Thursday 31st December - 7th Day of Christmas

 only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other.... (Macbeth, somewhere)

I did get out for a walk after lunch in spite of the frost still lying on the ground, and the ice still in place on stray buckets of water. A whole 200 m - but before you say 'was that all?' let me explain...

I thought it would make a change to go out of our back gate, along the secret path we hacked through the dense laurel hedge at the bottom of the garden, and down the steep bank to reach the footpath/cycle track running along the stream. Then I planned to stroll along the path until it connects with the road, and I would be able to complete the circuit home walking on pavements.

Arthur Rackham illustration

The first part of the plan was a great success; and I reached the bottom of the bank without losing my balance on the slithery slope, or tangling my feet in the brambles. The path, however, was lost in a sea of mud... The river comes up out of its gully and floods the path given sufficient cause - like storm Bella, maybe? - and I think this must have been what had happened. 

I picked my way along one direction, far enough to know that my red suede shoes were no match for this terrain, and made my way back, past our house as far as was reasonable (not far, then!).

Never mind. I had had an outing and some fresh air, and now I would return to central heating and sitting around at home.

This is where my problems started; I couldn't find the place to enter the secret path back to our gate. After a couple of exploratory scrambles halfway up the bank, I selected the most likely route and forced my way up, clinging to branches just about strong enough to assist. Disaster - I was too far over; but there was no way was I prepared to go back down to mud level and try again (and again, and again).  

I had my mobile with me - I could phone for help! as in 'ring ring, ring ring, I'm stuck at the bottom of the garden'? 

No. I'd got myself into this ridiculous  predicament, and I would get myself out of it. 

I went down on my hands and knees and crawled through the branches, rescuing my hat before it was seized from my head by the hungry grasping laurels. Eventually I reached a space where I could stand upright and wait until I had caught my breath... then walk on towards the gate and catch my breath... then slowly walk up the path to the back door... then go upstairs and change my trousers...

Maybe it was a mere 200m today, but it involved a good deal of physical effort... at least I stayed warm!

Janus wikipedia

New Year's Eve is a time for looking backwards over the past year, and forwards to the next. If 2020 has shown me anything, it has been to not fix my heart on plans for the future. That's why, looking ahead to 2021, I am not making dreams, setting goals, thinking about ambitions. Not a one. 

Last Year's Resolutions also went by the board quite quickly - two bags of 'stuff' to the charity shops every month, for example. Not a chance. I did keep the daily diary, and the 'eat chocolate at least once a week' resolutions except when lock down severely impacted my chocolate supply.

I'm mulling over suitable resolutions for this coming year... I have bought a new daily diary so that's definitely going to happen...

      

Wednesday 30th December - 6th Day of Christmas

 'How's your day?'

'Oh, just, dull.'

Dull is ok, though; and although the whole day might be dull, there were bright spots every hour or so. 

For example;

Dawn again - it was like a picture book dawn - not fiery reds and so on, but a gradual change through all the colours of the rainbow; even violet if you include the dark purple-blue-black night sky, then indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and then grey, and white sparking frost everywhere once it was fully daylight. Not dull.

We went out in the car, to drop some groceries off to be delivered to my father. As instructed, I knocked on the window of the care assistant's lair to let them know I had arrived. 'Here, I'll open the window, just pass me the bag,' It was, I have to say, mildly entertaining to watch the care assistant trying to make a bunch of bananas and half a dozen eggs go through the inadequate gap, before giving up the idea and walking round to the front door to collect them. Not dull.

When I got back into the car, we discovered one of my Christmas presents still behind the passenger seat. That solved the puzzle of 'what did she give me for Christmas?', and also gave the lie to 'Christmas comes but once a year'; Not dull!   

We had chicken katsu curry for lunch - a new recipe - and rather good, followed by JAM AND CREAM DOUGHNUTS! Oh wow! Not dull.

The sun did come out, and I managed a walk around the block after lunch - 850m - with the cold pinching at my nose and seeping into my fingers in spite of thermal gloves and hands in my pocketses. These walks are making a small difference to my stamina and breathing, even though I have a mental image of 'throwing myself out of the house,' and rush out before I can change my mind.

Now, you may be wondering how a 'walk around the block' can vary so much in length... on our housing estate there are a number of 'roads' and 'drives' and 'avenues' and 'ways' which all intersect, so it is possible to choose how far, and how much of a gradient I am prepared to tackle. Back in the Summer I was doing the longest circuit, taking in the far side of the duck pond, and it is my aim to go back to this distance, and more, if I can persuade myself.

So we walked past the house where they have decorated the tree in the garden with Christmas baubles, paused to let another walker go past by a clump of wild strawberry plants growing in the gutter, one of them in flower!, noticed some daffodils so close to coming into flower, and stopped to chat to someone we know. Not dull.

Bearing in mind the ancient Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times', I'll settle for 'dull'!   

Tuesday 29th December - 4th day of Christmas

 I watched the dawn again - quite easy, as it is still dark at 7 am, and we are tending to wake at about 6 which is not our preferred hour. The world outside my bedroom window is actually much more colourful before the day begins;

Once dawn had become day the sky was a uniform grey, the roof tops brownish grey, and the tree opposite a greenish brownish grey, not as bright as the picture.

Some lucky people woke up to snow - someone tweeted a picture of their garden with the caption 'Narnia', looking something like this;

 (It's a bit of a conundrum how to draw white snow on white paper - I've put off trying to paint the snowdrops coming out in the garden for the same reason) 

According the to weather report at lunchtime there is a slight chance we may get snow for New Year's Day. I'm not getting my hopes up...

I never did finish posting all those pictures of weird and wonderful teas from my Advent calendar. I have now tried nearly all of them, except coconut and chocolate tea which went straight to the worms in the compost bin. I even drank the beetroot tea - a pretty pale pink, and tasting mostly of orange. I have reverted to English Breakfast.

It's a bit annoying that the Twinings tea bags, of which we appear to have several hundred, can't go straight into the compost after use. Last year's compost is full of skeletal vestigial teabags, ghosts of tea-times past. Now I carefully tear open the bags and tip the leaves into the teapot and chuck the bag into the bin. As soon as I have drunk another 100 cups of tea I shall change brands. Or just stick with loose tea - even tea-bag tea tastes better when released from the little bag.

A pot of tea is a statement of love and warmth and comfort, in a way that a mug of tea isn't.

It' around 4pm and I have just brought in the tea-tray; mine is in the cup and saucer - a proper breakfast cup and saucer, the last survivor of the 'Polruan Breakfast Set' used by my father's family when he was little, and used by our family when I was little. It was made by T G Green in Church Gresley, Cornwall; they are more famous for the blue and white striped china which you can still get today.

I weighed myself this morning; it could have been a lot worse. My calorie control system seems to be working; in order to avoid gaining the kilos (I used to read the scales in stones and pounds, but the numbers for kilos are bigger and easier to read) I simply ensure that Himself eats half as much again, or more than half, than I do. Hence the little and large slices of cake. This is another whiskified wonder; the fumes as I open the tin are still strong enough to make me take a step back, and could explain why my slice is more of a ragged chunk.

If dawn came at 8am, dusk has fallen at half past four or thereabouts. We staggered round the block at about half past two - 880m this time - I was staggering because it was slightly uphill apart from the home stretch, and he was staggering because it is hard for hi to walk so slowly with his long legs. That's three days in a row...

   

Monday 28th December 2020 - 3rd Day of Christmas

 Woke up to a white morning, no, not snow, but frost.

I also woke to the glad thought that I have the whole of this week off, and my diary for the week is completely empty!

After the second coffee I put on a coat and hat and scarf and gloves and went for a slow walk... it started to rain quite heavily soon after we left the front door... so we turned back... and the rain stopped. Still, it cleared the frost.

And it was enough to clear my head. 

Today was the day for getting acquainted with some of my Christmas presents; a couple of tubes of M Graham watercolours, and the Rosemary & Co Eradicator brush.

I cleared out two of the little sections in my china tray, to add Hansa Yellow, Pale Green, Crimson Alizarin and Deep Ultramarine Violet. They are glorious

 I'm also starting a new sketchbook, this time A4, which feels a bit ambitious. It is a statement of hope, as much as anything, in this current lockdown. What shall I sketch?

The Eradicator brush is designed to lift off the paint; I've watched a couple of videos but I need to watch some more. "I use it to create veins in leaves, and also window frames" says one blogger. I started with the leaves, but it looks as though the dampness or wetness of the paint is important. Making lines in the blue slurps of paint, and creating a window frame were the most successful.

Beginning any brand new book - sketch book, notebook, is always a bit scary. In the past I have tended to start at the back, in the hope that I will have improved sufficiently by the time I get to the front in order not to mess up the first page. Recently I read a suggestion that a good way to start a sketchbook is with drawing the pens, brushes and paints you are using. I have 'cheated' even more; these two pages are the inside front cover of the book, and the facing page, so in my mind they don't belong to the main part of the book.

I've started reading Georgette Heyer's Regency Romance 'Friday's Child'. A real paperback version, printed back in 1976, so I've had it a little while

. 

When I opened the book I was tempted to download a Kindle version. The pages are yellow, the glue is no longer sticking, and the print is minute...

I can just about read it comfortably if I shine the reading light on it. I reckon I'm overdue for the opticians (and the dentist and whatever else needs doing). Those days of reading books by the light of a torch under the bedclothes are L o n g G o n e. 

I don't think I've read one of her romances for years and years... there is a row of them on the top shelf so I've plenty to look forward to over the coming year.

 

Sunday 27th December - 2nd day of Christmas

Christmas Dinner - Lamb tagine with pasta

 

Christmas Day 

As almost everyone else must be saying - was that the weirdest Christmas ever?

It started normally-ish; opening stocking presents at breakfast time, and zoom church seems fairly normal these days. Several members of the zoom congregation were still in pyjamas and dressing gowns; so much more practical for church these days.

We had opened our presents soon after. This was a fairly tricky task; so many of the parcels were un-labelled this year. We are both in the habit of making a list of who gave what, and had to make several guesses. Then lunch; there was a small turkey in the fridge; we eyed it up and opted for lamb tagine from the freezer instead. Good call. In the afternoon we zoomed the offspring and watched them open their presents after their celebration Christmas meal of favourite Chinese dishes. This provided an excellent opportunity to revise our lists.

Boxing Day - 1st Day of  Christmas

I spent The Entire Morning, starting at 10:30, prepping the turkey, prepping the veg, prepping the accompaniments, mostly successfully. The only casualty was the bread sauce; the milk was quietly sitting in a jug infusing the flavours of peppercorns, cloves, nutmeg and onion when suddenly it was accidentally launched floor-wards, landing in the cat-food bowl which, being glass, shattered. Himself went upstairs and and changed his trousers, which had been sprayed with flavour-some milk, and I swept up the mix of cat food, glass, spices and onions. Floor-washing was the next unscheduled activity (that had been on the to-do list for a few days so was glad to get that done).

So, our Christmas meal was turkey, gravy, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, red cabbage, sprouts, bacon and sausage meat balls, and cranberry sauce. No bread sauce, and no stuffing. It was all very good... but was it worth five hours prep and cooking, followed by an hour to clear the kitchen (3 roasting tines, three saucepans, assorted utensils and plates and serving dishes? Yesterday's prep was 5 mins (remove container from freezer and place in oven) and clearing up was maybe 10 minutes?

Which brings us to today...

or maybe last night; Storm Bella was fairly bumptious round our way and it was pretty noisy. So this morning I was feeling slow and lazy and lacksadaisical.

Much to my amazement, I suddenly found some energy after lunch. This could be because I had eaten most of the chocolate Santas in Christmas stocking. So we slowly walked round the block in the last of the afternoon sunshine. I have come to the conclusion that every direction from our house is more or less uphill, if only slightly. Halfway round the circuit I was considering sending Himself home to fetch the car, but luckily the downhill gradient started and I managed to complete the distance. All 800m!

We have just finished watching 'The Sound of Music'; I don't think I have watched it for about thirty years. It was almost like watching it for the first time...

The chair is empty because Himself has just gone to fetch me a drink...

   

Thursday 24th December - Christmas Eve

 I'm about to start (!) sending out the e-cards - and before I did that, here's a card for all the readers of this blog, family, friends, and anyone who stumbles across this page;

It should say 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year', but lettering is tricky to carve out backwards.

 I do hope you all find some happiness and merriment as the days go by.