The Christmas Blog 2024

Merry musings, memory lane and much, much, more.

I have to say I have not fully embraced the festive feeling quite yet. In fact, I am feeling rather sorry for myself, due to an as yet unknown viral threat to humanity for which I appear to be patient zero (well right from the start and a nod to World War Z or Z Nation which is a slightly weird in places, but brilliant series if you like that kind of thing or even the amazing 28 days/weeks and apparently soon to be years. Oh, and I can’t not mention the Walking Dead).
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So maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but I am very sick, no it’s not man flu, even after antibiotics. However, it was a great excuse to highlight some amazing shows and continue with my slightly quirky musings, maybe a glimpse of what is to come, who knows? Who can tell? Who did it? Oops, got a bit carried away again didn’t I. I could have listed so many more shows you know but apparently, so my wife tells me, not everybody appreciates everything that I do????? 

(BAH HUMBUG I say, yes BAH HUMBUG)

Go figure, I’m not sure I believe her.

Anyway, more about the blog and less about my ailments. In the Pitcher household the tree and decorations are up and it is starting to feel Christmassy. Although I could swear, we only took them down from Christmas 2023 a month ago. I say it all the time now but it is true, it all just goes by so fast now. Even so, when I look back, we still managed to shoehorn an awful lot into this year once again.

At this point I would like to say that after last year’s Christmas blog, by popular request the Christmas jokes are back. Well, no one actually requested them but I am sure you were all thinking about it. 

What do donkeys send out near Christmas?
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Mule-tide greetings

If you read the last blog, you will remember that I said we had done something different this year, something we had never done before. Well, this is the time to find out what it was that we had never done before.

Drum roll please.🥁
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We went out with the specific reason to shoot deer. No, no calm down not shoot deer, but shoot deer, with our cameras. This is exactly what we did, we went to Richmond Park, we had never been here before either, so we had “no I deer” (get it), what to expect. It is a huge park, but luckily for us we did manage to find some deer and we had a fantastic, but exhausting, day out. Here is a small selection of some of the images we captured.

Artistic Version

How much did Santa pay for his sleigh?

Nothing – it was on the house.

If you like these images you can check out our latest reel on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok which show the ones we have put on our wall for the Christmas period.

If you have never been to Richmond Park, we would highly recommend it. Please follow the advice when visiting though, keep your distance from the deer (as we did but we saw many who didn’t) and keep pets on a lead, again many didn’t and not too long after our visit sadly the park hit the news when an unleashed dog killed a deer, so very sad and unnecessary.

Prior to this, earlier in the year we took a visit to Canvey Island, I had not been there for years and my wife had never been. Our first stop was to the Transport Museum where they were celebrating their 90th year anniversary. It was lovely to walk around and see all the old transport (much of which I actually remember from my youth), there were also stalls selling items, a lovely cake and a hot drink stall too. Many people had dressed up for the occasion and there were bands, people dancing and a choir. All in all, it was a lovely way to spend a day.

How did the bauble know that she was addicted to Christmas?

She’d been hooked on Christmas trees all her life.

We even got to take a free, yes free, ride on a very old Routemaster bus down to the seafront and back to the museum. This was a first for my wife and reminded me of the old 69 bus that went to North Woolwich Ferry if my memory serves me.
​The noise of the bus and the “ding ding” of the bell were great.
After this we finished off the day with a fish and chip supper at Bruno’s, which was lovely and very reasonable, we then decided to walk the chips off along the seafront before leaving for home.

Another day out found us hunting for toadstools, we captured lots but here are just a few as we haven’t got mushroom (get it much room). 

Please it isn’t easy you know trying to come up with little puns and being a fungi (fun guy).

We also captured a little bit of autumn.

What do you get if you eat Christmas decorations?

Tinsilitis.

Visited a local County Fair, which had the added bonus of the bus used in Dads Army going straight to Walmington-On-Sea. So many things to see and do, quintessentially associated with a traditional County Fair.

A trip to the Great Dunmow Carnival was also on the cards, like the County Fair it also had a more rural feel and a lovely atmosphere.

Why was the snowman embarrassed when he was spotted rummaging through a bag of carrots?

He was caught picking his nose.

This year we also continued our quest to visit the big seven Cemeteries of London with a trip to Brompton Cemetery. 

Now far from being morbid places they are peaceful havens for both humans and wildlife. They are great places to unwind for a while where you can read a book, just take a seat or watch the abundant wildlife as it goes about its daily business.

Interesting fact:

More than 205,000 people from 40 different nationalities lie buried in Brompton Cemetery. 
In 1800, the population of London stood at around 1 million. But in just 50 years, it more than doubled – and soon the city was bursting with the dead, as well as the living. At this time, most people were buried in churchyards, but these were rapidly reaching capacity and this gruesome overcrowding began to threaten public health.
The solution was the creation of the ‘Magnificent Seven’: beautifully landscaped garden cemeteries that formed a ring around London. Grade I listed Brompton Cemetery is one of the oldest and best loved of these Victorian garden cemeteries.
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So, as you can see these Cemeteries were always intended to be a place to visit and enjoy as well as visit departed loved ones.

I got a Christmas card full of rice in the post today.

I think it was from my Uncle Ben.

Walthamstow Marshes gave some images of the city and a busy pub.

Fishers Green got us all in a flap.

Oh, and did I mention that we entered the Harlow Chair (Harlow Council) Photographic competition this year 2024. (For some reason we just completely missed last years comp if there was one, I am not quite sure). Over 500 entries were received and this year both myself and my wife entered images. We can now announce that we were finalists in the competition. We were invited to a private showing on the 12th December 2024 with the other finalists at the Gibberd Gallery, The Water Gardens. It was a very pleasant evening and it was very nice to chat with some of the other finalists there. We were very pleased and honoured to have both been chosen to display one of our images each, amongst the other very talented photographers.

Why are mummies such big fans of Christmas?

Because they enjoy wrapping.

There were so many other things that we did like the Cressing Temple at War, full of Military & Vintage Re-enactments.

Mock up

Many more local walks and lots of other days out and visits that we haven’t even mentioned. Like our holiday or visit to Edinburgh.

Artistic Version

No that isn’t us and yes this is the Red Arrows 

Maybe these will be new blogs for 2025, what do you think? Please let us know if this is the kind of thing you would like to read and see more images of. Obviously, we will still be out and about throughout 2025 too, so the problem as always will be trying to keep up. But the fun is seeing all of these things and creating memories, I consider myself to be very lucky to be able to do this and have an understanding wife who is happy to join in too.

What is Santa’s favourite kind of pizza?

One that’s deep-pan, crisp and even.

If you take your own images by phone/camera don’t forget to get a few printed and put them on your wall. To be able to glance at a physical thing remember that moment in time and how you felt is truly worth the effort so give it a try. Even hang them from a string of Christmas lights (make sure it is safe to do so first though).

So, at the start of this I wasn’t sure where the blog was going and now we are near the end I still have no clue how we got here. We have meandered our way through the year in no particular order and with no agender other than to show you some of our images. We hope that you enjoyed this journey with us and will return in the new year for some more.

The Christmas jumper my kids gave me last year kept picking up static electricity.
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I took it back and exchanged it for another one – free of charge.

All that is left is to end the Christmas 2024 blog as we do all our Christmas blogs.
Here is looking to a very bright and prosperous future for everybody.
​Happy Holidays to all. Be careful, be safe, enjoy what you have, eat, drink
be merry and stay warm.
 
We hope that 2025 brings you many adventures both big and small.
 
In our best Dickensian voices, we say (imagine in your head the voice of Brian Blessed, you know, he said Gordon’s Alive in Flash. I did it last year and I've done it again).

May we wish you a Merry Christmas and to one and all a Happy New Year.

I have to go now the Doctor has arrived to make sure I am ok for the Christmas break and apparently, he wants me to go with him as there is something out of this world to photograph (his words not mine). Funny he looks just like David Tennant. 

If you made it to the end thank you. Please like, comment and share here and on our Facebook page.