Sunday December 31st

 Goodbye 2023!

Don't worry, I won forget you. Or rather, I will, because I have such a short memory.

However I have many ways of recording the year; my 'every evening diary' where I write an account of the day, my 'appointments diary and notebook' for everyday appointments, 'to do' lists, notes and doodles, and my Commonplace Books which run continuosly as I just start the next when I have filled the old one.

I started the current Book in March this year and it still has about a dozen pages left.

I've just flicked through some entries in this Book. Here's a random selection of pages through the year;

You might spot a familiar name for the source of one of the last notes! I see I haven't included any of the recipes and knitting/stitch/craft patterns which are dotted through the pages.

When I go through and old notebook I find I'm continally intrigued and surprised by what I chose to save. I can usually remember the occasion,  and the reason for saving the item, and I often want to add some further comment. 

So, a very worthwhile activity for me. 

Oh, one further picture for Chris (comments yesterday). This is how the poncho pieces are sewn together. 

The pencil notes are from me working out how many stitches to cast on for the short edge. 

Saturday 30th January

 I have discovered the secret of a good night's sleep, at least for now. It is to put a generous dab of olbas oil on each corner of my pillow. It's a good thing I really like the smell of menthol and eucalyptus and whatever else is in the stuff.

We are feeding a neighbour's cat at the moment. He's used to the family being away from time to time on holiday, but is learning to purr when Himself goes round to give him breakfast. He's quite a standoffish sort of cat; the 'yes yes please please more strokes' followed without notice by a hiss and sudden slash with a paw. But Himself has a secret weapon; cat treats. We suspect that the cat had never learned of the existence of Dreamies and Licky-Stix or whatever they are called. 

(We have no intention of 'stealing' their cat, we only give him cat treats with his breakfast. It does encourage the cat to be there at breakfast time so we know he hasn't disappeared)

Knitting needles can make all the difference to the knitting experience. 

I was given this yarn for Christmas and I'm knitting a sort of poncho thing. It's very simple; two pieces, each 20 by 30 inches, sewn together in some cunning way - the short side of one piece is sewn to the long side of the other - then you shout 'abracadabra' and it becomes a poncho. I started by using the grey needles, but the acrylic yarn doesn't slide easily over them. So I've switched to the brown, actually multicoloured, needles and everything is progressing faster. The only is snag is the cable joining the coloured needles is a weeny bit short and I have to keep an eye on the last few stitches of each row....

Friday 29th December

 Only one typo (that I found) in yesterday's post. I'm finding quite a few in my handwritten Commonplace books from a few years ago. Would they be writeos? But they are actually wrongos.....

I read this in Nigel Slater's 'Christmas Chronicles' in the chapter for 27th December (I've got a few days behind)

Yes, yes and double yes.

We had such a mega massive lunch today that although I was desperate for some fresh air, all I could manage was a little pootle around the garden. 

I took some time to memorise the arrangement of my vegetable growing containers so that I could start thinking of plans. They are in a bit of a state. There are two kohl rabi, some stunted Swiss chard (but the leaves are still edible), and two pots, one with a sad little bit of spinach and another with some. equally unappealing pak choi. I'm not sure what's under a cloche as I was still too full to try and read the label, and the cauliflowers seem to be growing but I'm not sure they will ever really become cauliflowers.

At the other end of the patch are the last remaining carrots, and some promising garlic. And, of course, the Egyptian Walking Onion...

So, here, on the first page of my giant 2024 diary, is the pencil sketch of the pots, and the Beginnings of the plannings, guided by Huw Richard's 'Veg in One Bed' with my alterations along the way. I'll resist inking it in for a couple of months. Or weeks. Certainly not for a day or so.

Ages ago I promised you a photograph of my Christmas snowdrops. Here they are, one flower and quite a few buds out in time for Christmas, but too few to pick any yet.

Thursday 28th December

 In spite of sleeping very badly last night  - some nights are just 'non-sleeping nights' - I seemed to be full of energy today. Don't worry, it won't last - normal behaviour will probably return by tomorrow morning!

Although, having said that, the various items on 'the list' didn't involve much physical activity.

I decided to knit some more of the sock 'until the colour of the yarn changes'. It didn't change for ages and ages and ages, by which time there were only a few rows and then some kitchener stitching to do.

So, the first sock is complete, apart from the 'fore thought / after thought' heel, marked by a solitary line of murky coloured knitting about halfway long the length. I'm leaving it there, along with the little blue stitch marker, so that I have a slight chance of making the second sock at least similar if not identical.

So far, so good.

During lunch I jotted down a number of disconnected thoughts I wanted to keep track of;

 now, at the end of the day, I'm jolly pleased with myself because I have ticked most of them off.

The cross stitching was something I really, really needed to make a start on. I am hopeless at STARTING a cross stitch piece, but once it is underway I feel a great sense of relief. I don't think I am giving any secrets away if I share this afternoon's work;

I started at quarter to three, and by a quarter to five I had stitched all the way round the space marked 'L', and back stitched the outside edge. Now what? I have some ideas how to continue, but as you can see from the piece of paper the plan is currently woefully incomplete... The chances of finishing it before the end of December are - zero! Ang, if I tell you that E and F are still empty on this piece of Aida, at least you can start planning?

Finally, another thing that's been waiting for me to get 'a round tuit' was tying out Himself's +3 reading glasses for playing the piano. I have been having tremendous difficulty (again) in making out all the dots and squiggles on the paper using my usual varifocals. When I visit the opticians, we always have a go at creating the perfect pair of glasses for being able to read the music and see the piano keys, and have never succeeded. (I first encountered the problem playing for an Ash Wednesday service, where the lighting was very dim, and discovered that if I sat far enough back to read the music my arms weren't long enough to reach the keyboard. My playing was less than perfect that night...) 

 It looks as though this cheap pair of reading glasses might be a good place to start. 

After all that virtuous activity I'm going to finish that cup of tea in the second photograph before it gets too cold, and go and have a little sit-down with a magazine.

 

Wednesday 27 December

 Himself found seven typos in the last blog post - and I found another after I had published it. Was that a record?

I'll try and improve on it, as in reduce the number.

(I read one in an old Commonplace notebook of mine today; a text sent by someone to someone - no idea who to whom, or whom to who, "Please set oven to 160 and put pastor in it". Auto-correct has its moments)

I think one resolution for the upcoming year might possibly be to finish some of the works-in-progress.

So far (that I can remember) 

one adult version of a 'baby surprise jacket', and a giant crochet granny square; both on-going for several years now

and in the picture, a new thing using Christmas Present yarn which I'm hoping will become a poncho, the first of a pair of pink patterned socks, and the rest of the blue teddy bear glove puppet.

The mitred square blanket doesn't really have a beginning or an end - it's finished when I declare it so.

Starting with the pink sock.

It's really so much easier to write a blog post on the laptop rather than stabbing at the letters on the tablet screen...

Tuesday 26th December

 Putting a title to most of my posts seems a bit limiting, as I seem to flit from topic to topic.

What's more interesting? Pictures or words? Words, I think. People have different styles, but I think I personally like reading; anecdotes, reminisce, snippets.

I got up late this morning, so breakfast and mid-morning coffee were combined at about half past nine. Home made mini mince pies; unsweetened all butter shortcrust and Delia Smith (sort of) mincemeat. Himself prefers sweetened pastry and a sweeter mincemeat. Or maybe ordinary sized mincemeat pies, so you get more filling to pastry.

Lunch was steak! Cooked by Himself. It was delicious. We had it with some of yesterday's red cabbage and rosti style potatoes. 

Together we made an emergency 5 minute peppercorn sauce; crush a tablespoon of peppercorns (use the back of a spoon) and add to some melted butter and sizzle. Add a good glug of dry sherry and sizzle some more to drive off the alcohol. Next a hazel nut sized piece from a beef stock cube, and a little boiling water if necessary, finally a teaspoon of dijon mustard. Now, watching carefully because it wants to be hot but not curdled, double cream. Plenty of double cream. We tasted it. I added a shake of dark soy sauce for salt and mellowness, he added ground black pepper.

We sat there in a state of bliss eating our lunch and finishing yesterday's battle of wine. 

Revelation; if instead of a traditional, but unsatisfactory turkey we had some steak, and served it with Christmas vegetables, it would be perfect. Goodbye turkey!

At about four in the afternoon, just before dark, I went upstairs. Standing in the bedroom window I watched one of the local semi-urban foxes calmly sitting in the middle of the drive opposite, completely focused on dealing with an itch on its backside.

first drawing in my new giant diary

Several of our neighbours have barricaded the underneath of their cars with pot plants and fencing and bits of wood, as the foxes are a real pest and eat various bits and pieces to do with the something or others there which make the cars work. They live on the golfcourse behind our houses. Several people in our road are feeding them. You should hear Himself on the subject of foxes; as a lad he used to help his farming neighbours on a hill farm.

Sunday 25th December - Happy Christmas

 We have lit the fifth candle! Saved for Christmas Day.

This little stylised Nativity Scene stays at the side of the fireplace all year (without the Christmas decorations and twinkly lights).

Sunday 24th December - Pause in Advent 4

1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13

The 'love' chapter of the Bible; read at many weddings,  indeed I had the privilege and terror of reading it after my god daughter's wedding.

(I had recently watched the film 'The King's Speech' and was hugely impressed at how the text was marked up for pause and emphasis and where to breathe and did the same!)

Anyway, the final verse is

And now these three three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these three is love.

Today the fourth Advent candle is lit, following on from hope, peace and joy,

and it is for love;

;

The collect for the fourth Sunday in Advent is about love too; asking God to help and strengthen us with his power so that we can continue through life, through the 'satisfaction of thy Son our Lord'

I take this to mean that, in coming to live and teach and die among us, God showed just how high and how wide, and how deep and how far he will go because of his great love for us.

One more sleep until we celebrate this great act of love!

Saturday 23rd December - last 'normal' day before Christmas

 Sort of.

The morning was one thing after another

I came down in pj's, slippers and fleecy jacket to get my breakfast. If I am too late, ie after the delivery, which arrives between 7 and 8 am, then I have to delay until it is all stowed away. That's what Himself refers to as a 'non-trivial' exercise.

The grocery delivery arrived. If it's not on the van (gluten free crackers for a friend, fresh cream, proper panetonne) then we'll go without.

Although having said that, Himself has just slung on a coat - it's 7pm now - to walk round to the corner shop to buy milk and cream... maybe....

I pottered around downstairs in a state of deshabillé doing... not very much. My lovely gardener came, and we exchanged cards and she set to work. 

My brother and one of his sons1 came to exchange presents and collect our father to take him to stay for Christmas. I'd managed to change pj bottoms for trousers by then...

The postman came to collect a parcel - yes, you read that right! It's a great system, you weigh and measure your parcel at home, pay for postage on line and then they collect and post it for you.

Then I finished getting dressed, just in time for lunch.

One run out in the car to deliver presents and we were done, apart from the exhausting business of stringing up the Christmas cards (Himself's job)

 and decorating the mantelpiece (my job). 

Tomorrow I'll do the hearth, and we'll clear the dining room, and we'll meet up with the son to exchange presents (daughter still recovering from nasty dose of covid at the beginning of the month).

Like I said, normal for just before Christmas. 

Two more sleeps until Christmas Day...

Friday 22nd December - A Christmas Card to all my Blog-friends

 

I'm hoping that this will actually work, and that if you can print this out you will be able to create your own Christmas card from me to you...

It's the booklet from the Advent 2 Papercraft. 

Here is a summary of the blog post instructions that I've been emailing out to my family; 

1 print the image

2.fold it in half long sides together and crease, open out.

3. Fold it in half short sides together and crease, open out,

4. fold the short sides to meet at the middle crease, crease the fold and open out. Hopefully each picture should be inside its own frame of creases.

5. fold it in half short sides together so you can see the pictures. 

6. Cut a slit starting at the fold, just as far as across the top of the angel (or the bird). Open out

7. Take the angel and the dove and fold together, and at the same time fold the candles to the Happy Christmas greeting together, and at the same time push up so the slit opens and you can make the angel back onto the greeting and dove back onto the candles.     

Flatten it into a small booklet.

Ta-da!

Thursday 21st December - nearly all wrapped!

 One of my pet hates used to be wrapping presents after coming home from the midnight Christmas eve service. 

Every year would end in craziness and I would completely run out of tine.

There could be as many as a dozen school concerts right up to the end of term, and when I was the church organist there would be the Nativity service, Christingle, Carol Service, Midnight service, Christmas Day and and Sundays in between.

Come Christmas Day I would crawl home to get down to the business of opening Christmas presents and burning the Christmas Dinner....

This is the first year when all the cards (except the email ones), and all the presents (except for a few) are wrapped and ready and it's still 4 days before Christmas.  How can this be?

Perhaps retirement has something to do with state of affairs?

Piles of wrapped presents, and a steady accumulation under the tree...

I may yet resort to Jacquie Lawson cards for the email ones. I'm currently trying to create one that I can scan and email round for people to print out of they would like. I'm using the booklet format from one of the Advent crafts, which means 6 little pictures to paint and then the greeting to add.

One picture to go.

The actual card is under the protective sheet of paper I'm using to test paint colours and try out the angel. I've set myself the deadline of tomorrow to finish it.... fingers crossed...

Wednesday 20th December - snowdrops

 They snowdrops under the apple tree have flowered in time for Christmas Day every year for decades. 

Today we went out to look for them, and there they were, under a thick blanket of apple and oak leaves. We took the opportunity to move a couple of plastic garden chairs to somewhere out of sight. Once Himself  had cleared the leaves we found a goodly number of green spears and a couple of buds already showing a promise of the flower within.

Then the sun went in, and so did we, so no photograph today.

Tuesday 19th December - nothing to declare

 It's been a very quiet day.

I saw

a score of starlings descend upon my suet bird feeder and clea it1 in a matter of minutes

the ancient and battered cherry tree planted in the verge when these houses were built back in the fifties has come out all over in little white flowers like snowflakes,

an apricot cockapoo type dog being taken for a walk wearing sort a of four-legged neon yellow onesie. Its bottom was completely bare, well, furry, but not covered by the onesie. I did wonder if it felt chilly in the tail area, and how you went about dressing it in its knitted suit, and whether the dog felt sper smart/ or ridiculous wearing it, and if suit had to be washed every time...

Monday 18th December - Ordering online and knitting a bunny rabbit

 I've reached the moment that arrives every Christmas when I can no longer remember what I've ordered, what has been delivered, and what is still to arrive. 

Every knock at the door, and there have been several today, brings someone bearing brown card packages and boxes. It's like an early Christmas Day! I used to do most of my present buying from catalogues in pre-internet days, partly for the joy of unwrapping the presents before re-wrapping them and sending them on.

Inbetween the deliveries I finished off a little bunny rabbit. This was going to be a 4th Advent Sunday craft. I think I'm going to have to think of them as 'post-Christmas' crafts as Christmas Day is right after the 4th Sunday this year.

But here's the bunny as a super-quick little present.

Choose a nice soft yarn; I used a 'baby' dk and 4mm needles . You also need a bit of toy stuffing, a pom pom tail, and if you want to add eyes and nose, suitable yarn.

cast on 22 stirches and knit all rows until you have a square. Cast off.

Run a row of stitches along the blue lines, and put a little wad of stuffing in the centre of the triangle like this;

Pull up the ends of your stitching, pushing the the stuffing into the sort of pouch, and adding a little more if you need to.

Ears and a head appear. Secure the ends firmly and sew the back and base, inserting a tail as you go. My bunny has an ENORMOUS tail - it was all I could find!

Sunday 17th December - Pause in Advent 3 - Joy

 

First candle - Hope, second candle - Peace, today's candle - Joy

The collect for the third Sunday in Advent is very austere - like all the others. I think that religion in the time of the 1662 prayer book (originally written in 1549) was a pretty serious matter and mostly concerned with living a 'sober and godly life' in order to avoid the torments of hell.

I've seen enough medieval wall paintings of The Last Judgement when visiting ancient churches to give me nightmares were I to be faced with them at every weekly service back in pre-reformation days. 

Did the Christians of this time go in for joy? It seems a comparatively recent idea to me that we need not worry about being 'good enough' to be a Christian. The Law, summarised by Jesus, is this;

'“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself”' (Mt 22.37-39)

God is fully aware of how frail our attempts are to manage to 'love the Lord your God' in this way. Which is not to say we need not try to do so, but we needn't be completely fearful of the consequences of missing the mark.    

The Joy of Christmas, in my view, is that we can be forgiven our faults, and instead of being punished by God. He will forgive us and give us another chance - and another and another - if we are sincerely repentant and genuine in wanting to try. 

How shall we prepare and make ready for the coming of Christ? Like this? with joy and excitement?

Like this? With solemn awe and expectation?

Both!

Sunday 17th December - Crafts for Third Week of Advent and etc

Yesterday turned into chaos as I tried to get ready to post this week's crafts, which are some very traditional puff pastry recipes, wrist warmers (have you noticed a 'garter stitch' theme? I hate doing purl!) and a magic paper flexagon.

I was testing the puff pastry recipes for this week at the same time as trying out a new and interesting microwave 'mug cake' recipe, when an old friend, dating back from when our families lived next door to each other back in about 1957 (!) - we were toddlers then - telephoned.

It made for a hectic half an hour as I juggled microwave, air fryer and telephone; but it was lovely to catch up and share news of our families. I was bridesmaid at her wedding, and god mother to one of her girls, and she is god mother to our son and we have always kept in touch for over 60 years.

The mug cake recipe needs thinking about. It probably didn't appear at its best, as microwave cakes need to be eaten immediately or they become stodgy and tough and rubbery and I was enjoying our phone conversation too much to eat cake. I shall give the recipe another go...      

The wrist warmers were also not without incident - regular readers of this blog have no doubt sussed that I'm just as incapable of following instructions exactly, as I am of producing a blog post without typos. My excuse for the typos this time is that my laptop computer, which I was actually using as a laptop instead sitting comfortable at a table, suddenly gave me a 'battery low' warning and I needed to finish the posts in  hurry.

Re the wrist warmers; I discovered I had miscalculated the amount of yarn in the ball. It looked as though they would work out anyway (such an optimist) and so it proved. As with the pigs-in-blanket and cranberry sauce puff pastry puffs, where I had neither cranberry sauce nor pigs-in-blankets. 

I suppose that is the difference between gourmet fine dining, and couture clothes construction, and what I manage to make using what I have.

The Christmas wreath which I constructed this morning is a case in point. The 'spring wreath' has been hanging on the outside of the shed door all Summer and Autumn. I took it down, wrapped the the holly garland from last year around on top of the leaves and spring flowers, added tinsel and finally a couple of poinsettias which must be decades old now.

I shall probably have another go at that trailing bit of holly in the next day or so - it was time for lunch and I was getting cold anyway. But I'm quite happy with the result - what can you expect for 15 minutes of wreath wrangling?

   

Sunday 17 December - Advent 3 Papercrafts - Flexagon

This might be a bit fiddly, but bear with me - I did make these with my Sunday School class of 5-9 year olds. The older children helped the younger ones, and the adult helpers marvelled at their achievement.

It comes from this book which has given me a lot of pleasure 

You need a strip of paper cut in the ratio 1:7, so 1 inch wide and 7 inches long will do. You will end up with a magic hexagon this size;

Magic? It has three faces!

You also need scissors and a glue stick.

At the top of the picture is my strip. It's one I folded earlier, which is why it is creased. Take the LH edge, and fold it over at an angle of 30 degrees - you can do this by eye. What you are after is folding a series of equilateral (all the sides the same length) triangles. The angle is slightly less than half of the right angled corner.

Fold a series of equilateral triangles, accordian, or zig zag, style following the pattern of creases on the middle strip. This means that the words 'fold this edge' wil line up UNDERNEATH the words 'to here'. 

You end up with this springy thing. Open it out - you don't have to number the triangles but I've just done it to show you. Cut off the red areas, once you have made sure that you have 10 triangles!

Fold it back up again, and just open it a bit like a book so the two ends are on the left an the right. Put the glue on as shown, and fold it closed, like the top of the next photograph.

As you try and unfold it, you will find that you can ease it into the form of a hexagon!

Now here's the thing; should you decorate one side (I coloured it blue) and the other side (I coloured it red), you can bring the points to the middle and open it out to reveal a white, uncoloured side!

So there you have it. A piece of paper with three surfaces.

What can you do with it? I have no idea. They make a good fidget toy, or some kind of magic trick. 

Sunday 17th December - Advent 3 Knit - wrist warmers

 This came as a free download from the Ravelry 'all things yarn' website. If you haven't tried browsing the website and you like knitting/crochet/weaving there are hundreds, thousands, millions? of patterns and many of them free. People add their advice wen they try making up the patterns as well.  

This is what you get if you download the the pattern;

This is an American pattern, so to translate; about 50g aran yarn and 5mm needles.

Cast on 35 stitches, knit every row until you have 31 ridges on each side.

Sew it up so that the ridges run from top to bottom, but you need to make a gap for the thumb. This means sewing up about 4 inches, leaving a gap of around 1.75 inches and sewing up the remaining 1.5 inches.   

I sort of followed the instructions until I found I was going to run out of yarn before I had knitted 31 ridges! I was using something or other from the stash and should have weighed the ball before I started.

My wrist warmers came out with a mere 23 ridges wide; here are my notes;

Now, a Very Handy Hint; if you can contrive it so that the start tail and final tail are on opposite sides, as in the lower piece, you will have a tail at each end to sew it up with. Much easier.

 I sewed up the bottom 4.5 inches, left 1.5 inches and sewed the remaining 1.5 inches.

In spite of not having enough yarn to knit all the ridges, the fit is fine - with a larger piece the fit would be more relaxed which might be better. 

They are long enough to run quite a way into the cuff of your jacket. I shall definitely be wearing mine, 

even if I'm not that fond of the colours.

 I find that keeping my wrists warm goes a long way towards keeping my fingers warm. 

 

 

Sunday 17th December - Advent 3 Bake - Puff Pastry

 Oh, these are golden oldies....

Using ready rolled puff pastry, you can make sausage rolls with almost no fuss, and delicious palmier biscuits, sweet or savoury.

Just a few Sausage and Chutney Rolls

I used 4 chipolata sausages and a tablespoon of apple chutney made by a friend last August!

Cut the puff pastry sheet in half, and put half away. Now cut the remaining pastry into 4 pieces each big enough for a chipolata. Put a thin line of chutney along the pastry, lay a chipolata on top, and roll up with the seam underneath. Carry on to make 4 sausage rolls. 

Of course, you can go ahead and use the whole piece of pastry and all the chipolatas and make 8 sausage rolls...

Place on a lined baking sheet, brush with beaten egg and cook in a preheated oven at 200 for 25 -30 minutes or in a preheated air fryer for12-15 mi nutes;

There were eight... we had them for supper with some bits of salad. 

What I HAD been intending to make was this; Pigs-in-blankets with Cranberry Sauce Turnovers from the website www.lavenderandlovage.com.

Ah well. Too late I discovered we had no bacon and no cranberry sauce, so the sausage rolls above were an improvisation, and one I will repeat often.

So these turnovers;

you need 8-12 pigs in blankets, bought or home-made, and 8-12 teaspooons of decent cranberry sauce. A beaten egg for egg-wash and grated parmesan cheese.

Cut the pastry in squares, put a teaspoon of cranberry sauce in the middle, and put a pig-in-blanket diagonally on top. Take one corner of the square and lift it over the 'pig', brush some egg onto the point. Lift the opposite corner up and glue it on top. Brush all the exposed pastry with egg and sprinkle a little parmesan on top.   

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 on a line baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or in a preheated air fryer for 10-12 minutes.
      

Palmiers

The are golden, sweet, puff pastry biscuit., and probably the simplest ever!

Unroll your pastry (I used the other half from the sausage rolls) and sprinkle quite thoroughly with caster sugar. I keep a couple of vanilla pods in the jar with my caster sugar, which adds a touch of vanilla flavour. I might be tempted to add some cinnamon another time.

There are two approaches to the next step;

1) fold the side closest to you to the middle, and then the other side to meet it. Press down firmly with your hands. Do this again, and again if you can, and then fold it in half.

or

2) roll up one side firmly to the middle, and then the other side to the middle. That's what I did; see photograph below.

Wrap and chill for 30 mins.

Slice off biscuits, and you will see that they are all folded inside.

Bake in  on a lined baking tray in a preheated oven at 200 for 18 - 20 minutes until golden brown, in a preheated air fryer for 10-12 minutes.

     Thicker palmiers take longer...

You can use demerara sugar for a bigger crunch.

Savoury palmiers are made the same way - spread with pesto or tapenade, or just parmesan cheese. 

Saturday 16th December - the ta-da list

 No, not a typo, something I read today.

It was an article about housework or decluttering or getting ready for Christmas - I can't remember exactly what.

Anyway the writer was suggesting that instead of making a to-do list at the beginning of the day and then berating herself for all the missed items, she now makes an

'Ta-da! 

list at the end of the day, where she can list everything she did get done.

Now that's an idea I can get behind!

My ta-da! list is huge today. I'm not going to write it all down as you'll read all the extra posts tomorrow concerning puff pastry, wrist warmers and flexagons...

I was let off present-wrapping today as we ran out of Christmas paper after just a few presents. Himself nipped off to the shops to buy more, and also dropped off three more bags of Christmas bric-a-brac at the Charity Shop while he was out and about. 

So all in all a fair lot got done today.

Surprising what a diffference good night's sleep makes. 

Friday 15th December - a fairly static day

 I woke early this morning, toooo early, like 4.30 am. The milkman? Maybe. I don't remember hearing him, but our bedroom is at the front of the house, and he stops outside our window to deliver to the neighbours on either side as well as ourselves.

We could get our milk much more cheaply from the supermarket,  but while we can we'll keep Gary the milkman (I've never once seen him in all the years he's been delivering here!) going. It's not just about us; I think he provides a very important service to the many older people who live in this road.

Anyway, having woken up so early I was feeling pretty droopy today. I did manage to sort through various boxes and bags in which I had stashed, and then forgotten about, earlier Christmas present purchases. 

After that I spent most of the rest of the day lying about on the settee. Hence a meagre 500 steps on the step counter so far, and it's unlikely to climb much higher before bed time.

Ah well, it's not as though I had some high powered or important job to do!

I finished a bit of knitting for this coming week's crafts, and have given some consideration to which paper craft I'll post. As for baking, I thought I had chosen the recipes, but then I tripped across a really interesting idea, which I shall try out tomorrow!

This evening I completed all the written cards; the writing, addressing and stamping al ready to go.

I did catch myself putting a card into an envelope and beginning to stick the flap BEFORE I'd written the greeting; I hope that was the only time!