Day 14 – on Friday my Advent task was to make a tray of my now famous chocolate for the neighbour’s get together that evening. This year I found a tub of miniature meringues reduced to 30p in Waitrose and these were sprinkled on the half with tiny fudge and honeycomb pieces. The other half of the chocolate had fruit, nuts and ginger pieces. The whole slab is laced like a spider’s web with white chocolate and when it is set chopped or broken into square pieces. It is as my friends say ‘just far too moreish’.
I kept some of the chocolates to take a packet in to my old work place for my colleagues to share.
Day 15 – Saturday – after getting home at 2am in the morning (it was a good night!) I didn’t have a very early start and it took a while to come round and eventually I had another go at printing my lino cut Christmas card. 
This year I tried creating a more stylised robin and nothing has gone well with it. The black ink has taken ages to dry and I swear some of the cards were still sticky when I put them into the envelopes – even after being in the airing cupboard all weekend. 
All I can say is that it is ‘different’ and I certainly need more practice but I had fun doing them and I shall miss my ’round’ of robins now they are gone to new homes. Each one was so individual I could have given them names!
Apologies that the Advent days are running out of sync, I have been so busy I am finding it difficult to photograph and write a daily update.
Welcome to my new followers – I hope you are enjoying the advent period.
It is a community in mourning, feeling the loss of a friend and neighbour – many of the locals are calling for a road barrier to be put in place now so this loss of life does not happen again in the future when the sea is at high tide. The sea that I love so much has suddenly become quite a fearful place but even so now I am back in landlocked Yorkshire I miss going to sleep with the roar of the waves in the background.
Our nearest store is – a bit too far away for a our weekly shopping but we always call in on our way to or back from Scotland at the Penrith or Kendal branch. It is packed with photographs of deliciously tempting Christmas fayre to order or buy in store interspersed with a few recipes to make.
So I collected mine yesterday and spent my elevenses this morning pouring over all the Christmas food on offer and a quick look at the recipes in the back. I find it remarkable that Booths can produce such a lovely little book and give it away free – I was a truly happy bunny.
As you may remember from last year I decided to do something different to the usual wreath on our front door so I hung my chicken wire cone 
Pack the front and sides with moss (I had collected a small heap in the summer in readiness). Find an empty jam jar and push down into the cone as far as it will fit and so it is not visible.
Remove the jar again and push some chicken wire into the jar to hold the stems steady when filling with foliage. Fill the jar with cold water and start arranging pieces of foliage. Hold the cone steady in a small bucket then lower the jar into the cone making sure it is a snug fit.
At the moment I am using some dried red hydrangea heads and a dried white one, some ivy and a few holly stems. As we get closer to Christmas I will swap these for eucalyptus, holly and Hypericum like last years.
As you can see I am no florist but it is not too difficult to get a pleasing arrangement. You could add sprayed leaves, ribbon or pretty much anything. Just remember to keep topping up the jar of water.
…a pack of watercolour notelets (right) painted by a local artist to support the Aldouran Wetland Garden and these two pretty little felted Christmas tree cards for each of my daughters – made by a local crafter.
The frilly cake band takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of Christmases past – they would appear each Christmas round our Christmas cake – at 99p I just had to have one. The packet contains an iced ginger cake – we always buy one when we are at the cottage but usually we get the un-iced version – these too are only £1 from Tesco or Morrisons but I have never seen them south of the border. I thought the iced one would be a nice treat for Christmas. 
And on the way home a few small inexpensive things for Christmas from Tebay services of all places – each of these little tissue parcels were a £1 – you will have to wait a while until I unwrap them to find out what is in them.
It was opening this Advent calendar that reminded me most of the anticipation I felt as a child and the delight of revealing a glowing candle or a decorated Christmas tree picture on peeling back the little doors – I thought they were the most wonderful and magical part of Christmas and I could hardly wait each day to see what the Christmas picture was going to be.
Then placed them all on my photo stand.
Of course the activities couldn’t be a complete random surprise as I have had to work around days when we are in Scotland and my mum visits and other commitments – I also had to make sure I had all the bits ready to make the crafts – so a little planning had to be done. 
And so DH doesn’t feel left out I have individually wrapped some Amoretti biscuits as a little daily treat in some greaseproof paper decorated with a gold pen.
where the journey takes me 2 