The twelve days of Christmas

Images of gifts in the song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The Photo: The twelve days of Christmas song poster showing the twelve different gifts. From Wikipedia. The illustration is by Xavier Romero-Frias. The song, published in 1780, tells of a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas.

The twelve days of Christmas: To Help bond with the villagers in village that supplies most of the staff that works at Blackthorn Castle and a large part of the goods and services needed to keep the estate running smoothly especially during holiday celebrations I decided, with the help of my Chamberlain and his events coordinator, to have a performance of the presentation of the gifts given in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas over those the twelve days.

The staff and villagers have been working for months to get all the bits and pieces; personnel, birds, musical instruments, costumes etc. necessary to put together and rehearse a simplified presentation of gifts over the twelve days from Christmas to Twelfth Night. By simplified I mean that there will be only a single representation of each day’s gift, rather than duplication of the preceding days gifts for each succeeding day (as there is in the song) which even for me is quite enough! The eleven pipers and the twelve drummers have been the most difficult and time consuming with rented flutes, drums and uniforms and repeated practices to play a very simple tune on the flutes and rolls on the drums.

The gifts over the twelve days are:

Day 1 partridge in a pear tree (to be carried in a cage)

Day 2 turtle doves (to be carried in a cage)

Day 3 French hens (Image knitted into a warm woolen sweater)

Day 4 Calling Birds (Image knitted into a warm woolen sweater)

Day 5 Gold Rings (Image knitted into a warm woolen sweater)

Day 6 Geese a-Laying (Image knitted into a warm woolen sweater)

Day 7 Swans a-Swimming (Image knitted into a warm woolen sweater)

Day 8 Maids a-Milking (Image of milk pails knitted into 8 warm woolen sweaters)

Day 9 Ladies Dancing (9 teen girls from the local dance school - costumes from London)

Day 10 Lords a-Leaping (Young adult men in costumes from a London costume shop)

Day 11 Pipers Piping (Villagers in costumes from a London costume shop)

Day 12 Drummers Drumming (Villagers in costumes from a London costume shop)

        57 total villagers involved on the 12^th day.

The villagers have taken to “the Twelve Days project” as it’s become known with enthusiasm. It has already been a success in that more of the villagers are getting to know me from my being deeply involved with the project especial the dance students in the “nine ladies dancing” production in which they will be wearing tutus and pointes.  

Logistics for the Twelve Days performances: The performers are being picked up at 9:00 AM each day from the village. A large drawing room has been converted into dressing rooms for the performers and there are two male and two female dressers to help the performers with their costumes which are being stored at the castle. The partridge and turtle doves are being cared for here during the run of performances and the musical instruments are being stored at the castle as well to prevent a performer from forgetting his or her instrument. Up through day seven (7 Swans a swimming) a thirteen-passenger van can handle the performers and their equipment.  For days eight and nine (8 Maids a milking and 9 Ladies dancing) a bus will be used for the twenty-four performers and equipment. For days ten, eleven and twelve a second bus is added. Fortunately, the weather is forecast to just be rainy with the temperatures in the high 40s and mid-50s. With the castle access road improvements made last year the busses haven’t and shouldn’t have any trouble and as a precaution the road will be sanded as well. There was a great deal of interest by the villagers in being in the performances, especially by those who had never been to the castle before which is about a third of them and the performers enjoyed tours of the castle. Even so, to deepen the commitment of the performers a noon meal and a modest daily stipend is being provided.

The dance floor: In the great hall, where the Twelve Days performances will be held a sprung Marley floor has been laid over the stone floor so the “9 Ladies Dancing” in pointe-shoes, Gaynor Mindens with sueded tips, are much less likely to have a fall or injury.

The Christmas trees decorated: The red cedar trees were put up and decorated several days ago, and presents for my guests have been placed around the main tree, the one in the library. The staff have their own Christmas tree below stairs. I love the scent of cedar and they look gorgeous!   

The castle’s Yule log lit: My predecessors at Blackthorn Castle, traditionally had the castle Yule log lit on Christmas eve. So, yesterday, Friday the 23rd I opened the doors to the great hall and the massive Yule log was hauled in by a team of horses. One end was inserted into the huge fireplace with the remaining eighty percent jutting out into the great hall where as it burns it will be winched slowly forward across the hearth and into the fireplace. It should burn for the twelve days of Christmas the last being Thursday January 5^th. The end of last Christmas’ log was chopped up and placed under it as kindling and I lit it in a brief ceremony this morning. There is a twenty-four-hour fire watch posted in the great hall as long as the Yule Log is burning. 

Weather for Christmas: The weather service is calling for light rain for most of the day on the 25^th with mid-day temperature in the low 50s (F) so at least there will be no snow.  All my guests have arrived and our celebrations will be inside. So, it will just be the Twelve Days performers who will make the one hour trip up from the village in chartered four-wheel drive vehicles each day with the last performance by the entire cast on January 5^th.

Wishing all my friends (you know who you are) and readers a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year and the blessings of this holiday season.

End of year celebrations prep

Winter in the Cambrian Mountains Wales, UK

My Wards and their boyfriends have arrived: Bea a 19 y/o who graduated from St Lucy’s in 2015 and is attending Cambridge; Willow a 22 y/o Brit-chick who danced for the Royal Ballet. She is Jack’s natural daughter by an RB ballerina. When released from the company Willow danced in my ballet Co. in Vegas and she graduated from UNLV. She is now going to grad school at Cambridge; The Dryads, Bryony and Claire, in their mid-20s and former dancers with the RB are studying for Doctorates in Clinical Psychology at University College London. Everyone was off on December 2^nd and they don’t need to return to school until Tuesday January 17^th.  They have all brought gorgeous boyfriends so the scent of testosterone laced sweat again wafts fragrantly throughout the castle! They will be with me for seven and a half weeks, wonderful! I’m hoping to take them shopping in London for the sales after the New year!

The Barony and the twelve Days of Christmas: The Barony has always counted Christmas as the first day of the twelve days of Christmas so Twelfth night will be on Wednesday January 5^th in 2017.  After that my plans are still to be decided. Because of the Zika virus scare I haven’t been to my villa in the BVIs for more than eighteen months. I’d love to go and soak in the warmth of the water and sun with my wards. If I decide to chance it, we will leave for Virgin Gorda after Twelfth Night.

Christmas and the Old Ways: Returning readers will recall that my predecessors and I celebrate not only Christian holidays and festivals, but also the Celtic Goddess Rhiannon. In our Celtic celebrations, human reproductive tract secretions exchanged during mating rituals are used during fertility ceremonies. Instead of animal blood being spilled the transfer of seed from male to female in an act of ritual breeding occurs on stone altars where animal sacrifices once were offered to Venus/Aphrodite before Celtic mythology morphed her into the Celtic horse and moon Goddess Rhiannon.

The Winter Solstice: This year the solstice occurs on Wednesday December 21^st when I will be Cycle day 12 and fertile. My flat spring latex diaphragm will be filled with fertile cervical mucus which I will allow a lover to remove and lick the stretchy mucus into his mouth to swallow as I take a fresh FS diaphragm out, apply spermicide and insert it being sure to check that my cervix is beneath the dome before I let him penetrate me with his wonderfully long, hard and dripping love arrow.

My predecessor, Edith 22^nd Baroness Blackthorn, was at an advanced age and unable to participate or facilitate so the celebration of celestial events had been discontinued the last few years until I arrived and my duties were explained to me by the Barony’s Chamberlain.  As it has been since I’ve become Baroness, celebration of celestial events will occur inside the massive blackthorn perimeter that shields the altars from the sight of unbelievers. This fall the medieval underground access to the holy site from the castles deep cellars has been restored so it is once again safe to use. That’s good news as it keeps the celebrants dry and relatively warm while moving along the underground passage from the Castle to the Celtic holy site to come up inside the massive Blackthorn barrier.

Blackthorn Castle decoration for Christmas: The silver is polished and all the table linens have been washed, starched and pressed. And hundreds of new fragrant beeswax candles have been placed in the chandeliers and candelabras throughout the state apartments as well as the living areas.  The great hall, library, drawing rooms, my suite and all the guest suites have been decorated with fragrant fresh greenery which has to be replaced every few days as even evergreens begin to dry out after a while. Over the years, the gardner has established an area where he grows pine, cedar, holly and mistletoe to be used specifically for decorating so we are assured of having enough greenery. Given the number of open flames from candles and fireplaces during the year-end holidays my predecessor, Edith 22^nd Baroness, had a hose butt installed and a large hose connected and hidden in the great hall in case a spark starts a fire. With the Yule log, ablaze there will always be a fire watch set, just in case.  

Yule log tradition at Blackthorn Castle: My predecessors at Blackthorn Castle, traditionally had the castle Yule log lit on Christmas eve. So, on Saturday the 18^th in the early morning, after Tim and I celebrate Rhiannon/Rigantona’s equine Feastday in her grotto temple we will have a celebratory breakfast Then I will take my regular ballet class with my wards. After that I will officially open the doors to the great hall so the massive Yule log can be hauled in by a team of horses. One end will be inserted into the huge fireplace with the remaining eighty percent jutting out into the great hall where as it burns it will be winched slowly forward across the hearth and into the fireplace. It should burn for the twelve days of Christmas the last being January Thursday January 5^th, Twelfth-night. Returning readers may recall that this year’s log was selected cut and has been drying for the past year. On Christmas day, it will be lit from kindling made from the remains of last year’s log.

‘Tiny’ Tim for Christmas: I’m over-the-moon about Tim having two weeks leave from his studies in Oxfordshire over Christmas, New Years and Twelfth Night.  Returning readers may recall how well Tim and I work as a mated pair so I don’t expect any problems during the Winter Solstice ceremony although it will be his first time as a mate to a woman during a Goddess blessed ceremony. Afterward, if things go well we both should be high on endorphins and basking in the afterglow during breakfast. Last year, with Marvin, I collected his liquefied semen – more than 10 ml since he came three times - in a Diva Cup so I could use it as a dressing on his salad at supper. I’ll see if Tim can match him this year. Although I think Tim may want to drink it straight away. I invited Marvin, and his current squeeze, Miss Nexplanon, but he hasn’t responded so I suppose he intends to stay in Cambridge with her for the holiday.

My fertility over the Holidays: Since I’m cycling naturally I can’t be certain, however what should happen is that on:

• Sunday December 18^th, for Celebration, of Rhiannon/Rigantona’s equine Feastday I should be CD9 and newly fertile.
• Wednesday 21^st December The Winter Solstice. I should be CD12 and fertile.
• Friday December 31^st, New Year’s Eve I should be CD 22 and luteal.
• Thursday January 5^th, Twelfth Night, I should be CD27 and luteal.  

So, on Rhiannon feast day and the Winter Solstice I will wear a latex flat spring diaphragm for contraceptive protection. On New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night I will be able to take Tim with neither of us using protection so not only will I be discharging his liquefied semen, but I will have his sperm in my tubes!

The castle’s Christmas Trees: We are fortunate to have a very large stand of red cedar trees (Juniperus Virginiana) on the estate. They were brought to the UK in the 18^th century by one of my predecessors. The head foresters here have been having more planted each year for a very long time and the trees thrive in the cool moist climate with a growth rate of one to two feet a year. When I was growing up in South Western Virginia we always had a red cedar Christmas tree. So, this year I’m having cedar Christmas trees in the main drawingroom, library and my own suite of rooms. The species is a bit prickly to handle, but the cedar’s wonderful scent makes up for that. Cedar is not native to the UK. However, it is particularly well adapted to mountainous climates where they receive winter precipitation which is ideal in the Cambrians as we get the moisture off the North Atlantic.  Not being a native species it is most often found in the UK when planted in parks and gardens of large estates.

My responsibilities: This is only my second Christmas as Baroness and last year it went very well. That was because my Chamberlain has done all the heavy lifting as he has been doing marvelously well for years. Together this year we have brushed off a few cobwebs and I think the villagers as well as my guests will have a fine time.   

I’m deep into execution of the plans for the series of celebrations previously mentioned: On the Winter solstice, on the 21st (I’ll be channeling the Celtic Goddess Rhiannon outside on a cold stone altar so I’m hoping for dry weather), then Christmas for the villagers as well as my estate. Then there is Boxing Day (December 26th) when bonusses are given out to the staff and suppliers of the estate for the exemplary work they have done on my behalf over the past year. Then New Years and festivities during the twelve days of Christmas ending on Twelfth Night, 5th of January. It’s my entertaining busy season and I get chills thinking about it!

It’s a considerable responsibility which if things go wrong I would rightly be blamed. Even though I’m the hereditary heiress and I’m being gradually accepted, I’m still looked on by some as being “not one of us” so I’m still proving myself with the locals. I have an amazing staff and with their help I’m slowly winning them over. One of the wildly popular things I began last year was letting the staff shop at the January sales in London. I paid for their round-trip train fare - they rode The Dragon (my two private rail cars) back and forth - and two nights in a descent hotel and they went in three shifts. On the estate, we managed rather well with some adjustments even though shorthanded for a week.

The staff reduction (during the January London shopping trips) worked so well that my Chamberlin suggested we cut the staff. I declined as loyal, well trained, hardworking service staff are a valuable asset and difficult to come by. The village relies on my estate for jobs and so I have continued the current staffing level. Well, actually staffing headcount had increased when I arrived as in the last years of my predecessor’s life entertaining declined and then ceased so positions had gone unfilled when opened by attrition.  And unless terminated for cause the policy is last hired first fired. Long term that won’t work as many of the staff are approaching retirement age and even training motivated people takes time. Another reason not to let staff go is that many of the new hires are sons or daughters of the present staff and it is important to me, and the estate, to retain continuity and institutional memory in service positions where possible.

The forecast is for cool and cloudy weather in the Cumbrian mountains for the next several weeks So I’m hoping that comes to pass.

Readers, please pray for me that everything will go smoothly