Your Day (apart from gardening) - what took place?

Well..we had to pop into town to get a few bits , thankfully it was literally only a few too!! The queues were a total nightmare, what should have taken only 30mins at the most ended up taking 2hrs. I hate shopping at the best of times but at Christmas... !!

Came home totally drained, couldn't even muster up the strength to sweep up the leaves as I had planned.

 

Such awful weather meant that my sweeping task was out of the question, non stop rain and strong winds all day.The windows are still rattling!

In the end I went over to my Dad's and put up his Christmas decorations. This was a task alright, although I always put them up my younger sister and Dad take them down...chucking everything into one bag it seems!! What a tangled mess!!!, it took ages to untangle things and then found out one set of lights had given up the ghost! Then couldn't find the BluTack that I had bought purely for putting up the decs. A lot of the decs are fairly old and are of great sentimental value this meant the Sellotape was in great demand! Finally got the job done, compared to last year's it was a scaled down version but still looked festive

On a brighter note my Dad was adopted 4 days ago by a ....duck!!! It follows him ,waits for him on the kitchen doorstep and tries to get inside when you open the door!! Makes my Dad's day as he loves birds and had loads of feeders around his garden.

 

Sorted out my Dad's freezer ready for Xmas goodies to go in this morning.
Baked my first lot of nibbles this afternoon, Brie and Cranberry tarts.

 

Bottled some hombrew for Xmas gifts/thank you's/own drinking:

12 Bottles Blackberry wine
12 Bottles Blackberry & Elderberry wine
12 Bottles Apple & Grape wine

That leaves a few gallons of cider and a gallon of fortified heavy red to sweeten/pasteurise (cider), and sweeten/add fermentation stopper to add to above list, plus sort out some bottles of pasteurised, pressed apple juice for give aways.

My Xmas booze bill is extremely small.


P.S. I have over 60 gallons left.

 

Got my trays done.

 

Wow Lori!!! you've been busy!

 

Ah! Time to relax. No. Nothing changes for me. Come the 25th. I will arise in time for lunch. Now then. What shall I have. Smoked salmon. Steak & Kidney pie or pudding. Fresh lobster with a side salad. A couple of sirloin steaks and whatever. Hey! Bangers and mash, or perhaps, sausages eggs and chips. Even a fried slice topped with say four rashers of smoked back bacon, further topped with mushrooms and sliced tomatoes plus three fried eggs. A couple of mugs of tea and sit back and snooze.

Why all the fuss. Lets be honest. At the end of the day. Ooops! I wish I hadn't eaten that ******* Then in time. Along comes the binman and collects all that unwanted, uneaten food and carts it off.
Enjoy your holiday festivities and I wish one and all a happy new year. Cheers, hic, nite nite, hic.

 

No way @Mike Allen ! Nothing gets wasted here!

I make what people like. All of those trays are customized to suit the recipients.

I've got three turkeys to cook. Two are for making up turkey dinners complete with mashed potatoes, vegetables, gravy etc and for me to deliver early Christmas morning to friends who are not able to cook their own dinner. Then they can easily reheat the food for supper. One fellow told me he had three suppers from my drop off last year.

And the best part is that all the effort helps me not gain umpty pounds during the holidays.

I'd rather help out friends that I know are in need than the coffers of charitable organization fund raisers. I don't have a heap of money so I make sure to get the best worth from it.

There are a couple of fellows at the pub who seem to be about the age of my sons, but these fellows obviously have the opposite of high i.q. and are nice fellows who are making minimum wage and only stop by occasionally to enjoy the comraderie of a friendly pub where no one pokes fun, so some of those cookie boxes are for them. They have a hard enough life that a kind gesture like this from me, here and there, and seeing a smile, makes me feel happy. I'm the winner

The last turkey is for my family dinner and I know I will enjoy it because I did my bit. I am not religious. I do believe in there being something, call it karma. And I'm just trying to pay back some of the good deeds that others have afforded me in tne past.

One thing that I am extremely excited about is that a friend of my son (also a low wage earner) has an 8 year old son who is mad about trains. Well, my best friend who died a few years ago asked me to make sure his model trains went where they would be appreciated so I've been holding onto the collection and waiting for a worthy recipient. And this kid is going to get a brand new, never out of the package, collector's edition train set, value is £120. And I taped a wooden train whistle that I sourced separately, to the outer gift wrap. Oh how I'd love to be a fly on the wall when this kid opens the package. I hope they address it "from Santa Clause". Santa knows no colour, religion, etc. Santa is the best! If the kid doesn't believe in Santa (hmmm, by the way, you kinda look like him @Mike Allen ) then he will know his Dad got it and Dad will always be his hero. Again, everyone wins.

Cheers,
Lori

 

No i don't waste food any time of the year.

At 8.30 this morning hubby comes back from sainsbury's supermarket and told me that the manager there was taking all the fresh fruit and veg off the shelves because the date goes up to the 24th next week. He was told from head office to do that and it was going to be dumped and not go to the food banks.He was there since 5am doing it. The shelves were empty and people were coming in looking for the produce.No wonder they're losing business.

 

It's very kind of you @CanadianLori to do the things that you do for others.

Going back about 10 years, there's a blind woman who lives down the road. It was this time of year and we had 2ft of snow. She couldn't walk her dog because she couldn't see the edge of the curbs, the snow had covered them all. She asked me to walk her dog, just once a day and i did. I had a lot of things that I was preparing for Christmas and we had more dogs of our own then, but i still did it. She was going to her parents for Christmas so i didn't have to worry about her.

 

We do have some lovely people on GC, its nice when you do something for others without thinking about what you can gain from being nice.

 

That spread looks wonderful Lori...

Every one on GC really are a great gang...

Speaking of old Christmas decorations Upsy...I have some from Mums that have gone up every year for nearly 70 years this year they are so delicate we're not going to risk it but the box is out and they will still be sat there..They were a penny a piece from woolworths and have such sentimental value ..Happy days...How lovely your Dad has 'Daffy ' visiting,you've gotta luv a Duck.

 

70 years wow!! Dad's are probably not far off come to think of it ,maybe 60. While he's with us we'll try out best to keep putting them up.....very carefully. Happy days definitely @lolimac .
The duck has brighten up his days, especially now that he hasn't got a faithful furry friend anymore. I dread it when it will eventually fly off in spring when the call of nature beckons .
He loves it in both of my Dad's ponds.


You've brought back fond memories....my Gran always said 'gawd luv a duck' when things didn't go to plan. Thanks for that @lolimac .

 

Just managed to hand off a few cookie trays.

@lolimac I love most wildlife. Well, not snakes. Or that one swan I didn't notice until he started chasing me along a riverside. Thank goodness that was years ago and I could sprint!

 

Friday I put the marzipan on the Christmas cake.




Today i put the royal icing on.