Normal service has partially resumed. Mum and I have both been too mired in the great unpacking for the sake of our sanity, so we headed out to walk the dog first thing to get a bit of air and, possibly, a touch of perspective. It was a lovely bright morning, with just a touch of a haze. Trees were full of birds, with festoons of tiny tits and finches garlanding bare blackthorns and fat blackbirds swooping low across the path as if tacking the hedge bottoms together. The weather is still crazily mild. In the undergrowth the ferns are still lush and verdant and Keith found a yellow rose (the Poet’s Wife we think) in full bloom in the rose garden this afternoon.
Alas, the packing cases beckoned and we headed down to Coldstream after returning Lyra to the house to wait for The Wine Society delivery (Reader it did not all arrive and, when we got back from our stint in the unpacking mines, Keith was giving young Henry from TWS absolute laldy). If I do say so myself, I made great strides in reorganising the basement to enable the joiners to crack on when they are back, tossing the huge bags and boxes around like Charles Atlas. Mum was carefully putting away china (depressingly she has declared all the cupboards now full and there’s another 15 boxes of the stuff queueing). I have made noises about “one in one out” and “choosing the best to keep.” She is feigning deafness with a conviction only matched by Lyra when facing the prospect of a trip to the groomers. I did manage to get two items (old suitcases) consigned to the brand new, and tantalisingly empty, skip. I am hoping that enthusiasm for decluttering mounts. Having pointedly allocated two small boxes to be filled with “unwanted items” tomorrow, I relented at two and we came home where Christmastide recommenced.
I spent the afternoon happily icing the last of the Christmas cakes, one to be posted for Ishbel’s Boxing Day birthday (a bit tight, but hopefully…) and one I am saving for New Year. I’m a total klutz at piping, so the cutters were out and whilst I may have got carried away with the spray glitter, it does cover a multitude of sins….I had big ideas for various things after that, but instead I spent an hour in the bath with a tub of Bombay mix (lunch never quite fitted in). I am now practically a prune. Keith is making us all a roast dinner and is clattering round the kitchen bellowing Hark the Herald Angels to a “tune” of entirely his own devising with backing vocals from Kings College Singers. It would be Grinchy to don my headphones whilst knitting, so I shall enjoy the festive airs until the roasties are ready and try to get a few rows done.
Today’s quiz question: The World Modern Pentathlon Championship was held in Lithuania this year. Both individual winners were from the same country – which? For a bonus what are the events
The answers for the two catch up questions:
18. They were all Dukes of York before ascending to the throne
19. Judas – Cercis is sometimes called a Judas tree
I think your cakes are great and full marks for fitting the icing of them in when you are clearly very busy with the unpacking. Don’t leave your mum alone around the skip…my mum almost fell in retrieving things I’d thrown in the skip when I was helping her declutter! 🥴