Advent Calendar XV

I sometimes wonder why Christmas is such a "Big Thing", of course in many ways that is purpose of Advent, to contemplate on and prepare for the festival that starts with Christmas day.   Of course for Christians we are celebrating the birth of Christ (not the anniversary of his birth!) but what has that got to do with trees, the exchange of gifts, the over eating and over drinking.

Over the last few years, or should that be decades, I have become increasingly aware of what has become known as the Party Season, and many of those parties are simply there because of the time of year.   For those of us who are dependent on hours of daylight it is the time of year when we pass the shortest day and start to move towards spring, which something worth celebrating ~ if we have anything left in the store houses.    It was also the time of the Roman Saturnalia and Germanic Yule. Somehow, as a society, we seem to have parts of each of these celebrations without the meaning of any of them.

So, I will accept holy wreaths and Christmas trees, I will exchange gifts, and I will be celebrating with friends, but I will try not to forget what, and why I am celebrating. And I will try not to return myself to penury in the process!

On my mind

A while back I commented here on some of the non gender related things that were on my mind, As the Formula 1 season and the Six Nations are drawing ever closer this becomes more and more the case.   Now I don't like to think of myself as the typical male sports fan, indeed I am only really interested in Rugby and Motor sports, but I am quite excited about both our home internationals and the new GPs.

In Formula 1 I am hoping that McLaren will have a car that will challenge Red Bull, and that Jenson Button will get a second world championship.   I would love to see him confirm that his one world championship so far was no fluke, as a driver I admire his style, and as person, well I admire his style.   It is not just because he is British it is much more about the man and how he drives, I love the smooth gentle way he treats the car, managing to be aggressive but not abrasive.

And in the Six Nations we now have a situation where any team can beat any other team on the day,  realistically any one of four of the six could be crowned Champions this year.   Scotland and Italy would both be pleased to win two out of the five games, but any less than four victories would be a disappointment for the other four, and all of them will be aiming to win the championship.

I don't know how many other cross dressing ex prop forwards there are in Europe, but come 2:30 on Saturday afternoon I think we will all have our attention focused on Stade de France hoping that the Italians can repeat last years victory

The year turns on

Yesterday was noticeably colder than it has been, now I am sure that most people will have noticed a drop in air temperature, but I was very struck by the drop in soil temperature.   Now I know that not many people spend a lot of time with their hands in the soil, but as a professional gardener that is exactly what I do.

To me this means a few different things, as a gardener I think that the year has turned and we have today entered the next season, call it Autumn or Fall, it is here now, the summer bedding will come out and be replaced with violas and bare soil, leaves will be swept, and grass will stop growing.   The hours available for work reduce, and the amount of work available declines.   Personally it means that it is colder, as I work outside I keep warm by wearing lots of layers. that means a tee shirt, a cord shirt, then a sweater and if needed a fleece, lower down  I wear my tights under my trousers for work.   Now I will admit I quite like this, it is a sanctioned way of underdressing as well as keeping warm.   At one point last year my wife accused me of enjoying wearing the tights, and then went on to say that she didn't like the feel of tights underneath trousers, I was very tempted to say "then maybe I should start wearing skirts more often" but discretion saved me that day.

The other thing with shorter days and less work to fill them, there are more opportunities to cross dress.   The Royal Academy have a Degas exhibition on at the moment, I think that may well be my next major outing next month.