Saturday 29 December 2012

Christmas Party

Christmas 'Tree' (© Ian 2012)

We spent Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, with Jenny, Philip, and the fosterlings, and Philip's parents while they visited. It's been a pleasant few days, with lots of food and games and presents (including two rather good garden books by Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh). Yesterday, we made the most of the garden centre's sale, and found some new/extra lights for the fireplace swag—the lights ceased to function a couple of days ago, but the new, more numerous LED lights are really good.

Our more-tasteful-than-sometimes Christmas cake (© Ian 2012) 

This evening, we hosted a small party, for Jenny, Philip, the children, Cath, Jason, and Cath's parents; we've spent a lot of today, and bits of the last couple of days, making things: including some very tasty mincemeat-laced muffins, and rather tasty cheese nibbles. I might get round to recipes; you never know.

The dining room (© Ian 2012)

Monday 24 December 2012

Gingerbread

Last year, we made gingerbread houses for the fosterlings. They were good fun, and this year we decided to try something more challenging. It has been.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Parts for the Gingerbread House (© Ian 2012)


Parts for the Gingerbread House (© Ian 2012)

Yesterday we spent making the templates, and baking most of the gingerbread: today we finished baking, and assembled everything.

The 2012 Gingerbread House (© Ian 2012)

Eight kilos of sugar, flour, ginger, and nuts later, a scale replica of Jenny & Philip's house and garden, with a minimum of artistic license. The conservatory was a trigonometry exercise for me (I had to resort to long unused vector maths to work out the triangles involved...), while Liz is responsible for the marzipan and angelica plants, and the chocolate trees.

Jenny & Philip's House in Gingerbread (© Ian 2012)

Saturday 22 December 2012

The Nutcracker

We had my parents for a pre-Christmas visit last weekend, which we all enjoyed. This has been our last week at work before a couple of weeks of leave, and it's gone by pleasingly quickly (not least because we also had Friday off!). We spent yesterday splitting and stacking a ton of chestnut, which is now safely stowed in the wood shelter. Today's been rather more seasonal, as we went to Leeds Grand to watch the Northern Ballet perform The Nutcracker. It was an excellent production, and a lot of fun: it's been a long time since I've watched a ballet live, although we have a recording of the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker that we can watch at Christmas.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Christmas Decorations

Fireplace Swag (© Ian 2012)

We've spent most of the weekend putting up the Christmas decorations. This necessitated a trip up the hillside, to collect the holly for making the swag, putting in vases, and doing the stairs' handrails. We bulked this out with conifer from the garden (which is easier to make into a swag), and holly (for the kissing bough and wreath). It's all looking rather good, and decidedly seasonal. We don't have a 'proper' Christmas tree, having decided to do without while our Scot's pines grow. However, I did find two attractive boughs of silver birch, which I spray painted white, and are standing in. Actually, I really like it, and we might keep it for a second tree in future years.

Atypical Christmas tree (silver birch branches, sprayed white) (© Ian 2012)

We also cooked one of the Wiltshire cure hams we made in September. This was a more complex recipe than the previous salting, and included treacle and beer. It was definitely worth it, though: the ham was delicious.

I also unveiled the ginger wine I'd made some time ago for Liz's birthday, and it is, apparently, really tasty. I still think it smells horrible, though.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Herbs

We had a weekend in Cambridge (a displaced half-yearly get-together, which was really good), and popped in to our old garden centre on the way home. As well as admiring Christmas trees, and finding one decoration we liked (very restrained), we also picked up a second pair of loppers (on offer; we thought they'd come in handy clearing the hillside), and a load of end-of-season herbaceous plants. That included an aquilegia, some bronze fennel, some variegated thymes ('Foxley'), and a pair of white rosemaries (Rosmarinus officinalis var. albus).

They don't have an immediate home: the herbs will be grown on, for the future herb garden. A couple of the thymes might go in the front garden wall, that said, before layering them for more plants.

Not much to report, therein: the weekend was lovely, with much food and games, but no photos. We're at home next weekend, and will probably put up the Christmas decorations, as well as trying one of the hams we cured earlier in the autumn.