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Monthly Archives: December 2020

Today’s Walk, Camellia Blossoms and Snow

Just the best day! We woke to sunshine, had a traditional birthday breakfast of croissants and after opening my presents and taking calls from our children, we went for a walk at Chapelporth. We took sandwiches with us and had hot chocolates from the cafe (its last day open as too many visitors from higher tier areas.) Just look at that sea!

The road to Chapelporth

The winter storms have scoured the top of the beach of sand and exposed the bedrock

Sunshine!

We arrived home to find a card and some glorious camellia blossoms from old friends on the doorstep. They are a more vibrant pink than the photo shows and are flowering in many gardens around us already brightening up the winter.

This afternoon we walked to the allotment and had tea and cake with our lovely neighbour, her sister and another allotmenteer, coming home in a sprinkling of snow which settled briefly on our baby Christmas tree and finding Dear Friends who had called by to drop off my cards. We are so lucky to have so many lovely people in our lives.

Dinner a deux tonight was confit duck, maple glazed carrots and parsnips, kalettes from our garden and baby Cornish potatoes – scrumptious. Dessert is still to come.

 

Connections, Wreath and An Owl

This appealed to me.

We have a new wreath on the front door. I couldn’t resist it for a number of reasons – one, it’s natural, two, it’s in suffragette colours and three, it was made by an artist friend from Fannie and Fox, the gallery where I have been selling my glass – couldn’t be better really!

Actually, it could! Just look at this wonderful owl decorating someone’s front door. I love it!  My maiden name is Wiseman and our family logo, an owl. I’d love to try this for next year!

Wow! Wol!

 

 

Wise Words, Wall Hangings and A Glass Panel

More wise words….

The wall hangings I made for two of the LiveWires have been delivered and well received. Here they are, the first for LiveWire no 4 because she loves her garden and all living things and the second for LiveWire no 3 to recall her wonderful trip to Japan. For some inexplicable reason, I didn’t take a photo of the lined and top-stitched finished article of the  one for No 4. I shall have to get one sent to me. If you zoom in you’ll see the thousands of stitches that I have been sewing, with great delight, off and on since last March!

For LiveWire No2, I made a glass panel of a Cornish engine house.

 

 

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A Good Future, Sourdough and A Special Pie

Another piece of timely wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh came my way today – the beautiful artwork is Evening Swim by Maja Lindberg.

Our lovely neighbour made a Sourdough loaf and gave us half. We had some of it toasted with our lunch of last year’s Christmas Soup. Christmas Soup is a family favourite of turkey stock made from the bones and then everything ‘leftover’ ( potatoes, carrots, parsnips, chestnuts, sausages, stuffing, bread sauce, gravy, turkey meat and everything else but the sprouts) whizzed up to make a thick meal in a bowl. This year we had a duck, there being only two of us but I had frozen and hidden(!) two pint pots of this special treat.

Sue’s Sourdough loaf

I made a pie tonight – Duck and Lentil – and it was delicious! Many years ago we were on holiday in France, in a gite in a Tournon D’Agenais, a fortified medieval hilltop town on the banks of the Lot River and in a little restaurant there had some amazing Duck and Lentil pie. This is the first time I have tried to replicate it and it was a great success, setting off lots of lovely memories.

 
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Posted by on December 28, 2020 in art, Food, friendship, Photography, Postaday2020

 

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Daffodils, Castle and Santa

We were delighted to see Daffodils in bud on a verge on our walk today.

We had sunshine every now and then today and I caught Carn Brea, the Castle and the Monument in a bit of it.

On the way home we spotted a Santa whose rope ladder seemed to have run out as he looks down rather despondently contemplating jumping off the bottom…….

Our lovely neighbour is safely out of self-isolation as her contact’s test has come back negative. Relief all around.

 

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Cornish Flowers, Polish Tree and Raindrops

Our flowers for Christmas are locally grown Narcissi and Anemones. They smell divine and I just love that we can have these so early in the season, grown in Constantine.

Our fabric tree from Poland takes pride of place on our inner door, against the Victorian etched glass.

We walked down in the rain  to buy our newspaper today as there are no deliveries, it being Boxing Day. (Actually, I don’t think any shops should be open on Boxing Day. Two days is not a lot to ask.). The raindrops on the grass on the top of a Cornish hedge were glistening like strings of  jewels.

 

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Happy Christmas to you all

There’s a tradition in Cornwall of swimming on Christmas Day. We walk on the beach, we don’t swim!  We do like to see the intrepid folk braving it into the sea!

We have had a quiet day, Skyped with the family which was lovely, otherwise just the two of us, and delivering Chocolate Torte to our lovely self isolating next-door-neighbour.

 
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Posted by on December 25, 2020 in Cornwall, Photography

 

Dawn, Jolabokaflod and A Gift

Dawn on this Christmas Eve morning was very pretty.

Every Christmas Eve, the Icelandic people practice something called ‘jolabokaflod,’ which translates to ‘Christmas book flood. ‘ Jolabokaflod involves giving books as presents on Christmas Eve, so that friends and family can spend the cozy night in curled up with a good story. This is what we have done today, lit the fire and spent the afternoon reading after a heart warming pasty lunch in a rainy garden with our eldest daughter here for a covid-safe Christmas  visit. Oh, how I longed to hug her……

We left Mince  pies on next door’s doorstep with a Guardian Angel to take our love indoors with it.

 
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Posted by on December 24, 2020 in Uncategorized

 

Covid Christmas, More Baking and Our Tree

Mince pies and our exchange of presents socially distant in the garden in the rain this morning. What a star our lovely neighbour is!

Savoury baking today, sausage rolls and cheesy angels!

I am delighted with our new ornament for the tree!

 

Singing, Penguins and Chocolate Torte

A week ago, just 15 of us gathered at the Eco Park to sing Cornish Christmas carols in a safe and socially distanced way. Enjoy listening to us. For this who wanted to know, I’m right at the end singing “Thy beloved name!”  I’m elsewhere too so you can watch again from the start if you like, even perhaps contribute to one of our charities. Nadelik Lowen is Happy Christmas in Cornish.

Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner captured this image of two widowed fairy penguins looking over the Melbourne skyline. It has won an award in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards 2020.
The backstory is so heartwarming. The lighter penguin is an elderly female whose partner died this year. The darker one is a younger male who lost his partner two years ago. Biologists have followed them as they meet every night to comfort each other. They stand for hours together watching the city lights.

I made our Chocolate Amaretti Torte this afternoon, one for us and one for our daughter who is visiting for an outdoor pasty lunch tomorrow, looking forward to eating it soon!

Mixing the cream and the chocolate mixture

P.S.  We saw the Great Conjunction tonight for a  few moments when the clouds parted!

 

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