Thursday 4th December - Rochester Castle, Kent in Winter

Righty-ho then, I've been mead-free since Wednesday tea, so things are a little less toasty but probably better overall today.  I have two days until my daughter's ninth birthday (Nine!  Where does the time go? etc etc) and Friday will be spent making a Princess Unikitty cake.  Don't ask.  Anyway, here is today's rather lovely Blogvent picture...

Rochester Castle, Kent in Winter with Robin Henry Hopper

From what I can gather from the interweb, Mr Hopper was obsessed by Rochester Castle as those were the only pictures that made it into a public collection.  I'm sure he did other things too, judging by that little robin.  Those of you who are members of The Stunner's Boudoir on Facebook will know that Lily-Rose (daughter who is soon 9) asked me to write her a Christmas story for Christmas Eve bedtime and she specified that it had to be about a Fox and a Robin (such natural friends) and involve a big wood.  Well, she and I managed to create a story and it will be here on Christmas Eve as the final post of Blogvent.  It will be her bedtime story, but I can't manage to come round all of your houses and tuck you in so you'll have to use your imaginations.

I have a lovely scarf with singing robins all over it at the moment, what with it being the season and everything.  We have a robin in our garden all year and so I did wonder why robins are specifically linked to Christmas.  Apparently, according to the dubious knowledge of the interweb, postmen wore red uniforms in the olden days and their frequency in appearance around Christmas (due to the invention of the Christmas card) led to them being called 'redbreasts' and linked to robins.  Apparently the popularity of the little bird at Christmas led some crafty Victorians to kill the birds for their feathers, to attach to cards.  For goodness sake.  Mind you, these are the people who brought you the squashed-bird-as-a-token-of-love Valentine. Ah, Victorians, you old romantics...

Pressie suggestion today is something very close to my heart, quite literally.  When I visited Paris a couple of years ago, I bought a necklace which was a copy of the brooch Fanny Cornforth wore in The Blue Bower.  I noticed that the Musee D'Orsay's shop still has the earrings and bracelet from the set and have them on sale. If you fancy a bit of Rossetti sparkle, head over here and get a rather lovely bargain.

See you tomorrow!