2009 An Icy Christmas

Considering the amount of snow and ice we've encountered over the last two decades the last year of this decade,2009, has been exceptional. Two episodes of snow and cold icy conditions this year have broke the mould of a centimeter or two of snow that disappears the next day. Although it's not been anywhere near the wintry conditions I remember as a child. Back then we frequently struggled through snow deep enough to cover our wellies. Snow one to two feet deep was not considered an unusual occurrence. Skating on the fenland waterways and ponds happened every year at some point during the winter.

As we get older, snowy winters are not as welcome any more, pretty though they are. For seniors, any icy areas are to be avoided as any cost. Our increasingly unsteady gait over slippery ice brings worries of fractured hip or other bones. Not to mention cuts and bruises and the total embarrassment of a fall.

During this snowy interlude many of the small side roads and culdesac and pathments have been covered by ice sheets caused by compresses snow, melting a, little followed by overnight freezing. Holding the car steady and controlled in these conditions is a acquired skill that many younger driver haven't gained yet.

We had a fairly quite Christmas day, staying at home with D.J. as our only Christmas dinner guest this year. I cheated and cooked an already prepared three bird roast. I must admit though, as exotic as it sounds, none of us were overly impressed. Next year we'll stick with a traditional bird to roast.

The afternoon saw us driving over to Sean & Dawn's to see the Grand kids and Great Grand kids. DJ had suffered one of his usual sleepless nights and was sleeping by this time so we let him be and left him home.

A cold sunny Boxing Day saw us driving to Haconby, a small village North of Bourne in Lincolnshire to a family gathering at my Niece's home. Their home was toasty and welcoming with a newly installed log burning stove.

We had a festive fun day with the family. Bev and Barry are excellent hosts and the food and drinks flowed in abundant. Lately, in my senior years I have become a 'tea totaI' but having imbibed a fair quantity of Baileys last year while in Vancouver I just managed to keep the Bailey's on ice to just the one. Ever conscious of the increasing waistline!!!

Later in the afternoon the Twister mat was brought out. This is not a game for me or us oldies but the youngsters enjoyed and cheated at it. My long limbed brother in Law is usually an enthusiastic player but this year a rather delicate operation a couple of weeks before Christmas kept him firmly on the couch. The Wii was the next on the agenda Less energetic but mentally taxing was the Brain games, were, we were all well and truly trounced by the brainy 11 year old Lauren.

The increasingly rotund, pregnant, Bev decided to test out the reclining benefits of their new leather furniture. I think a rest was well and truly deserved as we all had a great day.

What Happened to November?

Well it's almost Christmas once more and whoops there's been no posts since October. No inspiration. No news. No time.

OK so whats been happening here.

Peterborough council has suspended Cathedral square's so called improvements until the New Year. Completion date keeps getting pushed further into the future. The 1960's Post Office block behind St Johns church has been demolished to make space for more 'beautification' of the City centre. There's now talk of an open grassed area in it's place.

The City's Christmas decorations are still dire. The same old tat has been erected as the previous two years. Pretty enough at night when the lights are on but real awful in daylight. The Queensgate Mall has also erected the same decorations as last year but at least they are pretty and cheerful.

I've got the usual ideas mental block over buying Christmas presents. I think after 66 years Christmas preparation gets just a tad tedious. Just too much preparation and expensive for a couple of days. How do these people get the energy to erect thousands of lights all over their house exterior? What does it do to their energy bills? Should we be doing this when Global Warming is such an issue? Is Global Warming a myth? Am I becoming a GOW (grumpy old woman)

Maybe I'm just getting slower finding the Christmas spirit. At least I've got all my Christmas cards made. Now I have to start addressing envelopes and post before the last posting date passes. Oh joy!

Sunny Sunday

I spent the first half and hour this morning after getting up at my usual time putting all the clocks back an hour. Normally I do this when I go to bed the night before. I just couldn't be bothered last night. I've decided we've too many clocks in this house! So now British winter time begins. I don't like the dark nights. Roll on spring.

After yesterdays miserable rainy day today was a pleasant surprise. Cold, but sunny with beautiful clear blue skies. We decided to do the last purge on the garden to wrap it up for winter.

This elegant grey eucalyptus tree was a 25th wedding anniversary present to us from Dave's work colleagues. We're now approaching our 45th anniversary! It was a small slender sapling when we planted it. Each year we slash it down by half and despite its drastic pruning it has grown into a magnificent tree. Each year as we get older it gets more difficult to prune. Its always a two man job for us. We have garden loppers and a long handled tree pruner but Dave still has to get out the step ladder out to get all the top branches.

The poor tree always looks sad after we've finished scalping it but it soon recovers in the spring and shoots skywards with vengeance. I think that sadly it will soon have to be removed completely as it's out growing it's allotted space. The roots of this tree can be a problem if its allowed to grow with out checking the yearly growth. It's a great tree though for flower arranging and I'll be sad to see it go.

These pretty pink miniature roses and all my golden fuchsia bushes are still flowering madly giving some welcome colour. They'll keep going until the first bad frost puts and end to the flowers. Then I'll have to nip out and quickly prune the bushes back by half for the winter.

An Accidental Day

Driving was a nightmare in City center this morning. Yes, worse than usual, much worse. A road accident at Bishops Road roundabout when I left the swimming pool this morning sent me and all other drivers completely around the city centre. The traffic at 10am in the morning was horrendous. Slow moving nose to tail. It took me ages to get to the coffee rendezvous. My coffee mates reported another accident at another roundabout which could account for the traffic chaos. Later when I left the car park to head home yet another car had ploughed it's way into the lane side railings at the Crescent roundabout. It sure had remodelled its front. Not a look to emulate!
Was there something in the wind today that made people drive like lunatics??????????????

Familiar processes in a new kitchen

After 23 years of making celebration and wedding cakes in my old kitchen I had all the processes down to a fine art. Each process took a certain length of time to prepare, execute and clear up afterwards.

Now it's like learning all over again in my new kitchen. I'm having to decide where and how to do things all over again to make the best use of my time and space. Where do I weigh ingredient and place them so they're easy to pick up and add to the cake mix, which area is best for rolling out the marzipan and icing to coat the cakes and where do I now store the coated cakes? I coated two cakes yesterday with marzipan and I think it must have taken me twice as long as it normally would have. First I had to find all the equipment I needed to use, then decide which surface would be best to work on. I had also reorganised all my sugarcraft equipment so even that took time trying to remember where I had stored everything! I eventually got it completed. Hopefully it will be easier next time.
Thankfully I don't take many commissions now. Kneading the marzipan was as painful on my thumb joint as making all the sugar roses I need for the decoration.

........and yes these photos were taken some time ago in my old kitchen!

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Why don't we go to bed for the winter?

Daisy's ready for her winter hibernation. She's been mooching about the conservatory now for a couple of weeks. She doesn't want to go outside, if I put on the patio outside she'll come straight back in and she doesn't want to eat either. Not even her favourite food, plump juicy grapes. As soon as the sun slips behind clouds she shuffles off to hide under the large Christmas cactus in the corner.

I'd put her in her hibernation box if only I could get to it in Madmooses overflowing den aka the garage! We'll have to get to it soon or she'll spend all winter out of bed!

Garden Wildlife.

This cheeky female squirrel makes frequent trips into our garden. She either expertly jumps, almost flying, from tree to tree just beyond the garden fence or when the dense shrubbery covering the fence top is hacked back she takes a run across the fence top and down into the garden. She's ruined many a cheap bird feeder by grabbing it and chewing away until the contents spill out. Even the squirrel proof feeders appear to be no obstacle to her. So now we hang a heavy duty metal feeder with peanuts in the tree and put feed in a tray on the ground.

This seems to have satisfied her appetite. She's obviously had kits (or whatever the squirell equivelent of babies are called) this summer. Fairly late in the summer by the look of her and occasionally a youngster comes bounding along the fence inspecting all the hanging bird feeders until it finds the food it can get at.