Well, it is that time of year again. So welcome to the Stanton Family Christmas Newsletter. Matthew continues to work as a skipper on the Coniston steam gondola for the National Trust. But he is also taking on extra duties in the Trust office in order to ease his path to promotion. Katie is still cancer free and has finally been promoted to general manager at the Bay Horse Tavern on Thomas St. Her pub made the national news this month when Chanel chose Manchester for their big fashion show and decided to hold it in the street, Thomas St. to be exact, and Katie’s pub was taken over as a VIP hospitality lounge. Katie played host to Hugh Grant and Tilda Swinton amongst others, who were eating crisps washed down with champagne!
This year we redecorated our bedroom. I say ‘we’. When we had stripped off the old paper the plaster was so bad that we had to call in the professionals. Luckily one of our neighbours is a builder. It was chaotic for a while, but when the decorator finally got started he got the job done in less time than it took us to choose the wallpaper. What with all that time and expense we missed out on a holiday again but managed a couple of short breaks: one in Ambleside when the children joined us for a meal to celebrate Dee’s 70th birthday and one in Manchester to see Hamilton at the Palace Theatre. It is one of the best shows we have ever seen, highly recommended. Afterwards we met up with Katie and her boyfriend, Gabriel, who works for the BBC at Media City.
Basil is two now and quite happy to go into kennels when we go away. Next year we are definitely going on holiday. Let’s see what he’s like after being left for a week or two. We are lucky to have a very good kennels nearby. They are a family business who only take a few dogs at a time so they can give them all the attention they need.
Closer to home we have been going to shows at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston, including musical tributes to the Windrush generation and Bob Marley and a Scottish singer, Christine Bovill, performed the songs of Edith Piaf. She is so good she has performed to sell out audiences in Piaf’s hometown of Paris. Our own local hero, Jess Gillam, who is equally at home at the last night of the Proms or jamming with visiting rock bands, delivered another sell out show at the Coro as well.
We have had an interesting growing season on the field due the extremes of weather that meant our plot did not do so well this year. We did get enough apples and onions to make some chutney and our first attempt at Jerusalem artichokes delivered a couple of bagful’s that make delicious soup.
The communal area of the allotment made good progress thanks to the help of asylum seekers, housed in the town, who came down to assist with our composting system and to prepare communal growing areas for the Spring. Some of their stories are heartbreaking to hear. But they manage to stay cheerful and are hard workers, except when one of them picked up a watering can and began to beat out a tune. Work stopped while we all took part in an impromptu dance. Not much work was done that day.
Our Christmas wish is for peace to return to the world.
Love to you all.
Mike and Dee