It is that time of year in our village when all the different groups and churches begin to hold their annual Christmas coffee mornings to raise funds for various charities. I always support the one at my local church that raises money for the charity Crisis – they provide shelter and a warm meal for the homeless on Christmas day. A long time ago I was one of the people who organised the coffee morning – so it is quite dear to my heart.
I try and provide a few saleable items each year for the craft and gift stalls. This year it has been a bit of a scramble because I have not been well with the Covid and my energy levels were less than zero. I cheated a bit this year and found these lovely inexpensive treat bags in The Works (6 for £3) and filled them with sweets from a tub of Cadbury’s Heroes. I would normally make my own bags from wrapping paper but these are so cute.
I still have some of the ‘free’ plant pots left that came from the lady in the village where our cottage is in Scotland and this year I filled four of them with miniature narcissi bulbs. To make them look more attractive I hand stamped a little label and wrapped the whole thing in cellophane using those very handy roasting bags that you can buy in any supermarket.
The shoots are just starting to poke through now so they should bloom in a few weeks time.
I am happy to report that the coffee morning was busy and the items I made had nearly all sold in the first half hour. I spent a happy couple of hours browsing the gift stalls and chatting with old friends over a cup of tea and a lovely homemade ginger biscuit. I was also given an invite to a party next Saturday evening and luckily that is a free evening for us.
Yesterday we had my grandson Freddie to play whilst mum and dad went to an appointment. It was lovely to see him and of course he can chatter away so much more now. When mum and dad returned I made a meal for us all – it was a bit makeshift as it wasn’t planned but broccoli bake always makes a quick and easy supper dish.
I am trying to keep Christmas low key this year but things are already starting to feel a bit hectic. My fruit for the cake is marinating with the brandy in a bowl and tonight, if everyone can make it, we will be connecting on Zoom to do our family Secret Santa draw and arranging a pre-christmas get together party for the big present swap. We have very few dates in December when we have nothing on – I am not sure how that has happened but I shall have to get myself organised to cope.
Goodness don’t the years roll by. Another birthday has landed today, another year older… though probably not any wiser.
I was up and about at 6am to enjoy the cool air in our back garden. Breakfast outdoors is quite a novelty for us as normally it might be too cold, cloudy, wet or windy – today it was just right but even as I type the temperature is increasing and very soon we will be scuttling back indoors to cool off; our living room being the coolest part of the house once the sun moves round.
Some friends are coming round early to beat the heat. I have decided against making the fruit scones I had planned – it is far to risky to put the oven on – the kitchen will be like an oven soon enough. What a shame we cannot bottle this heat for the winter months to save on our bills!
I had a complete overhaul at the osteopath’s yesterday – my back problems are not doing too badly but in the course of conserving my back I have managed to do something to both my shoulder and knee whilst bending and over reaching. Added to which my neck is so tight and this has affected my jaw and I have woken up a few mornings with it a bit displaced. My lovely therapist worked on everything yesterday to try and bring some relief to the discomfort but I find any movement at the moment quite difficult. Walking, which was good for my back is now aggravating my knee, the cat / cradle exercises I did daily for my back are not possible because of my shoulder. I feel I am falling apart and learning to moderate my activity and movement to prevent further problems is a struggle.
DH, meanwhile, stripped the beds yesterday then washed and ironed the sheets and duvet covers. My contribution to the housework is limited to the dusting and writing a shopping list.
Our improvements in the home and garden and to life in general continue. If you remember Improvement is my focus word this year – some improvements are bigger than others but all of them have added quality to our life in some way. Painting the greenhouse has been on the list a while but often when we have the time the weather is against us. This week DH managed to apply 3 coats to the front and one side but has had to lay his brushes down at the moment due to this intense heat. It now matches the shed and I love the transfromation. It should also preserve the wood at the same time.
The back garden has a few pretty corners amongst the mess. I planted bush tomatoes, cougettes and potatoes this year as well as a few varieties of salad leaves and radishes.
Thank you once again for all your lovely comments – both those of well wishes for my ailments and for the hand made cards. And yes Sue we learn just how much we need our backs to be good and strong and in working order – I am slowly learning how to use mine better. It is not easy after giving it a lifetime of abuse…too much gardening, bending and sitting at computers.
My computer time is limited now so I am using the time to post rather than comment or answer comments at the moment. Normal service might well resume one day!
Hello everyone. How are you all – I have missed you, it has been a long time and life here has been no less frantic than when I abruptly abandoned my blog? Of course every day I have intended to write a post….but we all know what we intend to do and then what we actually do can be quite different.
For those regular readers you will remember I had to make a hasty departure up to Scotland during the Christmas advent to survey the storm damage to the cottage. The wind had taken the felt, on the flat roof kitchen extension, clean off and we had to find someone to come and re-roof just before Christmas and you can imagine the long list of people in the area waiting for a roofer to do repairs for them – so many properties affected. If this aggressive weather is not due to climate change then I don’t know why it is getting progressively wilder.
Roof sorted, we returned home just in time to sort out Christmas.
And with a long list of to do’s I set about completing the Christmas plans. It seems an age ago now.
I had cards to finish making, writing and posting, presents to wrap and some for my friends still to make – this year I chose to make Florentines and found some pretty wooden bowls by Habitat to put them in. I had to make them the day before Christmas Eve so they were nice and fresh.
We had very simple decorations this year no more than the mantelpiece and a bowl of dried orange slices and we never did buy a tree; by the time we came back from Scotland there were only a few days before we were setting out to go up to my daughter’s house for Christmas and buying and decorating a tree for two days of pleasure seemed a little ridiculous.
Our wider family all got together for the first time in goodness knows how long for Christmas Day at my sister’s house (she has now got the most room) and we tried hard to keep it a secret from my mum just in case someone caught the virus beforehand and we couldn’t go. It was hard to surprise my mum as each day when I rang her she would say ‘don’t you know what you are doing for Christmas yet?’ and I would always reply ‘ no as we are not sure if we will be locked down’.
The grandchildren all had the most wonderful time and my mum was so happy to see us all.
I iced the Christmas cake so the three grandchildren could have fun decorating it all by themselves with some little figures and sprinkles. And they made a good job too it was quite delightful though I think most of the sprinkles were eaten before they got anywhere near the cake.
We all managed to dodge the Covid virus but DH and I did come down with a cold / flu virus the day after Boxing Day, as did my brother and little Sweetie. Why just the four of us out of a gathering of thirteen people we will never know.Â
So that was our Christmas and thank you all for your lovely greetings and messages.
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Meanwhile January has been spent catching up with myself and planning. It is always a job I look forward to as the New Year begins and listing everything down tells me we have more plans than time. Nothing changes!
My focus word for this year is Improvement.
I intend to improve one area of my life each month – everything from health to wealth, two of the areas which need a good overhaul. Some areas do overlap and once I make an improvement I will obviously have to review and keep it going in the coming months….that is probably the harder part.
January is always a busy time here with birthdays. One of my oldest friends reached the grand age of 80, though she doesn’t look it, so I had cards to make. I was a bit stuck for ideas but settled on this one using up scraps of fabric.
My mum reached the even grander age of 96 and we had a trip up to see her and take her a chocolate sponge cake with fresh cream inside and chocolate on top, her favourite.
Little Freddie celebrated his 3rd birthday and I organised a little tea party for him at home with a jungle theme. It was mainly immediate family – my two daughter’s and their partners and his two cousins, Little L and Sweetie who came and they helped him unwrap the presents, play party games and eat the party food. Sweetie, who is almost the same age as Freddie could hardly wait to play with all his new toys and as soon as they were unwrapped and admired and he had moved on to the next one she would edge nearer and nearer to try them out for herself, hoping no-one would notice!!
We had so much fun making these party hats from Tesco – I can certainly recommend them. They were easy to decorate even for the little ones – each person chooses some eyes, ears and a mouth from a selection to stick on and create your own little character.
I made a jungle cake which again was super easy with some little jungle animals and dessicated coconut dyed green with food colouring. The log effect around the outside of the cake was created with some chocolate coated wafer biscuits sliced in half and stuck on with melted chocolate – it saved me mixing up some buttercream for the sides.
I found some jungle animal and foliage pictures on the internet to print out and stick onto card for decorations and to stick on the front of each party bag with their names (which I have obscured). The party bags contained a few chocolate coins, and other jungly bits and bobs and these cute little hand puppets peeping over the top I discovered in Poundland (£2 each and made from recycled bottles) and they were a big hit.
Currently we are back in Scotland enjoying a break for a few days. There are improvements to be made here at the cottage, weather permitting and if the weather is bad then it is the perfect place to sit and do some more planning. But I will tell you more about that another day.
It’s been a while I know, and one of the reasons I am writing this post is because we are in our safe haven, our little sanctuary in Scotland…far from the pressures of normal daily life at home.
It has been, as usual, a busy few weeks coming and going to see mum and helping out our daughter with childcare in North Yorkshire and our elder daughter at home. On the last visit to mum and younger daughter we stayed at my sister’s glam home near my mum’s; it is spacious and beautifully decorated and situated in a lovely little village, I could easily live there myself – apart from the fact that we wouldn’t have the money to even buy a one bedroomed cottage there. The house price difference between West and North Yorkshire is huge. Still one can dream.
We celebrated little Sweetie’s third birthday – a small family party at her home – she has spent a third of her tiny life so far in lockdown, at home with mum, the local toddler groups being closed, so has few friends. Her cousin little Freddie and his mum and dad joined us for the day and after playing games and opening presents we all went to the local fish and chip restaurant in Thirsk and had the extended side room to ourselves which was nice. Being vegetarians we had chips, beans and battered mushrooms – veggie burgers are on the menu but we are not keen of them.
I made the cake – it was the usual disaster. Sprinkles had been requested so it should have been simple enough but the buttercream had far too much air in it so didn’t go on quite as smoothly as I would have liked and the white chocolate dribbles didn’t dribble quite where intended. Of course I did it in a rush too, but little Sweetie loved it.
As I predicted the dress did not get finished in time so it will be a Christmas present. Since this picture I have finished the knitting and tacked the skirt to the bodice and all is looking good. The sleeves which if you remember I had to try and alter myself did work out perfectly in the end by only decreasing on the knit rows and not every row as the pattern said.
Mum has been taken to Leeds for the weekend by my sister and her husband (he is able to lift her in and out of the car as she doesn’t have the muscle strength herself to get out). They are staying at a new hotel just outside Leeds ( she will have one of the disabled rooms to help her get about easily) and from there they will go to John Lewis in the centre so she can see all the Christmassy things. She cannot come down to stay with us any longer because of the stairs so there is a big hole now for her at this time of year that needs to be filled, as we would take her Christmas shopping and have a trip into Derbyshire to Tissington and Ashbourne.
So whilst mum was being attended to we made our escape to Scotland. We were met with the bad weather – blowin’ a raging ‘hoolie’ all night; our caravan rocking in the frequent strong gusts but luckily no trees down like the gales of 2010 that took ten large pine trees down in our cottage garden.
It is cosy warm in our temporary caravan as we are lucky enough to have double glazing and central heating but yesterday it was a scramble to get Calor Gas – there is a shortage and our usual stockist in Stranraer sold us one that had the wrong connection so we had to drive the 17 miles back to town to return it. She was apologetic as they didn’t have the one we needed and we had to take back the empty bottle so that we could try elsewhere, as at the moment you can only buy a new Calor gas bottle by returning an empty one.
We were lucky and found the local shop in a village on the way to town had one left. It was cheaper by a £1 and much more convenient so we will continue to buy the gas there in future. So at least some good came out of a tricky situation.
We only have a few days here and I have a little pile of ‘bits’ to look at, financial papers, a bit of knitting, making Christmas plans and catching up with some reading. I finished The Winter Children – not really my kind of read but I persevered not wanting to abandon it. I have just read Christmas at Thrush Green by Miss Read again – always a favourite at this time of year – there is something so calming about her books where the lives of the villagers seemingly have order and sequence to them like the natural world and busyness is not a word that takes over.
I did the live family Not so Secret Santa draw from the caravan – so we all know who is buying for who now. I am buying for my eldest daughter, whist DH is buying for my mum, my BIL is buying a gift for me and my brother is buying a gift for DH and so it goes on all around the family each person only buying one gift for another.
We switched to the Secret Santa a few years ago now as the mammoth buying sessions had got out of hand as our family expanded. No-one knew what to buy for each other and we ended up with a house full of gifts we didn’t really want and opening all those presents from one another meant there was little time to play games and have fun.
Our version is not so secret…hence the title. Each person can provide a list of up to ten wishes of things they would like as a gift to the person who is to buy for them (which is different each year – hence the draw). You can be as specific as you like or opt for a surprise gift or a gift token, (tokens are very popular with my brother and mum). The gift or combination of gifts must only amount to £25 per person – it used to be £50, but has been reduced to £25 now (reflecting the fact more of us are on pensions or lower incomes).
Because you list ten items the actual gift or gifts you get is still a surprise as you don’t know which one the buyer might choose to get. If they are lucky and get your gift(s) discounted then to keep it fair they still have to use the whole £25, the difference cannot be pocketed by the buyer. Everyone buys for the children as normal; they are not included in the Secret Santa. It has been a great success and we would not go back. It has cut down on all the tramping around shops looking for ideas and the expense of parking that goes with it. And it leaves more time to enjoy the Christmas events that are put on everywhere. This year we are going to the light show at Temple Newsam.
I still buy little things for my friends or make them as they very much like the homemade craft items.
In normal times and because not all of us could be together on Christmas Day we would have a big family gathering just before Christmas to swap our Secret Santa presents (but not open them). You try disguising the fact you have bought an ironing board or wheelbarrow in wrapping paper! We would often use the pub/restaurant where my daughter worked to meet and have sandwiches and home-made chips laid on with mince pies for afters and wear our best santa hats and jumpers of course.
We would play games (this is some of us below playing the guess who I am game)…
and have our musical interlude (whistle blowing and handbell ringing) …..and generally have a fun time.Â
Because of Covid we had to have a Zoom party last year and pass presents on as best we could. This year most of us are going to my sisters for Christmas Day, Covid allowing, so we won’t be meeting beforehand.
I am just starting now on crafting our Christmas – a simpler Christmas like last year, maybe even more so. I will try and keep you all updated as, throughout the run up to Christmas, I make cards and goodies, decorate the house and attend events.
Hope all is well with everyone – time allowing I keep dibbing in and out of the blogs I read to keep up with your news and occasionally I might even get to leave a comment.
where the journey takes me 2 