are what you read.

Jenny from Tea Party Girl tagged me for a meme. I don’t really get into memes any more but this one is about books, a subject close to my heart, and hey, it’s Christmas after all, a perfect time to think about books.

And as I completed this meme I thought “Oh dear! If you are what you read, what does this lot say about me?”

So here goes, and you can be the judge:

1 How many books do I own?

Well I decided to do this properly so I’ve just been around the house and counted them. Answer: 454

To be fair, I’ve claimed ownership of many of Seona’s childhood books that she’s left here. On the other hand, I haven’t counted any books that are in boxes or under the bed in her old room. And I haven’t included my Scrapbook Albums or my collection of Carters Antique magazines.

2 What was the last book I read?

This one’s easy. Immediately prior to switching on the computer and discovering this meme I had just finished an old Georgette Heyer detective novel called Detection Unlimited. I love both the historical romances and the detective novels by Georgette Heyer but it’s not easy to come across the detective books as many are out of print. So I usually pick them up at garage sales and from secondhand shops.

3 What was the last book I purchased?

Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood. Kerry Greenwood is an Australian author and her Earthly Delights series (of which this is the latest) is set in the Melbourne central business district. About a block from where I used to work. I loved identifying which buildings and shops she used as inspiration for her settings. A couple of years ago I went to a talk given by Kerry and I asked her if my guesses were correct. Yep, right on the money. Clearly I’m wasted scrapbook blogging. I was cut out to be a detective. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s your favourite Christmas Carol?

One of my favourite things about Christmas is Christmas Carols.

When I was a kid we used to go around the neighbourhood singing Christmas Carols outside people’s front doors in the week leading up to Christmas. (Mind you in those days kids could wander about the streets after dark without parents having the fears we have today.) And it was a great feeling, singing those wonderful Christmas hymns.

I still love Christmas Carols but unfortunately you don’t hear them as often these days. I’m not talking about Christmas Songs like Jingle Bell Rock or Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas etc. You hear those every time you watch a Christmas show on TV or walk into a shopping mall. I’m talking about real Christmas Carols. You remember the ones:

• Once in Royal David City
• Away in a Manger
• Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
• Whilst Shepherd’s Watched Their Flocks by Night
• Silent Night
• We Three Kings

Carols which really put you in the spirit and feeling of Christmas.

And I’m going to share my all time favourite with you here, to help you get the true feeling of Christmas flowing:

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth !
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth !

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given !
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell,
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel !

It doesn’t matter whether you’re religious or not, this is what Christmas is about. And it’s Carols like these that have meaning at Christmas, not the trite Christmas songs that focus on the commercial side of Christmas.

Do you have a favourite Christmas Carol? Let us know what it is and if it’s something not well known, perhaps you could include the words.

Other Articles you might enjoy:

Scraps of Mind Weekly Word Art Newsletter
Scrapbooking as an Educational Tool
Why I Scrapbook

Thanksgiving Wishes

I’d like to wish all of our

Scraps of Mind Readers

from the USA

a wonderful, fun filled

Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

My ScrapBlogging Journey - Part 4

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Entering the Blogosphere

Now somewhere along the way I became a bit obsessed about scrapbooking. My family would tell you it was very early in the piece. I like to think I was in control of my addiction for a while longer than that. Anyway, I thought I’d like to start a blog and, although I had no real idea what I wanted to do with it, I thought I’d probably write a bit about scrapbooking and maybe post a layout or two.

Scraps of Mind was born on 18th January 2006.

At the time I had no idea it was going to play such a large part in my life. Through it I have met so many wonderful people and read so many terrific blogs. Many of you reading this have shared my journey from those early blogging days.

In the early days I was posting about once a week. I wrote about events, and hobbies, oh, and a bit about scrapbooking too (!!). The response from the wonderful scrapbooking blog community was so encouraging I found myself writing a post every second day. Wow this was getting serious.

And more and more people seem interested in reading Scraps of Mind. This was incredible. I found I really enjoyed writing and developing Scraps of Mind, in no small part due to the wonderful support of my fabulously encouraging readership.

So I decided to try and develop Scraps of Mind a bit further. First I moved it to its own domain. And what a drama that was. I moved it onto Seona’s server first but we had a lot of problems because it is a Windows based server rather than UNIX (that’s the sum total of my technical understanding of the problems and I don’t really want to dive any deeper). So then I rented some server space from Pretentia.com (Thatch’s company) and we moved it again. Thatch got it bedded down nicely for me and we were off and running.

But sadly all the shunting around had broken many of my links with other blogs (so if you link to me on your blog, please check that it is pointing to http://www.scrapsofmind.com rather than the old Wordpress domain) and my traffic plummeted. Needless to say, I was devastated. But fortunately we have pulled everything back together again and are now driving ahead even better than before.

The next big move in my blogging progress was to join Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program. I have to say that if you are really interested in building a great blog, this is a fabulous program. Like anything in life, you reap what you sow. So in order to get the best value from the program you have to implement the recommendations and put in the effort needed. But I’m really enjoying it, and many readers have commented on the improvements I’m constantly making to Scraps of Mind as a result of the Program. To find out more about the Blog Mastermind Program click here.

So where to from here?

The answer is, I don’t know. But I’m so loving this ScrapBlogging Journey that I’m happy to go wherever it leads me. And I hope you’ll be coming along for the ride.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Get more mileage out of your digital scrapbooking kits.

Let The Scrapbooking Edge Video Tutorials show you how.

And it’s back to reality…

Hi everyone, I’m back from my Italian and Greek Safari.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee and listen to the last leg of the trip on this podcast. You know what to do: just click on the green box with the arrow below and share the next five minutes with me.
Click on the speaker to downoad the MP3

And if you came in late you might like to catch up by checking out the following posts which bring you on the journey with me.

I’ll Be Back
Venice - One of my Favourite Places on Earth
Next stop: Florence
Idyllic Greece