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.

Kassandra and the Autumnal Equinox

The Prophetess Cassandra being taken by Ajax during the sack of Troy

The Photo: During the fall of Troy the Prophetess Cassandra, daughter of the King and Queen of Troy and virgin Priestess of Apollo, sought sanctuary in the temple of Athena where she was abducted and raped by Ajax the lesser. Cassandra as a Priestess of Apollo had taken a sacred vow to remain virgin for life. In one version of the myth Cassandra had agreed to have sex with Apollo in exchange for the gift of prophecy and then broke her promise. Apollo punished her with the curse of never being believed.

Death of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire: The funeral service for Deborah Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who passed away on September 24, will be held at 12:00 Noon on Thursday October 2, at St. Peters Church Edensor, the village outside Chatsworth. She was 94 and had been an inspiration to the Duke of M*** and Alice when they were trying to determine how to pay the death duties - when Jack’s grandfather died - on Crag Abbey and other estates without selling off large parcels of real-estate or valuable art works that have been in the family for hundreds of years. His Grace, Alice and Jack will be attending her funeral.

The Autumnal Equinox:  It went better than I expected. The weather was dry, clear and cold and amazingly the wind was almost calm during the ceremony so the peat fires in the massive braziers around the altars kept the area almost warm at times at the Holy Site. Though as priestesses my wards and I had been given a glass of Gorse brandy to fortify us against the cold before leaving the dressing tent since even lying in shearling robes the cold of the stone altars eventually penetrates.

The married crofters performed very well having been given performance enhancing meds to help counteract the cold and each was able to shoot his wad in his assigned priestess three times though the third time for each we had to milk them with our vaginal muscles. They were so amazed at the strength of our grips. To conclude the ceremony His Grace mounted me and performed amazingly well for his age, perhaps because I was menstrual and he enjoys bloody sex or as he calls it, ‘swimming in the red sea’.  The festive breakfast afterward at the hunting lodge and the ritual burning of the priestesses’ robes and shoes went as planned and we were all glad to get out of our blood soaked shearling robes which reeked of coital discharge and menstrual flow and to have good hot showers and clean clothes before breakfast felt marvelous!

Kassandra:  This past Wednesday a number of His Graces friends (all peers or high ranking churchmen) arrived for a week of Partridge and Grouse hunting. I was hoping my wards and I could get away before they came as they were nearly all men and rather old though their sex drives were still very much in evidence and none of them had been screened for STIs. Our male partners from the Paris Opera Ballet had departed so we were left with bedmates with whom we used condoms which we explained by telling the men that we were fertile, we had just finished our periods when they arrived, and since we knew they were all potent we didn’t want to risk an almost certain pregnancy for one or more of us. It was a story they all understood only too well and it stroked their vanity and virility at the same time. Tanaquil had sent over a few members of the corps of the POB who were on holiday to provide along with my wards and I enough partners for the men in the hunting party.

One of His Graces titled friends from a shire in the south western part of England arrived with his 21 y/o daughter Cassandra which she spells Kassandra. She is devastatingly beautiful with a gloriously ripe young ballet body (she reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age with long red hair, green eyes and amazingly she is left handed like me) as she has been in ballet boarding schools and with private tutors since she was 4 y/o and since 16 dancing with European ballet companies.   

She has an amazing personality which helps, but does not completely defuse, her almost immediate dislike by other women she meets from their jealousy of her beauty, talent and training and the fact that she is predatory of other women’s men.  Her father, the Earl of A***, had asked permission of His Grace to bring her along as he wanted me to meet her and the old bull knowing my dislike of surprises had , even so, intentionally kept her coming from me because he knew what her father was going to ask.

While breathtakingly beautiful and talented she is continuously in trouble wherever she goes primarily because of the effect she has on men and her lack of inhibitions bordering on recklessness which allows her to take advantage of male vulnerabilities regardless of the consequences in the men’s lives. When she was introduced to His Grace’s male guests before dinner on the first evening after she arrived even the Catholic priests where not immune to her charms which could be easily seen as the drape of their trousers changed significantly, along with the trouser drape of the rest of the men present, as they were introduced to her. She isn’t pretentious in any way it’s just the effect that perhaps one woman in several million has that even if she was wearing a flour sack men would want to protect her and take her to bed. For that effect she is hated by most women who try as they might will never have that hypnotic effect on men.

By the time she was introduced before dinner His Grace had talked with me and gotten my somewhat grudging agreement to sponsor her in Las Vegas.  It seems her father has two younger daughters whose chances of getting acceptable husbands while Kassandra is around is slim so he wants her out of the way and preferably happy. As she is amoral I think she might fit in well as arm-candy for Adolph and she could be invaluable to him in closing deals with men who will want to sleep with her as a deal sweetener. She Is talented and conscientious enough with her training to dance with my troupe, but I’m not sure the men could survive her presence in the corps.

As I mentioned before she has an amazing personality so for now she seems to be getting along well with my wards and me. We will see how that goes when she meets Marvin (Morning Wood) and the Gemini who are the boyfriends of Odette and Odile. I know she has slept with Jack already, but he and I have an open relationship until such time as he asks me to marry him and I’m pretty sure any pregnancy by him wouldn’t survive the first trimester. But Adolph and I are going to keep her busy. Her motto seems to be “So many men and so little time!”

Our return home: The return trip on Limnaea II bringing Kassandra with us was uneventful. Once here Chris, our male Gyn, gave her a complete pelvic. Her cervix and ovaries are in excellent condition. He fitted her with a latex Reflexions diaphragm for upper reproductive tract protection in case of vaginal flooding during dive-sex and implanted a stringless GyneFix frameless copper IUD. He also checked her antibody levels to ensure that her HPV vaccine (Gardasil) shots are effective. Amazingly she had been using only condoms during her fertile days and with all her sexual activity she hadn’t been preggers, though she did tell me she has taken EC at least three times when the condom burst or came off inside her. Kassandra is SCUBA open water qualified, but she has never had dive-sex so I’m going to have an escort trainee give her a few dive-sex lessons before I introduce her to Adolph because he will want to fuck her underwater the first time they meet.