Advent Calandar

( 1st Monday in Advent )

Bonus link for German speakers: the TU Chemnitz Advent Calendar is running again. It's always lovely, with a mixture of photos of the Erzgebirge, information about the Christmas customs of the region, recipes (I got a fantastic recipe for red wine, chocolate and nut cake, which has become one of my favourites there once), craft activities you can do with children and competitions. Best web-based calender I know.

This will be of interest to any fan of Narnia or C.S. Lewis

Harper Collins have published a whole swathe of juvenilia. Specifically, Lewis' fantasy writings on the land of Boxen (and I had no idea he was still playing about with it in 1928, when he'd been a fellow of Magdalen College for three years).

Will be fascinating to look at, especially as one never normally thinks of Lewis as a world-builder, exactly.

Random sidenote: If wikipedia is to believed, then while Betjeman disliked Lewis, who was his tutor (I knew this; probably has something to do with the fact that Lewis thought he was idle and rather silly), Kenneth Tynan, who he also taught, retained a lifelong admiration for him, which piece of trivia rather surprised me. It just goes to show one should never make assumptions about how people will get on based on their beliefs.

(no subject)

The mp3 found poetry meme. It doesn't really work, it seems:

Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.

Softhu únga ástin mín.

Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream.
When I die, and they lay me to rest.
Many men have loved the bells.
I can see the planets are aligning for me.

It’s a still life water colour, on a now-late afternoon,
If I could make a wish, I think I’d pass.
This time of endless night
I’m going to tell a story, and it’s sad but true:

If it hadn’t been for Cotton-Eyed Joe,
Giant steps are what you take
Oh I can’t forget this evening,
The Angel Gabriel from heaven came,

Three Kings from Persian Lands afar,
Gaudete, Gaudete, Christus est natus!
Ho ho ho to the bottle I go,
You get a shiver in the dark.

( Sources under the cut )

( What the heck: I shall do two (can you tell my writing is going badly? )