Think warm thoughts

Because it's now wintery and dark at early o'clock in the evening I'm starting to feel all gloomy. So a quick sally into the summers' photo collection is in order. Join me!









A hot afternoon in York












Dressed up in my finery for a wedding








A sunny evening by Campbeltown Loch












An attack of the owls








This is what happens when I get hold of the camera - we get artsy photographs looking at perspective and focus....

Still on hols

Heat replaced by rain - cooler; but soggier.
This going on holiday lark is full of tricks.....
There are 2 lovely donkeys in the field opposite us - I have fed them carrots.
I have a horrendous cold - heuuurrrk, coff, coff, sniff.....

Melting

This holiday is temporarily interrupted by the desert from heaven.

Peach and Apricot Charlotte with honey ice-cream

Yeah, you're thinking - it's a desert - sounds good.

No no my friends, is *stupendously* delicious.

The crust round the outside it crisp and not too sweet; the peaches and apricots are hot and mushily soft but a little tart in flavour; the ice-cream is sweet and smooth and cold; add those all together in one mouthful......perfection. Your taste buds can't keep up!

And this rather extravagant dinner was due to the fact that it has been obscenely hot in York - despite the weather report saying it was going to be showery today - so we found the first damn restaurant with air conditioning and didn't even think about the price. So, thank you daddy for the money you gave me for my holidays - it bought me two hours in the cool and the perfectist desert ever......

Happy Holidays

Happy Christmas y'all! - well, those of you who celebrate it.

Happy ordinary December 25th to the rest of you!

I've celebrated this morning with an unhappy digestive system - no turkey for me today, I think...... :( I just hope I can manage to stuff myself with stuffing - which, let's face it, is the only reason for having turkey to begin with! I love me some stuffing...... ::sigh::

Today, Xeloda, I give you the v's - and I'm not even wrapping them up. So there.

So, I haven't taken part in the cousin's visit this morning - which makes me feel even worse. Not because I was desperate to see them (does that sound unkind? Yes, it does a bit - but that's not what I mean) - what I mean, is that it means I have to play the 'cancer-girl' role. I wanted to go and look normal and be normal and not have everyone thinking 'oh, poor her, etc.'

Crapola.

Whoo -hoo. I'm suffering with ruddy Internet Explorer instead of Firefox today - so I do apologise if my spelling is a load of rubbish. I discover I've become dependent on the in-browser spell-check with Firefox and consequently don't notice my own typo's anymore.

Sweet Camden Lass asked for a picture of the Christmas Tree Caper villain (pseudonym: Maxwell), so here he is, trying to look all innocent:

And here he is looking pissed off because he was sleeping *under the covers* and I lifted them up to take a photo (mean, old me!)

Pissy, evil-eye; yes?

Finally, we have a White Christmas (and yes, I've just grokked-out watching it this morning. It is my favorite film ever, along with anything with Fred Astaire in. *I* want to be able to dance like that and wear fancy frocks like that. ::sigh:: Not Going To Happen.)

It had snowed before I arrived and this was the view from my bedroom window the morning after I arrived:

*Pretty*

Then, we were supposed to have a couple more inches last week, but what we got was more like eight inches more - this is the house over the street in the snow:

And, then this is our back garden (well, the wilderness - my grampy liked trees - me too. I miss him lots):

*So* beautiful. The more so because I get get scared that this is the last time I'll see this; have a Christmas here; have any Christmas.

But, it may not be either - maybe I'll see many more. I hope so.

Enough - today I'll just enjoy the day - or do my best, anyway.

(Dear Other arrived last night with miminum delays - so that makes me happy :))

Happy Christmas eveyone.

It's all Wicked!

Wow - the whole lack of NaBloPoMo meant that I could have my party yesterday and not have to blog about it on the same day whilst collapsing in a heap of tiredness......
It's great!!
It did go with a bang rather than a whimper, which is always gratifying. The mulled wine went down very nicely - no-one ate enough cake or mincepies: how can this be? I am at a loss to understand this issue.
We did have a few youngsters around which was lovely - at one point there were two little girls grovelling under my table - hunting a tiger, I was led to believe. I also got to listen to a very good rendition of 'Away in a manger' - with nearly all the right words. Apparently there is 'no crib for a star' in this version - and I was quite tickled at the idea of sleeping in a star..... :)

I finally tracked down mini candy-canes to go in my mini Christmas stockings; so I'm well pleased with that!

Tonight, I am going to the theatre too see 'Wicked'! Yay! I've been wanting to see this for ages - the only flaw in the plan are the 10 Guides who are going too......apparently there have been ructions and I'm just hoping we can all have a Nice Time this evening. I've got lots of back-up though (for which I'm super-nova-ly grateful!) - so hopefully all will Be Well.

Tomorrow - is homeopathic hospital day. I have High Hopes. I hope they won't be dashed.....

Blah, blah, looking a lot like Christmas etc.

Well, it's bakety, bakety bake here today....tomorrow is our Christmas Drink part-ay. Why, yes, that is quite early but I'm having fancy afternoon tea at Browns next Saturday. Which is jolly exciting if you spent lots of your early years reading Agatha Christie (like me) - Browns is where, and what she based 'At Bertrams Hotel' on. And the weekend after - I am,...doing nothing actually. But when we planned this I thought I might have gone to the States by then. So, this weekend it was. 35ish people will descend for an afternoon of mulled wine, Christmas cake, mince pies and other such festive things. Oh, and lots of crisps - one of us got a *little* carried away on the crisp-buying front. (and it wasn't me ;))
So, I have baked a cake today, marzipaned and am about to ice another, made cinnamon cut-out cookies, made orange/lemon sorbet (hoping it freezes by tonight - slightly wishful thinking I suspect).
I've also made the bed up in the spare room and am about to fish out the Christmas tree and decorations.
This entertaining lark is hard work!

Randomness

Yesterday I was commenting on NaBloPoMo blogs with photos that I liked on them. So I thought that today, since I have this new camera and all, I'd post a picture from my walk to the Coop this morning.

This is what Northampton looks like this morning......and this was the nice trees - others look bare and bleak.
Blah.

No wonder I'm depressed.!





Today is also Christmas Cake baking day. Well, it should have been ages ago but I have no impetus for doing things any more. Total lethargy. But, it has been done and is in the oven. The fruit soaked in a mixture of brandy, sherry and a bit of orange juice for 24 hours. I do know someone who soaks hers for 5 days without OJ ;) But this is for our Christmas drinks 'do' at the start of December so I didn't think it was so critical. Besides, some people will be driving ;)
So, what with knitting little mini stockings being knit, it's starting to feel "a lot like Christmas"....ish.