13th December - Advent Photo + Mince Pies 2020

I like a mince pie as much as the next person - but not dozens and not one everyday which is supposedly the tradition. So thought process when contemplating mince pies 2020................

I ought to make a bit of an effort - can't have Christmas without a mince pie
I'll just buy half a dozen from somewhere............ but they are often too sweet
I'll buy a jar of mincemeat and make some...........but the best is expensive and the cheapest is nasty.
I'll make some mincemeat like I usually do from the Delia Smith Christmas book.................but I haven't got all the ingredients and don't want to buy anything
I'll make mincemeat .....using what ever's in the cupboard plus a lemon!

 So I did.

This is the Delia Smith Recipe, which I've made lots of times - hence the mucky marks on the page.

Decided a quarter of the recipe would be enough this year and swapped an eating apple for the cooking apple, dried read-to-eat apricots chopped very small replaced the raisins, light brown sugar replaced the dark brown and I completely missed out the chopped peel, the nuts and the orange juice/zest and  always use vegetarian suet anyway.  It looks like mincemeat and smells like mincemeat, so I'll let you know what it tastes like when the mince pies are made and tested.

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Today's advent book has been around for a long time. The Ladybird Book of Well-Loved Carols was published in 1986. It has the names of my two eldest written inside in their writing. All the favourite old carols that we know so well are included.

 

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

 

 

12th December - Advent Photo and Another Week Gone

Another week gone and it feels like I achieved quite a lot -which makes a change.

 It was so good to have sunshine last weekend. Son came over to help me fetch down some stuff from the garage loft. I had no idea what was up there but it turned out to be bits left there after one of Youngest Daughters house moves just after we moved here. Some things were mouse-eaten or pooped on by birds and other bits no longer needed. But now at least they are all down to floor level - filling up the space where I like to put the car in icy weather! Youngest daughter and her partner have split up so he will come and fetch the things that will be useful in his new flat. 

After a couple of sunny days we then had fog and frost........days when the temperature hardly got above freezing and of course I couldn't get the car in the garage......typical.

On Monday I suddenly realised how much I needed a hair cut and gave them a ring and luckily they'd had a cancellation for that  afternoon otherwise they were fully booked until the 22nd. So drastic trim and thinning done and all will be OK for weeks.

 On Tuesday I took the big bundle of forms and deeds and other bits of paperwork to the solicitor in Bury St Edmunds............. a good opportunity for looking around all the charity shops. Bury was buzzingly busy and it wasn't even market day. Apart from masks and queues it was like any December day which I was pleased to see. Most shops seemed to still be open although I didn't bother to go up to the new shopping centre where Debenhams will be closing down. Nothing of any interest in the charity shops even though there are so many around the town.

Wednesday I swam, baked a cake and sorted out some junk so that  on Thursday I was able to take a load to the recycling centre AKA the tip. I booked into their first slot at 9am and was in and out quite quickly.  In town I picked up the Christmas double issue of the Radio Times - an annual traditional treat that I'll  enjoy browsing through. (I've already spotted a one-off Upstart Crow - Good) and had that exciting Persephone book find.

And Friday I waited in for a delivery, wrapped the grandchildren presents and finished off the family Christmas cards.

That's what I call a good, happy, successful week.

  Today's Christmas Advent Photo is this book by Caroline Taggart 'Christmas at War'. I borrowed this from the library last March but didn't read it because I straightaway decided to buy a copy. I think it was the first one I got with the £50 Shop4all voucher when I changed my house insurance provider.

Now I've read it and enjoyed it immensely. After reading how people managed to celebrate Christmas during the war years at home and abroad we really have nothing to moan about at Christmas 2020.

This is a book to keep and add to my Home Front collection to read again. 

Forgot to do a Grateful list last week so in the last two weeks I've been grateful for

• Sorting out and clearing out things to make less work later
• Good books and being able to share them around the country
  
• Getting Christmas gifts all finished
  

Next week I'm hoping to hear that the people who own the bungalow that I've had an offer accepted on have found somewhere to move to. They are long distance house hunting between here and Kent so it's not so easy. The bungalow is just in the next village over the A140 so I'm not moving far.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

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11th December -Advent Photo + Charity Shop Surprise

Today's Christmas book is  'Christmas at High Rising' by Angela Thirkell, a collection of short stories published in 2013.

You either like Angela Thirkell's tales of the people in her fictional Barsetshire or you don't. She wrote 29 books between 1933 and 1961 and I've been gradually collecting and reading them over the last few years. Virago have re-printed several - unfortunately they've not yet done the ones I haven't got, so 5 are still  stuck on my wish list ranging in price fro £20 to £30. I keep hoping Virago will re-do all of them given time.

From Amazon website...........
"Originally published in the 1930s and 1940s and never before collected, these stories by the incomparable Angela Thirkell relate merry scenes of a trip to the pantomime, escapades on ice, a Christmas Day gone awry, and an electrifying afternoon for Laura Morland and friends at Low Rising, not to mention the chatter of the arty set at a London private view. Charming, irreverent and full of mischievous humour, they offer the utmost entertainment in any season of the year."

It's a while since I read it so I've brought it down for reading quickly before the mobile library brings me 15 books next week.... 15! I won't need to worry about what to do if we are snowed in through January!

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And here's the charity shop surprise. In the Oxfam shop in Stowmarket I was amazed to see these

half a shelf of Persephone Books - what a treat, had to put my glasses on to see which were there and they steamed up in excitement ( or it might have been the mask!).

I wasn't too greedy, didn't snap up the lot but at £1 each (£1 is VERY cheap for Oxfam shops, the person pricing couldn't have checked on-line) I could have bought them all and made a profit re-selling. But I did buy £6 worth to add to my collection. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue