Festive Eggnog

Well, here we are, safely on the other side; I hope you had a good one! Ours was a quiet family affair, with just the 4 of us. I had 1 more 'new thing' to do on my list and Christmas Eve found me in the kitchen making eggnog. I have never even tried eggnog before, let alone made any, but it turned out to be easy and delicious. Even L liked it - she thought it was a bit like a pudding in a cup. I used this recipe here, using Bourbon and eggs from our girls.

Gathering the ingredients:

Serving with a grating of nutmeg:

We had it cold initially, but there was some left over which we had warm with croissants for breakfast (!) on Christmas Day and I think I prefer it warm. I will definitely be making this one again.

So, there you have it, 50 new things to celebrate my 50th year, completed 4 days ahead of the deadline. Some I will be keeping up, others I'm glad to have tried but won't feel the need to do them again. It was quite a modest list - no skydiving or bungee jumping for me, but I have enjoyed making myself do them and it was a nice way to celebrate. Here they are:

1) Start a blog! 2) Learn to meditate. 3) Make a quilt. 4) Learn to swim front crawl. 5) Try Zumba. 6) Try Pilates. 7) Visit Newbury Antiques Fayre. 8) Give blood (I tried and failed 3 times!). 9) Make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. 10) Try pottery. 11) Make proper custard. 12) Make marmalade. 13) Make lavender bags. 14) Learn more bird songs. 15) Try golf. 16) Sign up with the National Donor Registry. 17) Try hooking. 18) Learn 'The Elements' Song. 19) Make Elderflower Cordial. 20) Make Elderberry jelly. 21) Try lino cutting. 22) Make lemon curd. 23) Do a textile workshop. 24) Visit Ruby's Vintage and Retro Fair. 25) Try Batik. 26) Make washi tape cards. 27) Try Bubble Tea. 28) Ride on a Segway. 29) Try Tai Chi. 30) Do a Turkish Mezze workshop. 31)Make something useful (peg bag). 32) Make bunting. 33) Learn to use Picmonkey. 34) Visit an auction. 35) Try hair chalks. 36) Make a lampshade. 37) Try aquarobics. 38) Make a Christmas wreath. 39) Visit Kefalonia. 40) Visit Ithaka. 41) Try sea kayaking. 42) Try ouzo! 43) Make sourdough bread. 44) Make pompoms. 45) Make yoghurt. 46) Make dried orange rings. 47) Make a crocheted poppy for Remembrance Sunday. 48) Make limoncello. 49) Make a crocheted blanket (I made 4!) 50) Make eggnog. Ta-Dah!

Christmas Day was beautiful hereabouts and after the girls had opened their stockings and we had eaten breakfast, we went for a walk. Here are the photos:

New mittens, from L, and a Christmas chocolate!

Really LONG shadows:

This is the River Lambourn that runs at the bottom of our garden; it's a bit wider here as we have the island in our section:

A rather sweet folly:

Donnington Castle - look at that blue sky!

Views from the top:

Walking home through the woods:

... and passing an aptly named cottage:

Then home again for Christmas 'Dunch'. Boxing Day found me straining my limoncello and decanting it into bottles. It is rather nice - more lemony that the bought stuff, but a lot less alcoholic. You could always jazz it up with more vodka though, if you prefer!

How was your Christmas? Was the weather kind to you or were you cut off by the snow that I've been hearing about on the radio? However you spent it, I hope it brought you joy. That's all for now. By my next post, I'll have reached my half century - yikes, pass the limoncello!

Toodle Pip for now. x

Limoncello

'Tis the season to be jolly, so this week I thought I'd do an alcoholic 'new thing' and make my own Limoncello. I first tasted this in Italy, many years ago and after initially thinking it was far too sweet, I soon got the hang of it and now love the stuff. I hadn't realized how easy it is to make though, until I came across the recipe in my 'Kirstie's Homemade Christmas' library book.

Basically, it's lemon zest and juice, sugar, water and vodka. The lemon zest, water and sugar go into a pan and are heated until the sugar dissolves and then simmered for 15 minutes.

Whilst it is simmering, juice the lemons, then, when the 15 minutes are up, add the juice, along with the vodka, cover and leave for 1 week to infuse.

Then strain through a fine sieve or muslin cloth and decant into a pretty bottle. It apparently lasts for 6 months, but I'm not sure it will last that long around here.

I made mine this morning, so it should be ready for straining on Boxing Day - all ready for a nice little tipple after our walk maybe?

Other happies this week include:

Putting up the tree:

It's a bit of a mishmash of items the girls have made at home or school over the years and a few shop bought decorations - the girls sometimes get a new one in their stockings. We only realized this year that there are only 2 actual 'baubles' on our tree - one which was a present for L from a school friend, and one of ice-skating choristers, which we bought at Winchester Cathedral a few years ago, after we were fortunate enough to see the boys in their red surplices (not sure if this is the right word!) zooming around the rink.

Also this week:
Celebrating L's 21st birthday (a little late, as we had to wait for the end of term) with a trip to London. We started off with Afternoon Tea at The Langham:

Champagne and non-alcoholic cocktails to start, followed by a red pepper brulee amuse bouche (my bouche was very amused!), a selection of yummy veggie sandwiches and then more scones and cake than you could shake a stick at. I had tipped them off beforehand about it being L's birthday and they presented her with a birthday cupcake whilst the pianist played 'Happy Birthday'.

We then saw this in the evening:

It was brilliant - what you initially thought was quite a basic set turned out to be quite spectacular and the acting was excellent.

Walking to the theatre, we passed a bit of  Banksy graffiti. I normally hate graffiti with a passion but this little rat was rather sweet. The council had tried to protect it by covering the wall in perspex. Unfortunately, they hadn't sealed it at the top and rain water is now seeping down the gap and damaging the paintwork!

Doing a festive jigsaw puzzle or 2. We had Lucy's boyfriend, J, staying with us this week. It turns out that he is VERY good at puzzles. What I thought would take a few days in the run up to Christmas, he managed to complete in about an hour!

Getting my hooked picture framed. Now I just need to find a suitable place to hang it:

Finally, a trip into Winchester to visit the Christmas market:

We had hoped to go ice-skating but it had rained overnight and the rink had enormous puddles on the surface. People who fell over were getting soaked, so, sadly, we decided to give it a miss this year.

Anyway, that's all for this week. I'm hoping to fit in my last 'new thing' before the 28th. I have a feeling that it may be another alcoholic one!
In the meantime have a truly wonderful Christmas week. Toodle Pip for now. x

Christmas Wreath

Greetings! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas round these parts. This weekend I made my first ever Christmas wreath! I feel I ought to hang my head in shame whilst admitting that, until now, the wreath which has adorned our front door each year has been .............. artificial. There, I've said it. I'm not judging anyone - artificial wreaths are easy, cheap and long-lived, which is why we had one for so long, but making your own is so satisfying. From foraging for greenery, cones, berries etc., to wrapping the moss around the ring and then finally doing the artistic bits - it's all so much fun. No more plastic wreaths for me - from now on, every December I shall be out there in the garden, secateurs in hand, chopping at the foliage. My only wish is that I had a nicer front door to put it on. You know the sort - either a beautiful old wooden one or a gaily painted (in my mind's eye I'm seeing pillar box red or duck egg blue) one. Tragically, ours in the one we inherited with the house: a 1950s glass one. In its defense, it does make for a very light hallway, which is why it's still with us.

Anyway, here are some photos of my wreath:

Gathering my bits and bobs:

A sink full of greenery:

and .........Ta-Dah!

See, hideous front door isn't it?! I know, I should be grateful to have a front door at all, but it doesn't exactly fill my heart with joy. Anyway, I'm really rather proud of my first attempt at a wreath. It's a bit asymmetrical, I admit, but I do love it, and everyone is made to stop and admire it on entering or leaving the house!

There are a few other happies this week, although the biggest happy is that L is home from uni for the holidays! Here are some of the others:

Finishing my hooked picture (the missing colour finally arrived through the post on the second attempt at posting it!). Now it just needs a frame:

Borrowing some festive books from the library:

After a really mild November, we are now getting frosts in the morning. It's really quite chilly and the de-icer is much in evidence first thing.

Lots of hot soup is being consumed. This one is carrot and squash:

Now that L is home she has opened her birthday presents, so I can show you the home made ones that had been kept secret. The coastal ripple blankie has already featured here, as she had seen it in progress. I also made her:
some birthday bunting:

A 'Happy 21st Birthday' tea light holder:

... and a crocheted owl; pattern courtesy of BunnyMummy.

E  made her a fancy Pusheen cake (yes, there seems to be a bit of a theme going on with cakes at the moment!):

 One final happy - seeing this at the cinema on Sunday:

It was very good but exceedingly long - 3 and a half hours! I seem to remember that it was quite a short play to read, so I'm not sure how they managed to spin it out for so long.

Anyway, I must dash - the school run and a trip to the dentist await! Wishing you a lovely week, with maybe a mince pie or two!

Toodle Pip for now. x

Dried Oranges

Happy December 1st! Apologies in advance as this has turned out to be a rather photo-heavy post. I actually got around to doing a 'new thing' this week; albeit a really easy, little one! With a view to making my own Christmas wreath this year, I have been collecting a few bits and bobs to put on it. Pine cones, I collected from Swinley forest when E and I went there in the Summer. Cinnamon bark we bought a big bag of on a trip to Istanbul last year. Foliage I can collect from the garden .... which left dried orange rings. I have seen small bags of them recently, but at £3 for a few slices they seemed a bit expensive, so I decided to make some instead. They are really easy and you can save on gas/electricity by popping them in the oven with other things - meringues would be good as the temperature should be quite low.

First, find some nice, spherical oranges:

Slice thinly with a sharp knife - the fork is optional!

Dry both sides with kitchen paper to mop up the juices and arrange on a rack.

Pop in the oven and bake on the lowest setting for a couple of hours, turning frequently to prevent sticking and .....

Ta-Dah!

Dried orange rings, all ready for the wreath when I get around to it.

We had quite a busy weekend for us. Friday was Guest Night at L's college, so it was off to Oxford again for formal dinner in the Hall. The food was scrummy - L wasn't keen on the mushroom pate starter (too much 'shroomy grossness'!) but the rest of us enjoyed it.

I really liked the place mats:

....and the Christmas tree in one of the quads:

We sneaked into the JCR after dinner for a family game of table tennis. The bats had seen better days but we were so appallingly bad that it didn't really matter!

I was off to Bath on Saturday to meet a friend and have a potter round the Christmas market. Getting up early I found 4 deer in the garden (we've never had 4 at once before - does that qualify as a herd?!). They were very beautiful but rather quick. That and the low light levels made for some very blurry photos.

Can you spot the one under the apple tree?

2 more with jaws moving as they munched on the shrubs!

 I arrived in Bath at about 10:30 to find that the rest of the country had had the same idea about visiting the market. These photos don't look too bad but it was alternate breathing only round the market stalls and the queue to and from the Park and Ride was HUGE.

 Waiting for my friend to arrive, I treated myself to a decaff latte and a Bath Bun - delish!

Before setting off for Bath, I had noticed a wee beastie in the garage. I arrived home to find that R had caught it in the humane trap and E had named it 'O'Connelly' and wanted to keep it!

I'm afraid I put my foot down over that one (not literally!). O'Connelly stayed as a house guest overnight and then was liberated by the river - not our stretch in case he turned out to be a homing mouse. We are now rodent free once more.

Sunday saw us going to pick up some more chickens from the British Hen Welfare Trust. They are no longer termed 'battery hens' as they are kept in bigger cages ....... but in larger numbers. Looking at our 4 new girls, however, with their pallid, flaccid combs and wattles and bald bodies (those aren't white feathers, they are bald bits) it still can't be acceptable. After a year of such conditions, they are either rescued by the BHWT to be rehomed or slaughtered.

Meet Annie. Hopefully, she'll soon grow new feathers and start to look healthier.

 I thought I'd spend Sunday evening doing a bit of crochet in front of the stove:

E's rabbit, Hamish, had other ideas. He decided that I was in the perfect position for him to rest his chin and have a bit of an ear rub. 

 So much for the crochet! 3 final happies this week:

 A pot of hyacinths and the advent candle which I bought at Bath Abbey:

A new spruce scented candle:

........ and these. I discovered them at the supermarket and they are really lovely. A bit like the mini Easter eggs but more festive! 

 If you've managed to make it through all those photos, have a gold star! I'll be back next week to show you how I get on with my wreath. Until then, have a great week. x