Just a Quickie

Good morning, Blogger friends! The 'C' word is imminent and I thought I'd take a quick 5 minutes to empty my camera before all the festivities. Plans are slightly up in the air as I write, owing to some family members having tested positive for the other 'C' word last weekend. Well, L tested positive and her boyfriend, J, is feeling rotten but is still negative. We'll have to wait and see how things progress in the next few days.

December has flown by. We are currently cat sitting for our neighbours who are in the USA visiting their son. We have been coughed on at various events throughout the last few weeks, so how R and I remain symptom free is a mystery. I am, however, crossing everything that that remains the case.

Here then are a few reminders of December 2022. A few of the photos are a bit blurry, but they do the intended  job:

A walk to White Horse Hill at Uffington:

 

Dragon Hill - a small hillock below the white horse. Legend has it that St. George slayed the dragon here and the bare patch of chalk is where the dragon's blood was spilled:

The white horse:

Th Giant's Stair - ice cut terraces, later used for early farming:

Another play at The New Era Theatre. After the last one where the prompter played quite a prominent role, this one was disappointingly good! :O) Especially, the goldfish one. There was actual acting and everything!

Blurry photo of a new fawn, taken very early in the morning:

Christmas market and fair:

Followed by a quick trip to an art exhibition at the town hall:

Mark Gatiss' version of 'A Christmas Carol' at the corn exchange. It was excellent:

A trip to London to take L out for a birthday lunch:

After hearing that Eddie Izzard is planning to re-enter 'man mode' in order to play Sherlock Holmes, I fell down a rabbit hole researching Jeremy Brett - in my opinion the quintessential Holmes. After discovering that he lived by Clapham Common, we did a little pilgrimage after lunch to view his house and a memorial bench and tree near the bandstand:

Another plaque on a nearby bench brought me to tears. Dedicated to a four year old boy, 'on an eternal bear hunt'. Life can be very unfair.

Making kimchi. It's nearly all gone now, so I shall have to make more in the new year:

Vegan Market - we enjoyed a curry box and bought a slice of coffee walnut cake to take home:

On Christmas Day last year, we were sitting by the Red Sea in Jordan, enjoying french fries and mojitos! Having told our neighbours that, whatever we ended up doing on Christmas Day this year, we planned to relive last year's mojitos, they kindly left us some in kit form!

My lovely yarny advent calendar from Barbara at Coastal Ripples. I add a square to my cosy memory blanket every day - photo to follow in the New Year - whilst enjoying a cup of tea and a yummy treat! It's the highlight of my day:

For R's birthday, I booked tickets for a concert at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. It was 'Christmas with John Rutter' and the great man himself was the conductor. He was very sweet and enthusiastic and, as there was audience participation for some of the carols, we can officially say that we have been conducted by him! We had dinner beforehand at Edemame in Holywell Street, then explored the Broad Street Christmas market and had a coffee in the Waterstone's cafe to warm up before the concert began:

Lastly, we went to some Midwinter Revels at Shaw House, our local Elizabethan Manor. Mulled wine and Christmas tunes were enjoyed, played on a variety of mediaeval instruments. It was, however, a veritable cough-fest. One persistent culprit was eventually forced to leave the hall after sufficient people gave him enough black looks:

Well, that's all for now. I'll see you on the other side. Have the most wonderful Christmas and may 2023 bring you peace, health and happiness. 

Toodle pip for now. x

Novembering

It's been a while since my last post and things have changed a little around here. For those of you who don't know, my daughter's beloved pet rabbit, Hamish, died this month. It was time. He reached the grand old age of 11, which I don't think is too bad for a bunny. By the end he was completely blind and went downhill quite quickly over his last couple of weeks. On his last day, he was unable to stand up and, knowing that the end was near, E came tearing back from Bristol to be with him in his final hours. He timed it beautifully, dying in her arms about an hour after she arrived. We buried him in the garden under the rowan tree where his run used to go in the summer. His toy rabbit, Flora, was tucked in with him. The only box of the right size that I could find was a Christmas one, so he looked rather festive!

The kitchen seems really weird without him and I find myself stepping round where his food bowls used to be and thinking that I catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye. I think that's probably it as far as pets go for us. The neighbours were always brilliant about looking after him if we were away, but it was still a bit of a tie. He would be a hard act to follow anyway; Hamish was definitely one of life's beautiful souls.

In other news, I've found myself going to various places this month and forgetting to take my camera with me. Consequently, there will be a few places mentioned in passing here, unaccompanied but recorded just the same for my own benefit. So, here goes .................

A visit to The Wild Place in Bristol to meet my friend, S. Neither of us had been before but it was a brilliant day out and the pizzas that we had for lunch were delicious. I think my favourite animals were the bears who were surprisingly active and good value. Also, the lemurs who had a trick of spreading their limbs wide and warming their tummies in the autumn sunshine. Sorry, no pictures!

Going to an art exhibition in Winchester. We arrived early and killed a little time in a fantastic coffee shop opposite The Arc. The exhibition was in 2 parts - the first was a private viewing of an installation by artist Suna Imre. This consisted of smoke fired, hollow clay boulders suspended from an old trampoline frame in the atrium of the building. There were 200 in all and they looked fantastic and quite planetary. This was made more obvious by the close up photos of some of the spheres, made perfectly circular and printed onto posters. The second part was a collection of paintings, photos and sculptures reflecting natural materials and forms. Again, this was excellent, the only downside being that I really wanted to touch some of the exhibits but it wasn't allowed!

Afterwards we went for a walk around the city centre - the bells were ringing in the cathedral - and then finished the evening off with a delicious Thai meal at the Bangkok Bistro.

Attending an embroidery workshop at a local farm. The idea was to make a needle case but, as I already have one of those, I converted the embroidery into a bigger case to contain various sewing paraphernalia.

I did a little bit of English paper piecing for the back, finally using some scraps of material that E and I picked up at Create in Bristol a few years ago.

A weekend visit to Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey. A 180 acre arboretum comprising over 42,000 trees and shrubs:

A Sunday walk to Bagnor, coming back by Donnington Castle:

Finishing my Hallowe'en socks. The yarn is Felt Fibres in the 'Alien' colourway that I bought on our trip to Petersfield:

An extremely wet walk and picnic in the Savernake forest. It was sunny when we set off but as soon as we had cracked open the sandwiches, the heavens opened and we had to trudge back to the car. We both had to get completely changed when we got home - even my knickers were wet!

Admiring some shrooms before the deluge:

The long walk back - strangely it doesn't even look wet!

The mandarin duck was back in the garden. R has named him Nigel!

Another trip to natuaralist Gilbert White's house. We went in April but as the tickets were valid for a year we decided a return visit was in order:

Lastly, I have dug out my cosy memories blanket to add a few more squares. It only ever comes out at this time of year but it is helping enormously in the evenings as we are still trying to be frugal with the heating!

Well, that's all for this month. I hope things are going well at your end. How about you - have you turned on the heating yet? :O)

Toodle pip for now. x