Christmas Lights

   Put up some outdoor lights today as it continues to be unusually mild (got up to 10C today with blue skies). I don't usually bother (my string of lights has to be almost 30 years old) but since son is here to reach the high places, we gave it a go. I'm sure it will add to the festive feel of our street. A lot of the bulbs had burned out and some of the sockets aren't working but we had enough to mount a reasonable display.

      Everyone seems to be starting Christmas early this year. I think it is due to wanting to add some festivity to our dull lives. Not much chance of Christmas shopping unless you want to buy online which I don't. I like to see the item before I plunk down some cash. The grandkids have given me their choices for charitable presents (i.e. they choose a gift from the PLAN catalogue to be given in their name) but I will try to find something for them, either money or a gift card. The adults don't exchange gifts.

   A nice healthy stew tonight, cooking in my crock pot. I'm not a big meat eater but it does smell delicious, probably because I used some red wine to deglaze the pan when I browned the meat! I will serve it with a salad and some bread to soak up the gravy. Yum!!

One of my neighbour's displays.

More Christmassy houses.

Back to Exercising

    Nothing much happening here as we under lockdown again, so haven't been posting in some time. A friend fell and broke her hip so I have been touching base with her to try and keep her spirits up. Not possible to visit her in hospital due to COVID but she is going to a rehab centre on Monday so things are improving for her. We are lucky to have such good care.

   Have started my daily walks again and, although it was a bit chilly today, it was sunny so I walked for about 40 minutes. When I got home I pottered in the garden and got a bin filled for pickup next week. 

   I made a loaf in the bread machine today and one of the cats got into it while it was cooling! I managed to salvage most of it except for the nibbled section. Bad cat! A pancetta and veggie frittata with salad for dinner tonight followed by a slice of apple crumble. Steve made fajitas yesterday so we have been eating well. Glad I had a good walk this afternoon!

Winter Wonderland

    It's a bit early for this kind of weather but we have had big wet snow falling all day and it is set to continue into the wee small hours. We won't bother cleaning off the cars or shoveling it as it will melt in a day or two. 

It looks very Christmassy with my neighbour's lights shining through the snow.

Christmas Plum Pudding

    I have been in two minds whether to make a plum pudding or not this year, since it's unlikely that we will be celebrating as a family. However, I have been prevailed upon by the grandkids to keep up the tradition even though we won't be able to enjoy it together. 

   One of the main ingredients in most plum  pudding recipes is ground beef suet, giving it its distinctive flavour. However, that has been difficult to find recently and I went on a hunt for some last week - no luck! Fortunately one butcher cut me a chunk of beef fat but that posed another problem, how to process it into the fine ground suet I require. That took quite a bit of effort but, along with soaking the fruit in brandy, that was eventually accomplished. 

    Yesterday was "Pudding Day" and having everything ready beforehand made the job easy. It steamed for 3 hours, was allowed to cool then wrapped up well to "mature" for the next 5 weeks. Mission accomplished! I just hope it lives up to expectations despite the problem with the suet.

   On Christmas Day (or just before) I will send a good portion to the family and when they flambee it at their house, I will do the same with my portion and we can enjoy it together over Skype!