Now we are ..............

Happy New Year and I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. For the first time in a few years we actually had Christmas at home. L had managed to sort out bunny sitters, so hopped (!) on a train and arrived here at 3:45 on Christmas Eve. E drove from Bristol and arrived later that evening, so we all celebrated en famille, which was lovely.

Presents this year were done by Secret Santa. L arranged the draw and, with a maximum limit of £20 and only one present to buy, Christmas was quite a frugal affair. I did cheat a little and did the girls a stocking as well - having my babies home for Christmas again, I couldn't resist! L's partner, V, had been given my name and I received a beautiful handmade project bag, embroidered with my name and a daffodil. L had also sneaked me an extra present - a skein of West Yorkshire Spinners' Christmas yarn in the colour 'Nutcracker', bought in Scotland over the summer and saved for the festivities. The skein fit the project bag beautifully and is sitting waiting patiently for me to cast on a pair of socks.

As well as Christmas, we have also celebrated 3 birthdays. R's came first in mid-December. As it conveniently fell on a Saturday this year, we went away for the weekend to Stratford-upon-Avon. I had booked one night's stay at the Swan's Nest Hotel in the centre. It was very conveniently located, overlooking the theatre and a few minutes walk across the bridge and into the centre. Our room was fine, and if the hotel itself seemed a little, shall we say, weary, they did a fine vegan, gluten-free breakfast, so it was a win in our book.

Arriving at lunch time, we parked and checked in, before wandering into the centre in search of food. What I hadn't realised at the time of booking was that it was the weekend of the Christmas market. The streets were quite busy, but the stalls lent a festive atmosphere and added to the occasion. Lunch was a 'Ghost of Christmas' panini and a rose latte (R had an Americano and a vegan burrito) here:

Then we nosied round the market stalls and took a walk along the river to pay our respects to Shakespeare at his grave in the Holy Trinity Church. Here, we had a wonderful surprise. I think I have mentioned before that R doesn't think that the Christmas period has started until he hears Handel's 'Messiah'. By happy chance, there was a concert of that very piece being held at the church that evening. Whilst we had other plans, we were lucky enough to be able to sit and listen to the highlights in the last rehearsal before the concert. It was perfect!

Dinner was an Indian meal at 'Thespians', before the main event - a performance of 'Twelfth Night' at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with Sam West playing Malvolio. 5 minutes into the performance a manager took to the stage. She announced that they were having a few technical problems and begged for our patience whilst they sorted it out. Having been to 'The Taming of the Shrew' at The Globe recently, where one of the actors appeared to spill a drink on a member of the audience at the start (it was actually another actor and part of the play!), I was initially sceptical about this 'technical issue'. More fool me, for they were indeed having problems, with the wall of the set refusing to rise enough. 10 minutes later, all was fixed and we were off. I loved it. Sam West stole the show in his natty, cross-gartered yellow stockings and the rest of the cast were superb as well.

After breakfast the following morning, we took a walk along the river. Just as we passed the church, the bells started to ring for the Sunday service. It was a heavenly moment. We sat on a bench, listening to the church bells (love me a church bell!) and watching the swans and the rowers go by.

After our walk, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to Charlecote Park - a National Trust 16th century house and deer park, about 4 miles east of Stratford. The young males were practising for the rutting season.

They even had a kitchen! :O)

Back to Christmas Day, and we went for a post-breakfast walk to nearby Bagnor. We paused for a photo and a Christmas chocolate to restore our energy at the top of the hill. I'm not entirely sure what E is doing with her feet!

Boxing Day saw us taking another walk, this time around Peasemore and Leckhamstead. 

The 27th was spent in town, finally sorting out a few change of address issues with E's old Building Society account. They don't make it easy!

Next it was my birthday. One of those scary ones ending in a zero! Actually, getting older doesn't bother me at all. I've lost too many friends before their time to see another birthday as anything other than a privilege and I wore my shiny badge with pride. R had initially booked me a giraffe feeding experience after seeing Mary Berry do it on a recent TV programme. It would have been lovely. The only problem was, the booking was a bit last minute and there was only room for one. In effect, it would just have been me whilst the others looked on. In addition, it was booked for early in the morning ....... and it was at Longleat, which is quite a drive away. E is never the best at getting up before the crack of noon on a non-work day, so I made an executive decision and, whilst being very grateful for the thought, I called it off. Instead we waited for E to rise, before heading to a little local gem:

I loved it all - the plants, the birds, the free-ranging 2 toed sloth called Cinnamon, and best of all the armadillo, whose digging ability kept us entranced.

The girls bought me a voucher for an afternoon tea for 2 at the One Aldwych hotel in Covent Garden. It is based on a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme and they are apparently known for their vegan, GF menu. I shall book it for later in the year.

R bought me a Moomin jigsaw puzzle, a new fermentation jar for my kimchi, after the last one broke falling out of a cupboard, and 2 books: Ferdia Lennon's 'Glorious Exploits' and a travel book for a holiday later in the year. I was very spoiled. Dinner at a local Thai restaurant finished off a lovely day.

E's birthday in the new year completed our celebrations. She and L are off to experience one of the Dinosnore sleepovers at the Natural History Museum later this month.

A couple more happies of 2024: Jaffa Balls made to the Happy Pear recipe. I like to persuade myself that they are healthy, despite the chocolate coating!

....... and 2 jigsaws. The car one was a complete delight and we have kept it to do again another day. The other one went straight back to the charity shop after completion. A sea of pale blue snow does not make for a relaxing puzzle experience. It took quite a while!

Well, that's all for this post and 2024. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and peaceful 2025. Is it just me who can't believe that it's a quarter of a century since the Millennium? Tempus certainly does Fugit.

Toodle pip for now. x

Home Alone

Pre-Covid, R used to commute to London daily to work. Then there was the period when they locked us all down and it was a huge adjustment for both of us. He developed a severe case of cabin fever and I took a while to get used to him being at home all day. Since 2020, he has had a couple of contracts that involved working from home 3-4 days per week. This seemed like a perfect compromise - he didn't have the daily stress of travel, worked better and more efficiently at home (fewer distractions) and yet still met up with colleagues once or twice a week. I enjoyed it too; it's nice having him around, but absence makes the heart etc. and I relished my day or two with the house to myself. 

His latest contract, however, is virtually 100% remote. That's right ..... 100%. It's not ideal for him and I've developed a twitch in my eye. On the plus side, I suppose it's good practice for retirement! I'm often out and about so he gets time alone in the house, for me though, that's never the case. If I'm lucky, on the days that I go for a lunch-time swim, he will go for a quick post-prandial walk to get some fresh air and, if I time the pool well, I might get 20 minutes to myself at home. Mostly though, the timing isn't that good.

Before someone points out how lucky I am to have someone to come home to, believe me, I know. It's just that sometimes I find it incredibly draining. Once every 2-3 months, he either has to go into London for the day or travel to Yorkshire for a meeting. The latter necessitating an overnight stay in a hotel in order to be there in time in the morning. Last night was one such night and, what can I tell you, it was blissful! It's not that I want to do anything particularly exciting - we had dinner together and, after I dropped him off at the station, my idea of a good night in involved a cup of tea, something entertaining on Netflix and a bit of knitting/crochet. I'm not exactly painting the town red here. What makes it special though, is that it's just me, myself and I, and I'm already looking forward to the next time.

Before I get into my record of this month's happies, apologies again - I still haven't worked out how to rotate some of the photos and quite a few are 90 degrees out! 

My Cosy Memory Blanket is ready and waiting for new squares to be added using my yarny advent swap with the lovely Barbara at Coastal Ripples.

Doing a jigsaw swap with L. I gave her this one following our trip to the Van Gogh Immersive Experience in London. Once finished, she returned it to us to do. It was actually easier than I thought when I initially tipped out the pieces, only to be confronted with a sea of blue and yellow. The direction of the brush strokes helped enormously.

A trip to the Corn Exchange to see this. It was based on a pre-war dinner meeting between Churchill (the lion), Chamberlain (the unicorn) and their wives. The chap playing Churchill stole the show.

An adaptation of M.R.James' play using puppets was equally good:

A trip into London to take L out for a birthday dinner. Sadly, her partner, V, was ill and couldn't make it. We consoled ourselves with plenty of food at a vegan, Japanese restaurant near Kings Cross. The sake and bamboo and buckwheat tea were particularly good:

I think my favourite was the miso aubergine:

Yuzu mochi and matcha panna cotta.

A Hallowe'en trip to Arlington Arts to hear a re-telling of 3 ghost stories for the season: 'The Judge's House' by Bram Stoker, 'The Kit Bag' by Algernon Blackwood, and 'John Charrington's Wedding' by E. Nesbit. It was excellent.

Photo of November's Beaver Moon, with the neighbours' TV aerial in the foreground! It was too cloudy to see it during the night, so this was taken first thing in the morning.

Study of William Henry Fox Talbot at Lacock Abbey:

Lastly, I returned home one lunchtime to discover a baby hedgehog on the front doorstep. I remembered that Snowbird once said that a hedgehog out and about during the day was a bad sign. He looked very small for the time of year, and quite inactive, so I called our local rescue centre for advice. Weighing just 230g, he was well below the recommended 450g needed to survive hibernation. Sadly, the centre was unable to accept animals as the lady running it was due to go into hospital for an operation. She suggested Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on the far side of Oxford. Apparently, if I rang beforehand they would refuse as we are out of area, however if we just turned up they would accept him.

We begged some dry cat food from the neighbour, added a small lid of water and an old T shirt, and then Harvey(!) and I took a little drive. It was a glorious autumn day and we listened to Classic FM en route. Occasionally one of us would poop, but the other didn't judge. The conversation, however, was a little one-sided for the hour long trip. He ate the food and then rolled up in the T shirt and slept for the rest of the way, perking up when we arrived. Thankfully, they took him in and the plan was to keep him over winter, feed him up and then release him in the spring. I was given a patient reference number and told that I could ring in 2 weeks to check on his progress.

Sadly, the tale doesn't have a happy ending. When I called to check on him, they informed me that he had died 2 days after I dropped him off. After bonding with him on our road trip, I was surprisingly upset. 

Anyway, that's all for this month. I'm just off for a quick swim, prior to getting on with a few more jobs before collecting R from the station tonight. I hope all is good in your corner and that any preparations for Christmas are going well.

Toodle pip for now. x

Bits and Bobs

Greetings! It's been a while since I popped on here - as made very evident to me by the number of photos on my camera! R is away for a couple of days on business and I had been looking forward to nipping into town today to pay a visit to the library. Sadly, I'm full of a cold, the weather is pretty grim and I can't seem to drag myself away from my lemsip and hot water bottle. Instead, I thought I might do a little update on the last couple of months. There have been days out aplenty, a few crafty projects, visits to see L and E, a couple of plays and numerous walks - not all of which I captured on camera.

I'm going to tax my fevered brain by trying to remember where all the pictures were taken - I've already failed at rotating some of them, so apologies in advance. Here goes:

Attending a bee keeping workshop at Shaw House. We have no intention of keeping bees, it just seemed like an interesting topic ..... and it was free!

R finding a rather large caterpillar on the fuchsia. I failed to identify it, so all suggestions are welcome. We did put him back on the bush afterwards!

L and her partner V came for the August Bank Holiday weekend. We attended the 'Altered States' sculpture exhibition. This one named 'The General' (or was it 'The Colonel'?) was my favourite.

We also saw The Lord Chamberlain's Men perform 'Hamlet' at the Great Coxwell Tithe Barn. It was excellent, although very cold - extra blankets had to be brought from the car during the interval!

A walk in the Savernake Forest. I haven't included the photo of R stood by the 'Big Belly Oak'. I may have positioned him carefully and edited the sign somewhat! :O)

It has been about 8 years since I made a crochet blanket and I felt the urge. It's only cheap Stylecraft acrylic yarn (which is hardwearing and washes brilliantly) in autumnal colours and was inspired by Sarah's Prague blanket shown here . 

Another excellent play at the New Era Theatre:

A trip to the Southern Wool Show at Newbury Racecourse - I said that there were a few that needed rotating! I was very frugal, just buying some mini skeins and a notions pouch showing photos of old Hammer House of Horror films. I kept going back and picking it up, so in the end I bought it!

Winding up some yarn that L and V brought me back from Skye on their Scotland holiday. I haven't actually cast on the socks yet as I've been busy with a few Christmas presents.

An egret in the garden. He (or she?) is often down by the river when I pop to water the greenhouse:

A trip to Oxford to meet L. We spent a happy morning exploring the botanical garden before enjoying a delicious lunch at the Vaults and Garden, then taking a tour round the Ashmolean:

A Japanese tea room in the museum. One day I'd like to visit Japan and experience the real thing.

Finishing a charity shop jigsaw of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury:

A trip to the Watermill to see this. It was brilliant and the actor playing Bertie had obviously watched the film as he sounded just like Colin Firth - no bad thing!

A Sockhead Cowl for L using some yarn that I bought on our trip to Cumbria earlier in the year:

Being inspired by Barbara Hepworth!

A trip to Hinton Ampner:

Harvesting some of my veggies. Only 1 pumpkin managed to survive the attention of the slugs - it's been a rotten growing year.

This is actually a photo of an online photo of Bristol Museum, just to remind me. I went there to see my friend S and forgot to take my camera. It was a lovely day. We started off in the Flour House Cafe (they do a very nice vegan sausage on a GF bun!), then explored the museum at length. Lunch was a falafel bowl in the museum cafe - sadly, the falafel were a tad carbonised. Needless to say, being English I smiled politely and said that they were lovely!

Afterwards I went to E's new house for the evening. If you know Bristol at all, imagine the colourful houses up on the hillside. Her house is near there, adjacent to the steepest residential street in England. I parked and crossed my fingers that my handbrake would be up to the task! We had a lovely catch up and went for a walk in a beautiful old cemetery.

I had a mad 'spring' clean of the bookshelves in the hall and discovered a walk book that we haven't used in a while. We packed a picnic and did the Ecchinswell walk on a beautiful autumn day. It has rained a lot since then!

I dragged R along to a sound bath at Shaw House. It was only £5 per person and very relaxing. He enjoyed it and even managed to stay awake - I think he was concerned about snoring!

A trip to London to see L. I took a photo of the pub which Dickens used to frequent, only because R used to work near here and raved about it. Unfortunately, it wasn't open for another hour, so I wasn't able to have a nosy!

Our destination was The Globe to see 'The Taming of the Shrew'. Sadly, it was dreadful and we were very disappointed. Some people even left early. There were a few understudy substitutions but that wasn't the issue. It was set in a children's playroom and the actors entered the stage through a disembowelled teddy bear. There were puppets galore and it was all just a little too silly for our liking. I read the reviews when I got home and they weren't exactly glowing! 

Lunch at Wagamama's was lovely though!

As was coffee and a vegan GF brownie at Cafe Nero overlooking The Golden Hind:

Finally, a trip to Coughton Court near Stratford -upon-Avon to meet my friend, C. We had had to postpone once, owing to bad weather, but we struck lucky second time around.

Well, that's all for this month. I'm off to have a spot of lunch and then, if the rain stops, I might consider that trip to the library. I hope everything is tickety boo in your corner.

Toodle pip for now. x