'Twas the night before Christmas....

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

We have started to put up the Christmas decorations in the manor for the first time since it was completed...

2 sleeps to go...

Christmas Offer...

Looking for a perfect Christmas gift voucher or a chance to treat yourself?

• 2 nights luxury escape at Willowbrook Park and Willowbrook breakfast $395 pp

• 2 nights luxury escape at Willowbrook Park and Willowbrook Breakfast, with limousine tour to Hobbiton $645 pp

• 2 nights luxury escape at Willowbrook Park and Willowbrook Breakfast, with helicopter flight over Hamilton and high tea at Zealong Tea Plantation $845 pp

Don't fancy going out to a restaurant? Have our chef cook you dinner at the Manor House, and dine in the sumptuous red silk lined dining room with candles and chandeliers ($50-100 pp depending on menu) and choose from a wide range of Mills Reef wines.

One randomly selected voucher will include free hire of Willowbrook for your next business meeting or dinner function. (25 people max. Catering by Kerr & Ladbrook and wines by Mills Reef will be invoiced to you after your requirements have been established.)

Voucher valid for all of 2017. 

Advance booking essential. 

07 856 5656 or enquiries@willowbrookpark.co.nz

Holly and Ivy...

Holly and Ivy  have long been associated with Christmas celebration, although their association with this time of the year predates Christmas, being used in Winter pagan celebrations. Holly symbolises truth, and its thorns have sometimes been associated with the thorny crown of Christ. Ivy symbolises strength and protection - something to cling to.

We have planted holly throughout Badger's wood, and will certainly plant holly bushes and ivy around the chapel along with the roses.

Above and below: Holly bushes / hedges at Kew Gardens, taken on previous trip.

Holly berries contain a xanthine compound similar to caffeine, which in small doses is a mild stimulant, but in larger doses can cause a variety of toxic symptoms. This is one of the reasons it seems to keep it's berries long after other trees have lost them to birds, although after a decent frost this compound is broken down a little and they become less toxic.

Here are two of my favourite arrangements of the traditional carol "The Holly and The Ivy", the first by Walford Davies...

and the second by June Nixon...

New Year's Reading List 2015

It's been five years since I last shared my Christmas Reading List (it doesn't seem like I've been blogging for that long!).  So Peter and I thought we would share what delightful texts we are looking forward to reading this year...

David's Choices

This book, a birthday present from my mother, has been on my to read list for the past couple of years. Now that we are starting to get some harvest from the orchard, vineyard, and elderflower hedge,  we are looking at recipes for turning the harvest into a nice tipple.

This book was given to me by a colleague who said he found it in a bookshop when he was browsing and couldn't put it down. He thought it might be my sort of book, and it is. Any lover of English literature will find this delightful.

Appealing to both the gardener and the dipsomaniac in me, this book takes a whimsical look at the botany behind some of the world's most popular drinks.

A fan of Debretts guides, this book was given to me as a gift after preaching at a London church one Sunday. I have enjoyed flicking through it's pages over the years, but have decided to dust it off and read it again cover to cover.

As a big fan of the Tottering-by-Gently strips from Country Life, when Annie Tempest released  a commemorative book of the first 20 years of her cartoon strips I happily snapped one up. The sort of book great for a coffee table or killing a little bit of time.

Peter's Choices

Peter and I are both fans of Alan Bennett. It was Peter who introduced his work to me. Peter saw the stage show of The History Boys when it was on in the West End, but I have only seen the movie, which was very good. Peter has decided he wants to go back and read the book again.

He also wants to re-read some of Auden's poetry. I discovered Auden after seeing Four Weddings and a Funeral with John Hannah's tear-jerking rendition of "Stop all the clocks" at Gareth's funeral. It is still one of my favourite poems. I also love this rhyming couplet from Auden's poem "The more loving one":

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me.

Peter recently saw the film adaptation of The Hundred-Foot Journey and so wants to read the novel. There are strong themes in the work which resound deeply with Peter's background growing up in a Guest House.

Susan Hill is a prolific writer, and her novel In the Springtime of the Year is one that Peter remembers reading as a student. It was considered to be one of the set texts for pastoral studies by one of his tutors, Bishop Jack Nicholls.

Fit for a Bishop is a jolly romp, which Peter was given to read many years ago by a parishioner, Connie. It contains extravagant recipes, and an introduction which delightfully describes the gardening antics of a priest's house keeper.

Christmas Message 2014...

Wishing all our dear readers and followers a very merry Christmas, and all the best for 2015. 

2014 has seen huge progress at Willowbrook Park, and our hope is that we will be shifting in this coming Autumn (Spring for followers in the northern hemisphere).
Dubbo has continued to provide professional growth and challenges for me this year, whilst Peter has kept the home fires burning at Willowbrook. He has whipped the grounds into shape ready for the opening, overseen aspects of the build, and has run the farm, which for the first time this year has turned a profit. He has currently joined me in Dubbo to celebrate Christmas, as I am working over the holiday period. 
We both hope that this festive season is one of joy, and that you are all surrounded by the warmth and love of friends and family. May you relax, and marvel at the year that was before tackling the new year with all its possibilities.

Blessings +

David and Peter Lord Cowell

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all, near and far. Well, It's almost another year of blogging over again at WBP. Thank you to everyone who has followed, commented, supported us, or just dropped in from time to time to catch up. As followers will know, it has been a year of tremendous change, with immigrating to Australia for work, and finally after many years of planning, beginning construction on WBP. Looking back I still can't believe it has all come together as well as it has.

But it will also be a very different Christmas this year. This year I won't be surrounded by my family and friends on Christmas day; I won't be attending Midnight Mass at St Peter's for the first time in 10 years; I won't be sharing 1am mince tarts and sherry with my friends afterwards; and I won't be playing my traditional "Driving home for Christmas"on my way back from work...

Instead I will be working the late shift in ED right through the festive period, and coming home to listen to "I miss you most at Christmas time"...

But all this will be worth while when we can celebrate next year, once again surrounded by all my loved ones, and at WBP for the first time. So here's wishing you all a truly happy and love-filled Christmas, [especially Peter and Willoughby!]

David.x

Mystic Mistletoe...

Mistletoe is an interesting parasitic plant. It grows on the branches or trunk of a tree and sends out roots that penetrate into the tree and steal nutrients. 

There are two types of mistletoe. The mistletoe that is commonly used as a Christmas decoration (Phoradendron flavescens) is native to North America and grows as a parasite on trees from New Jersey to Florida. The other type of mistletoe, Viscum album, is of European origin. The European mistletoe is a green shrub with small, yellow flowers and white, sticky berries which are poisonous. 

It commonly seen on apple trees, and only rarely on oak trees despite it's association with Oaks. It was considered to bestow life and fertility; a protection against poison; and to be an aphrodisiac. The mistletoe of the oak was especially sacred to the ancient Celtic Druids. On the sixth night of the moon white-robed Druid priests would cut the oak mistletoe with a golden sickle. Two white bulls would be sacrificed amid prayers that the recipients of the mistletoe would prosper. Later, the ritual of cutting the mistletoe from the oak came to symbolize the emasculation of the old King by his successor.

The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is first found associated with the Roman festival of the Saturnalia and later with primitive marriage rites. They probably originates from the belief that it has power to bestow fertility. In the eighteenth-century the English created the tradition of the kissing ball. At Christmas time a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, cannot refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance, or lasting friendship and goodwill. If the girl remained unkissed, she could not expect not to marry in the coming year.

In Scandinavia, mistletoe was considered a plant of peace, under which enemies could declare a truce or warring spouses kiss and make-up. In Norse mythology it is associated with the Goddess Frigga. Frigga was goddess of love and the mother of Balder, the god of the summer sun. Balder had a dream of death which greatly alarmed his mother, for should he die, all life on earth would end. In an attempt to keep this from happening, Frigga went at once to air, fire, water, earth, and every animal and plant seeking a promise that no harm would come to her son. Balder now could not be hurt by anything on earth or under the earth. But Balder had one enemy, Loki, god of evil and he knew of one plant that Frigga had overlooked in her quest to keep her son safe. It grew neither on the earth nor under the earth, but on apple and oak trees. It was lowly mistletoe. So Loki made an arrow tip of the mistletoe, gave to the blind god of winter, Hoder, who shot it , striking Balder dead. The sky paled and all things in earth and heaven wept for the sun god. For three days each element tried to bring Balder back to life. He was finally restored by Frigga. It is said the tears she shed for her son turned into the pearly white berries on the mistletoe plant and in her joy Frigga kissed everyone who passed beneath the tree on which it grew. The story ends with a decree that whoever should stand under the humble mistletoe, no harm should befall them, only a kiss, a token of love.

Above: Mistletoe strangling an apple tree.

However, the mistletoe is under threat, as The Guardian reports...

The future supply of traditional English mistletoe is under threat, conservationists have warned. Mistletoe thrives in established apple orchards but such habitats have seen a big decline over the past 60 years. The National Trust is urging people to buy home-grown mistletoe in the run-up to Christmas in a bid to ensure revelers can go on kissing under it. Trust ecologist Peter Brash said it would be a "sad loss" if mistletoe disappeared from its traditional areas.

At least 60% of old orchards in the "cider country" of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire have disappeared since the 1950s. The decline has been even more dramatic in Devon and Kent, where the figure is as much as 90%. Mr Brash said: "Mistletoe is part of our Christmas heritage and has a special place in a wonderful winter landscape. "It would be a sad loss if mistletoe disappeared altogether from its heartland. We could end up relying on imports of mistletoe from mainland Europe for those festive kisses." The trust also wants people to ask where the mistletoe they are buying is sourced from. Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that favours the domestic apple tree, but can also be  found on lime, poplar and hawthorn trees across the UK.

The market town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire holds an annual mistletoe festival with a procession led by druids. One of the druids, Suzanne Thomas, said of the plant: "It's magic. It's just amazing stuff. It's got this lovely energy about it." Mistletoe expert Jonathan Briggs said the plant benefited from a managed environment. "Unchecked, it will swamp its host tree and ultimately cause it to die," he said. "Regular, managed cropping will ensure that the host tree remains productive while ensuring that a healthy population of mistletoe will persist." Agriculture minister Jim Paice said there was more to mistletoe than its "traditional amorous role". "Buying mistletoe helps traditional British cider apple orchards thrive by removing mistletoe from apple trees," he said. "By buying mistletoe at Christmas, you're continuing a tradition that helps apple trees to flourish."

Christmas Mince Pies...

Tis the season to be jolly, and in our family to relax the belt a notch. The religiosity of the feast aside, Christmas day, for us, has always been the time when food is abundant, heavenly sweet and spiced aromas float out of the kitchen, the uplifting mixtures flow freely, and the family banter abounds.

This year we are at sixes and sevens with me packing up to emigrate, with little time to spend preparing elaborate recipes.  We have been invited to a traditional Polish Christmas celebration with friends, which starts on Christmas eve, is punctuated by Midnight Mass, and continues with celebrations well into the early hours. Then we will have our usual extended family luncheon, this year at my grandparents' house; and then a standing Boxing day feast with our Urban Family.

I haven't had to make a Christmas cake this year, as our recent house guests brought us one of their own magnificent home made masterpieces. But, wanting to feel just a little bit creative on the culinary front, I thought my brother and I should turn our hands to making batches of fruit mince pies...

To start off with One will need ingredients for the sweet short pastry, lots of candied peel, 2 apples, dried fruit and spices, and lashings of brandy (I usually use Grand Marnier orange brandy or Chambord framboise).

For the fruit mince finely chop the apples, glace cherries, candied orange and lemon peel, ginger, currants, sultanas, and any other dried fruit you like. Add to a large mixing bowl. Add spices to taste (I use allspice, cinnamon  and nutmeg, with a little mixed spice). Douse liberally with a brandy of your choice. Set aside to imbue.

For the pastry I follow a standard short pastry recipe: 1 cup of plain flour, 75g (2.6oz) of butter, 1/4 cup of fine sugar, 1 egg yolk and a tablespoon of water.

Sift the flour into a bowl and cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumb. Stir in sugar, add the egg yolk and the water. Mix into a stiff dough, and then chill for half an hour prior to use. This will make about 400g (4/5 lb) of pastry. One can also add a teaspoon of mixed spice to the ingredients if you wish.

Once chilled, roll your pastry out onto a nice cool surface...

Once it is about 3-4mm thick, use a 7cm cutter to cut as many rounds of pastry as One needs for One's patty pan...

Line your patty pan with the rounds, and prick the pastry well with fork tines, then blind bake in a medium oven for 10 minutes or until lightly baked. (You don't strictly need to blind bake the bottoms, but I find they turn out better and last longer if the bottoms are crisper).

Once the bottoms have been cooked fill the cases with One's fruit mince and cover with more pastry rounds cut with a 6cm cutter. Brushing the edges of the bases with some beaten egg will help the tops to stick to the bottoms, and One can use the left over egg to glaze the tops. 

Bake again in a medium-hot oven (Ca. 180C / 350F) for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove, cool, and dust with icing sugar...

Alternatively you can make a lattice design for the top of the pies or decorate them however you wish. Enjoy with a glass of mulled wine.

Music for Christmas...

This post has a personal connection. We were unpacking boxes following our recent shift and came across an old album of Christmas Carols. It is special because it is a recording of Peter singing in the Canterbury Cathedral Choir when he was a lad. Peter (second from the right in the front row) went on to become head chorister at the Cathedral before going up to Cambridge.

One of my favourite carols is The Holly and The Ivy. Unfortunately I can't play you the recording off the vinyl, but I have found these 2 very good clips of Kings College Cambridge singing two different versions at the Nine Lessons and Carols service...

Here is a clip of the Canterbury choristers practising with the late Allan Wicks, Peter's Choir Master...

Not long to go to Christmas now...