party time!

The Guild Hall is packed, the soft-play toys are out and it's the Toddlers' Christmas Party!  It's great to see so many children running round, climbing, falling, eating, singing, laughing and having fun. Just as children should.

the ghost of christmas past

We return to Packwood House just a few weeks after our last visit. This time we've come to see the House decorated as it would have been for Christmas 1918 at the end of the First World War.

The simplicity of the decoration stands in sharp contrast to the excess of modern-day Christmas. It stands as a poignant reminder of when duty, service and honour stared in the face of the apocalyptic horror of trench warfare.

 

 
Outside, the Kitchen Garden is empty save for a solitary volunteer tending to a border. She too departs leaving us to contemplate the ethereal beauty of nature as it begins its winter rest.