I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

[Willy]

Snowing in Belgium
It's not a dream anymore. In Belgium it's snowing and probably it will also snow the following days until Christmas day. In fact I should film the house opposite now. It is a cottage in Kentish style. Very exceptional in Belgium ! It's like a fairy tale cottage. It would be excellent archive footage for a new film.

Snow in Llandidrod Wells
Landscapes in the snow are always lovely. About 40 years ago I organised my first coach trip to Great Britain for my colleagues of the local secondary school. Those were the days my friends ! We stayed in Llandidrod Wells, a little town in Wales. At that time it was also snowing. What a view : the thousands of sheep in the snow on the slopes. The central heating in our hotel room was out of order. But we didn't complain. We were still very young. We were in our twenties. I didn't have a camera yet. I remember that one of my colleagues had an old Canon super 8 camera. I would like to see his film again.

Snow in the Yorkshire Dales
Ten years later I organised a schooltrip to the Dales. We stayed in a youth hostel in Kettlewell. My students left the coach in Malham and they walked over the hill in the thick snow. I feared that I would never see them again. It was quite an adventure. We picked them up at the other side of the hill. But what a beautiful landscape ! Britain is beautiful in the snow !

Take your cameras, my dear friends of the north. Make an interlude film and add some lovely music to it. Very entertaining.

New Year's Eve in Rye
On 30th December my wife and I are leaving Belgium together with some friends. We will celebrate New Year's Eve in Rye, one of our favourite places in East Sussex. We are looking forward to having a brandy while sitting at the open fire in "The Mermaid Inn". Have you ever been there ? You should do it. Also Rye is lovely when it snows and cosy when it is cold.

Anton Pieck cottages in Broadstairs
This trip will remind us of our Christmas holidays in Broadstairs and Biddenden in the ninetees together with our closest Belgian friends. There are only fairy tale houses in the High Street of Broadstairs. We call them Anton Pieck cottages. Do you know the artist Anton Pieck ? Maybe you can find him on internet. One of these friends I used to go to England, Scotland and Ireland with was Dirk. On 6th January of this year he passed away unexpectedly. He was attacked by the flesh eating bacteria ! 40 hours after being attacked he was gone. The couldn't save him anymore. I still have Dirk's teasing messages in my computer and on my mobile hone. I can' delete them.

Robins and blue tits
Dirk, his girlfriend, my wife Vera and I and also an other couple stopped going to England in Christmas time about ten years ago because the landlady of our favourite B & B "Bettmans Oast" in Biddenden sold her house. That was very sad. We still remember her beautiful garden in the snow. Janet, the landlady, had put a birdbox in front of her oast house. It was visited by numerous blue tits and robins. I took some lovely close ups with my camera. In Britain people celebrate Christmas rather than New Year. Janet always prepared a fantastic and copious meal on New Year's Eve for us.

A brandy in "The Three Chimneys"
We remember that also at that time one of those years the snow was very thick. It was even not possible to make a trip by car one day. However, we went to "The Three Chimneys" on foot and threw snowballs at each other. We felt like children. This pub was only 1 mile from our B & B. It's not far from Sissinghurst Castle.

My favourite country is Scotland, but I was never there in winter time. Only in spring, summer and autumn. I can imagine it must also be lovely over there at this time of the year.

Sorry that I have been a bit emotional now. But who knows ... my reflections may encourage British friends to take their camera and shoot some lovely views of black-headed sheep on the hills or something else. If I were a Briton I would do.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and good health in 2010 which gives you enough energy to carry the tripod and camera and to make very entertaining films.

[Stephen]

hey Willy !! you must be reading my mind.....
today I have had the camera out in the snow filming an interlude film !!!!

couldn't find a Potter with his wheel or kittens, but did find a rather nice snow covered landscape with old houses (complete with smoke out of the chimney) and peeps going about their business in the 3 - 4 inches of snow we have here in Newcastle

just the ticket for Crimbus I say.....

would give my right arm to up in Arran or the Cairngorms right now though!

ah well......

now where's that single malt Lagavulin got to ....

[ned c]

We live on about the same latitude as S Spain but at 5,000 feet with a continental climate. Across the valley a range of mountains to 10,500 feet now deep in snow and we have some snow around the house. This is next year's water supply as our annual precipitation is about 10 inches and there is an aquifer under the mountainsto replenish.

The combination of red granite of the mountains, red sandstone of the canyons, the dark green of the pinion pines and junipers with snow makes for great interlude filming.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year for all

ned c

ps if you want PAL SD shots I still have a VX1000E