Crazy weather.

From floods to snow in less than a week. So many roads in the area have been closed due to flooding, no sooner had the floods started to retreat, yesterday we awoke to  a two inch fall of snow , and boy it was cold.

Certainly not the right weather to be attending a Food and Craft fair held in a marquee. I don't think the temperature got much above freezing all day,

sales weren't particularly good and did not warrant standing for five hours in such temperatures. I am also supposed to be doing  the same venue next weekend but I'm afraid I will be giving it a miss. I wonder how many other stall holders feel the same way. I do enjoy doing the fairs, but not when it's so cold, I will limit myself to indoor ones next year.

However you never know what you will find or meet at these fairs, one of the stall holders was the person I had done a basket making course with, I have arranged do another course with him next year, which will be fun.

Faversham Christmas Ale.

There was also a stall selling craft beers, they had the full range of our very local micro brewery,  we have already tried most of them, what we hadn't tried before was an English beer from Faversham in Kent, called 'Christmas Ale' this one throws a real punch, a little will go a long way at 7% it's a very strong ale, but it is lovely, we will probably have it in place of wine with our Christmas dinner.  For some unknown reason it was also cheaper than the local brew.

The plants in the garden  still don't seem to know it's winter, roses still blooming,

December 11th.

plus a crazy Lupin,

Three months early.

and the rhubarb has started to re-grow, we don't normally cover the rhubarb until February but we have had to put straw over it, it is after all just the beginning of winter and we will get a few heavy frosts and possibly more snow before the rhubarb should  start to awake.
Some of the carrots that we planted this year were a heritage variety, some  purple, some white and a few yellow ones,

Very pretty, but not too much flavour.

 the purple ones look very pretty, they would look great in a coleslaw, but they are not as strongly flavoured as the orange ones, I wonder if other people have noticed the difference in flavour?
When we first moved here we knew there were things that we would want to change and slowly we are making the changes, one such change was replacing the sliding French door in the kitchen. There were several reasons, not least that we couldn't lock it easily, and one of the cats is very clever at opening sliding doors, fine if we are around but not if we are out for the day,

A new cat foiling door!

so the door has now been replaced, much to Felix's disgust, he has been foiled, and he's not happy about it. Although it's the same space, it makes the kitchen seem bigger.

Poultry treat.

The hens aren't too keen on this weather either, so we have started sprouting grain again for all the birds, we had thought that the quail would appreciate a bit of fresh wheat grass but all they did was trample it down so we will reserve it for the hens.

These legs and feet belong to Freddy. You can just see an ear.