1 Waiting outside the Dr’s for Mr S, I wandered around with my camera and found three beautiful things!
Lichen and moss on copper coloured bark
Weather-beaten buttercup
Cornish Snail
2 J sitting snuggled up on my knee watching The Snowman and The Snowdog while his Mum and Dad packed up the car to leave.
3 Big Goodbye hugs and tears. All eight have left on the same day and the house is far too quiet………
1 A brief walk this afternoon down Lovers Lane and back up Chapel Walk and we found this lovely old cut-down tree trunk with moss. Looking up at the tree there was beautiful bark and a tangle of branches.
Looking up the tree
Bark and ivy
Cut section of trunk
2 There’s a Periwinkle flowering in the front garden.
Periwinkle
3 J and I spent a happy half hour watching the birds at the feeders in the back garden He can identify all of them! The highlight of the afternoon was a tiny wren who stayed around long enough to have its photo taken.
Tiny wren
1 Lovely walk in the rain this morning, all togged up and all cobwebs blown away.
Pink wellies in the rain
2 We wondered where this beautiful gate might lead to.
Beautiful old gate
3 Our eldest daughter, M, is with us today, for Christmas lunch no 2, silly games and easy tea of cheese and crackers, L’s homemade sausage rolls all followed by Christmas pud and brandy sauce. D&A were on Skype again so we were ‘all together’ today.
1 Birthday breakfast for KJ.
2 Very windy walk on the beach at Porthtowan.
Christmas morning on Porthtowan Beach
3 Skyping with D&A in Barcelona for several hours and sharing our Christmas together.
Hope you have all had a peaceful and happy day wherever you are. 🙂
1 J did a last bit of decorating, hanging all the wooden ornaments onto a picked-up branch – plenty of those around after the rough weather.
Decorating the branch
2 The next tranche of family have arrived. Hooray!
3 Everybody is busy in the kitchen cooking dinner together, Ham cooked in Coke and glazed with Honey and Ginger and served with creamy mash, broad beans in a white sauce and sweet corn. Delicious. We are blessed with sons-in-law who love to cook.
Preparing the meal together
1 What a delightful surprise! The primroses have started flowering in this cold and damp December. What little beauties they are!
Primroses, one of my favourites
2 This little Jester is part of J’s Christmas present of a castle with figures.
Delightful little Jester
3 The first tranche of the family will be arriving any minute having driven for 5-6 hours and hopefully avoiding all the floods throughout Cornwall.
1 Clearing out Mum’s desk for the polishing the other day, I found this letter destined for Father Christmas circa 1982. I can’t imagine why it wasn’t burnt with the others so that the message could go up in smoke to Father Christmas. Like my parents before us, we always added a bit of salt to the folded letter to ensure it burned with a blue flame. Then it would come true!
Letter to Father Christmas c1982
2 Sausage rolls always disappear fast once the family arrive. This is the first batch – more tomorrow.
First batch of sausage rolls
3 We all love the chocolate pennies which appear at Christmas.
Tangerines and golden pennies
The first four of the family are arriving tomorrow. If I don’t manage to blog over the next few days, I hope you all have a Happy and a Peaceful Christmas.
1 A very quiet pottery kind of day putting up a few more cards. This delightful one which arrived today has been made by the young son of a very special friend.
Beautiful hand-made card
2 I love these very colourful decorations that should be safe from toddler hands as the fireguard will be up. (No fire will be lit!)
Colourful cane decorations
3 Three of the hyacinths that I brought out of the dark on 3rd December are already in flower! They smell so lovely. Click on the red link if you missed that post.
Hyacinths beginning to flower already
Happy Winter Solstice Day to you all. The days get longer from tomorrow; the sun is coming back!
1 Choir-baby T, in her Christmas party tu-tu, is happy to be cuddled at the splendid Christmas lunch put on for us by the lovely staff at Miss Peapod’s cafe.
Choir-baby T at the Christmas lunch with a good friend
2 Outside the cafe were these gorgeous, somewhat unconventional Angels.
Flying Angel at Miss Peapod’s
Cycling Angel at Miss Peapod’s
Angel with a pasty
3 It was quiet and still in Falmouth after yet another very wild night.
Seagulls in a blue dinghy
1 I love it when we get the cardboard boxes full of decorations out of the attic and open up them up to release memories as powerful as smells! So many of the decorations carry a person or a place with them and each is revealed in turn.
2 Truro is beautiful even in the rain and we had a lovely afternoon buying the last few presents and going into the Museum for a few moments’ respite to see the current exhibition, 100 Years of St Ives Artists.
3 All three of Claire’s choirs met up in Truro Cathedral for our feast of Christmas carols. One hundred or so of us sang our hearts out and the Cathedral was full – standing room only! It was a beautiful evening for everyone
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