Getting back to normal

Freddy being cute as usual.

Whatever has happened to Christmas weather? It's supposed to be cold, apart from one light snow fall in the middle of December and a couple of frosts it has just been wet, and I mean wet. Nothing like the awful weather that people in the north of England have been experiencing though, so many have had their homes flooded, in areas not normally associated with flooding, what an  dreadful way to spend Christmas. Maybe it was thinking about those who's homes have been affected made us want to celebrate a bit more than normal, I even iced the cake, not something I would normally do as neither of us like icing, well we have discovered that we still don't, so it ended up in the dogs. Next year I will stick to just the marzipan.

Stage one, form a ring of willow.

Stage two, accept help from a cat, Misty, Freddy's sister.

To get into the spirit of the season I made a Yule Wreath for the front door, Misty thought it was something that she would like to join in making,

The finished wreath.

I think between the two of us it turned out OK.

A bit of festive cheer.

Simon, modelling his jumper.

I decorated the fireplace in the lounge, and the candelabra, it has made the lounge look quite festive.

An excellent bird.

The bronze turkey was a beautiful bird, Justina, who reared them did a good job, it was very succulent and full of flavour, although we were hoping for a smallish bird we ended up with a seven kg one, Justina has said that she will start them later next year to get the smaller sizes. I know many people don't like turkey, we do, and for us it is something special, not something that you can buy all year round. We had friends over for a meal on St Stephens day so we managed to make a fair bit of headway into the bird, the disadvantage of turkey is it last so long if there are only the two of you.

A future Sunday roast.

We always remove the legs, then bone, stuff and roll them, they can then be frozen and used at a later date.

Today we needed to blow away the cobwebs and made a trip to the coast, mainly to get more seaweed.

The beaches were quite busy,

there were some nice waves and that had brought out the surfers. We collected another nine sacks of seaweed and had a lovely picnic which included cold turkey. I always enjoy our trips to the beautiful Sligo coast.
Roses are still blooming, we have some out in our garden,

It really is December.

but we spotted a rambler which had masses of flowers plus buds on it, not quite right in December.

A further visit is called for to explore around this old bridge.

We also spotted an interesting bridge, it looks very old, we could just make out the track which would have run over it, not far from this bridge there is also a waterfall, something we will have to explore further at a later date.
So Christmas is over for another year, and we all survived it. Now it is time to start planning next years plantings,

I hope that one of my presents will come in useful for this. When we lived in Spain all the supermarkets used to stock the Moon Planting calendars, not something you see as a rule over here. We have always planted by the moon, but it will be very useful to have a book to remind us of what we are supposed to be doing and when.
I hope you all had a good festive season and that you all have a Prosperous New Year.

A seaside pub.