14th December - Hut 11

Tonight we travelled the furthest East we could go on our Beach Hut Advent pilgrimage to find that we'd arrived in Nazareth, Jesus' home town and the place Mary and Joseph set off from to get to Bethlehem.

Amanda Ogilvie and Diane Cowan created a tiny little town in the corner of the hut which glowed with the good news that it was part of the Christmas story.

Made from a mixture of modelling clay and plastic pots, some of the little white houses even had gardens and a tiny well as a water feature to add to the scene.






On the back wall of the hut was a hand drawn map of Palestine showing the relationships between Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem which made you realise what a journey Mary and Joseph would have had, quite an undertaking for a young, pregnant woman.




The next hut is also close to Hove Lawns and is one of the most Easterly of the month as it is number 79a.

13th December - Hut 424

Kirsty Tyler is one of the Beyond team and always creates beautifully crafted huts and tonight was no exception.

The letter was M and it stood for The Messenger - the angel Gabriel who announced the news to Mary that she was to be the mother of God's son and who led the angel host announcing the birth to the shepherds and singing God's praises in celebration above the hills of Bethlehem.









The angel wings were crafted from rolled sheets of music symbolising the songs the choir of angels sang on that first Christmas night.






The song was accompanied by a great fanfare and Kirsty had created a giant cardboard trumpet which beamed the good news of the light of the world out of the hut.

So far we've been really lucky with the weather and it's mostly been calm and dry but on Friday the 13th our luck ran out and it seems the weather has now turned against us as we had rain and wind and the forecast for the next few days doesn't look too great.

The next hut is the furthest East that we go in our beach hut pilgrimage as it's number 11 beside Hove Lawns and the letter if N - could it stand for Nativity?  Let's wait and see.

Kirsty Tyler is one of the Beyond team and always creates beautifully crafted huts and tonight was no exception.  The letter was M and it stood for The Messenger - the angel Gabriel who announced the news to Mary that she was to be the mother of God's son and who led the angle host announcing the birth to the shepherds and singing God's praises in celebration above the hills of Bethlehem.

12th December - Hut 332

Local writer of The Sandies, Cathy Watts is one of our regular contributors and the theme of her hut tonight was L for Light so there were plenty of twinkly lights in her hut to draw our attention.

But we were also treated to the delights of The Dawn Chorus singing group, who meet at St. Luke's Prestonville and in which Cathy also sings.  They sang a range of songs about wassailing, rejoicing in Latin (Gaudeamus Hodie) and that we would all have peace from God.

At one point they all huddled together a little way away from the hut to rehearse and warm their vocal chords up although it looked a little like they were having a prayer meeting on the beach.

The light outside the hut was as beautiful as that inside as there was a slight mist in the air which gave everything a kind of halo.







The group will be performing next at the official opening of the redesigned Seven Dials roundabout which is on Wednesday 18th December at 7pm.

They will also be taking part in the carol service at St. Luke's Prestonville on Sunday 22nd December at 6.30pm.






You can read more about the group and their charismatic leader, Julie Nye here.

Our next hut is number 424 up by Hove Lagoon with a cardboard messenger courtesy of Kirsty Tyler.

11th December - Hut 44

The hut tonight was 'Knit for a King' with a collection of knitted items both real and symbolic decorating a party hut for the king of kings.

Simon Vincent was the artist who put this together using the hut belonging to Mandy and John Taylor.  

Skeins of wool festooned the roof of the hut while cutouts of sweaters with various designs and messages hung from them.

Each of these items of clothing referred to Jesus as the king of kings in some way.

There was even a little knitted version of Mary with the baby Jesus.

The next hut is between The View and Hove Lagoon and is number 332 and will feature local singing group The Dawn Chorus.

10th December - Hut 374

Tonight was a slightly different, but very special hut, from our usual ones.  The letter was J and for us that stood for Jan.  Janette Tozer was one of the first people to sign up to be an artist in the Beach Hut Advent Calendar, I still remember the first time we ever met in the front room of our house in Hove as we laid out the idea to a motley group of interested folk and Janette got the concept straight away.

Since that meeting in the middle of 2008, Janette has done a hut every year, even last year when it was howling a gale and she was not feeling very well.  A few weeks after she spent the that evening sat in the car sheltering from the rain she was diagnosed with cancer and she succumbed to this quite quickly and died in July of this year.

Her husband Robin, together with his brother, wanted to do a hut this year as a tribute to her and they created something very different to the kind of hut that Janette would have done herself.  This was a homage to her and the centrepiece was a lifesize image of Jan from her teenage years, posing on a heavenly backdrop in the way that Robin imagines her looking down on us in spirit.

Jan said that she discovered God through her art and many of her images were religious in nature, she especially loved painting images of Mary and we show some of her images here.

Our thoughts are with Robin as he learns to live his life without Jan and we remember Jan and her exploration of the divine through her art.

The next hut is number 44 featuring local artist Simon Vincent.

9th December - Hut 177

The Inn tonight was beautifully set up but was too full for anyone to be able to get in.
Fortunately there was plenty of room outside for us all to sit around on the straw bales with the added advantage of a real fire to help keep us warm.







The signs on the door said 'No Room At The Inn' and if you went up to the doors and listened you could hear a great crowd of people laughing and joking inside.

It gave us a little glimpse into what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph that first Christmas as they travelled around Bethlehem trying to find somewhere to stay.

We were treated tonight to home made mince pies courtesy of Gemma, one of the mums who has been coming along each night with her children who wanted to show her appreciation of all that we do with the calendar by using her talents to produce these tasty gifts.

The next hut is number 374 and is memory of Janette one of the first ever artists to get involved with the Beach Hut Calendar who died this year.

8th December - Hut 225

Tonight we were in Heaven, in all sorts of ways.  A Heavenly Hut, heavenly company, heavenly weather, it couldn't have been a more perfect night.

The White family turned their hut into a vision of heaven with myriads of angels made from toilet rolls and doilies, each one created by a family or made in memory of a loved one.  This was a special time to remember Felix White, much loved son of Matt and Colleen and brother of Grace and Elliott, now playing with the angels.

Each angel had its own personality and some had heartfelt dedications written on labels attached to them.


The whole scene was set on a gauzy backdrop lit by an enormous star of tinsel and Christmas lights.


The weather continued to be kind to us and so many people turned up that we ran out of refreshments about halfway through the hour, even though we had prepared a double amount.

Our next hut will feature the Inn and the Innkeeper as the letter for the day is I.  The number to come to is 177.

7th December - Hut 362

G IS FOR GLORY

Tonight was full of glory as we beheld a hut full of beautiful cardboard sheep and shepherds created by the art club at Aldrington school under the supervision of Kirsty Tyler.

They were all giving glory to God following the lead of a little angel hanging from the sky.

Kirsty is part of the Beyond team and has specialised in cardboard artwork before having produced a marvellous moving nativity scene on the theme of I saw three ships come sailing in to Brighton.  She is doing a hut of her own creation on Friday 13th December.

All these animals were made from scratch using old cardboard boxes.






There was even a black sheep brazenly sitting out in front of the others.

Loads of people came down and we were also treated to the children singing some Christmas songs as part of the entertainment.






Earlier in the day we had a slight panic when we realised that we had got the hut number slightly wrong as we thought we were going to 364 but actually we were in 362.  Fortunately they were close enough together for no-one to notice the difference (we hope!).

The next hut is down near The View - number 225 and will feature Hordes of Herald angels, including some made in memory of those who are no longer with us.

6th December - Beach Hut 399

The creativity tonight was brought to us by Synergy Creatives headed up by artist and poet Tamsin Williams.  Synergy Creative is a group which is led and run by people with an interest in and experience of mental health care, in particular facilitating creative exchange website  

Their overall themes for the night were Friday, Father and Family and lots of families came down with lots of children who were all running around enjoying the calm night air on the beach, quite a contrast to last night.

 

The centrepiece of the hut was a nativity set created by the father of one of the participants which came with it's own piece of poetry about the family and its relationship to catholicism.

To create some spoken word pieces to be performed tonight they used a Dadaist creative process.  They  created a pile of words beginning with F and a pile of words about spirituality and the participants had to take a word from each pile and create a poem or spoken word piece using those words.  So for example we had pieces about the Fridge & Mary or Flying Bibles.

The next hut features the artwork of children from Aldrington school and is number 364.

5th December - Beach Hut 425

Tonight we were treated to an artistic extravaganza by London artist/photographer/makeup artist Mel Winning.

The E had hints of Egypt in some of the imagery created by Mel but principally stood for Advent Examination.  The imagery in the hut included fantastical figures who represented the people of the world looking for ways to meditate on Advent.

Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. 

Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. 

By reflection and prayer, 

by reading and meditation, 

we can make our hearts a place where 

a blessing of peace would desire to abide 

and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place.

Daily we can make an Advent examination. 

Are there any feelings of discrimination toward race, sex, or religion? 

Is there a lingering resentment, 

an unforgiven injury living in our hearts? 

Do we look down upon others of lesser social standing 

or educational achievement? 

Are we generous with the gifts that have been given to us, 

seeing ourselves as their stewards and not their owners? 

Are we reverent of others, their ideas and needs, and of creation? 

These and other questions become Advent lights 

by which we may search the deep, dark corners of our hearts.

Whilst the rest of the country was lashed with 100 mile an hour winds and threatened by the possibility of some of the worst floods for 60 years, we got off lightly with a sharp rain shower at 5.30 and a stiff breeze throughout the evening.

It was extraordinary to experience this lovely rich, warm retro environment in a hut on Hove seafront and was a great example of the wonderful variety we see from hut to hut during this event.

You can see more of Mel's work here http://www.melwinning.co.uk

The next hut is number 399, also close to Hove Lagoon and will feature local arts and mental health group, Synergy.