I could be calmer

MrFF has seen the results of his recent tests, everything was normal and he seems to be improving though hardly back to health. He will return to the doctors in January, hopefully a quiet Christmas will help him get well.  We have decided this year not to do our usual £5 Christmas stocking exchange, I don’t want the patient traipsing round shops looking for inspiration and I struggle myself since my favourite charity shop put the price of books up from 50p to at least £2.50.  That’s disappointing as I used to take a good supply of their paperbacks to Italy, read them and bring them back to redonate.

However we already have a lovely gift for each other which is our new microwave.  I discovered the old one had paint flaking off from the top inside surface with metal visible.  MrFF said he’d repaint it but I persuaded him we need a new integrated model.  It’s installed and looks so much smarter next to the steel fridge freezer,  there is a slim piece of oak trim still to fit underneath the oven just to finish it off.

I might be getting another surprise item.  Yesterday I broke my expensive Danish spectacles when they got tangled with a jumper I was taking off.  This will be the third time the frame has fractured, previous times they were within warranty and replaced free of charge.  Last year I had to buy expensive new lenses as the photochromic finish failed so I am hoping the titanium can be repaired or at least the lenses can be adapted for new not Danish not titanium frames.  I am off to see my optician later today meanwhile my glasses feel precarious.

So our Christmas prep is done, we have various meal options in the freezer and plenty of everything though a few more mince pies wouldn’t go amiss.  Today I’ve had a really good doris round the penthouse so just the husband and the glasses to fix now.  I hope your plans are going smoothly, not long to wait.

Party food rant

Today I had an email from Marks and Spencer announcing that their party food has arrived in store,  just in time for the festive season.  

Kick off a festive party with these Collection Mini Turkey Feast Toasties. Enjoy pulled British turkey, sage and onion stuffing along with ham hock, nestled with Emmental and Cheddar cheeses, cranberry chutney and béchamel sauce on toasted malted bread. Beautifully finished with turkey gravy.

Excuse me it’s October besides which those single mouthfuls of complicated nonsense can hardly be described as food. Yes we all know I am not in favour of Christmas being mentioned until at least mid December but this is ridiculous.  

I detest the while concept of party food.   I’ve been to events where the hosts have offered a bought in buffet, in one case it wasn’t even decanted from the plastic trays it arrived in. I’ve also been to (better) parties where I’ve been served proper homemade food, like a big dish of chilli con cane accompanied by fresh crusty bread.  If you are going to hold an event for friends and/or family surely it’s better to prepare them something wholesome rather than order in plastic packs of questionable content that they could easily buy themselves.  

I love eating at friends, I appreciate the effort they make to prepare a meal for us and love sharing their food.  I certainly don't want anything complicated or difficult, it’s about being together round the dining table chatting and relaxing.  As you can imagine party food won’t figure on my seasonal shopping list, in fact I don’t have a seasonal shopping list, ever. 

I bet you are looking forward to my festive table decor rant, it won’t be long, it’s that time of year.

We did it again

Well sort of.  MrFF had dropped a lot of hints that I’d be disappointed this year with my £5 stocking.  He forgets that he always spends the weeks before Christmas traipsing round the shops and travelling to other towns with his free bus pass only to bemoan the fact he cannot find anything suitable.

This year he underspent and I overspent so things balanced out.  Here’s what I received 

A couple of books and hand warmers which he says I can use when my feet are cold in bed as they often are these days, probably a circulation thing. Some eco bamboo clothes pegs which at first I said I’d take to Italy as we have no outdoor clothes line in Ilkley but which I might use when here  I put the washing out on the balcony on the airing stand, unofficially.  We are not supposed to dry washing outside which on a good day seems criminal, besides my laundry can hardly be seen as we are so high and behind a parapet, it’s not like Naples with sheets hanging from the windows.

MrFF got last years Private Eye annual 50p and brand new garden shears which at £2.99 were a charity shop bargain that will go to Italy so I can use them too.  Two Marks and Spencer Autograph supima cotton t shirts that look like new at £5 each.  First I bought just the green one but they were so nice and the budget blown I went back for the blue.  I also threw in a pair of hand knitted socks, extravagant or what.

Our gifts from friends and family were lovely, just right, and our day was mostly peaceful. After breakfast I took a walk on my own as MrFF was starting a cold which so far hasn’t affected me.  We had a nice meal and had settled down to watch tv when at 10 pm the fire alarm in our building went off.  We evacuated via the fire escape and waited outside until it was confirmed to be a false alarm.  It went off again this afternoon and we were on our way down the escape stair again when it stopped.  It has been turned off, I was a bit worried that whoever did that hadn’t  had time to check there definitely wasn’t a fire.  A lot of people hadn’t made any effort to leave the building, I wonder what will happen if it goes off in the middle of the night

Post edit - I also received a scented candle which I forgot to show you. I haven’t lit it yet, it did not trigger the fire alarm which went off again on Saturday. We were just descending the escape again someone turned it off.

All is calm all is bright

The build up to Christmas seems to have been even more manic this year.  I’ve seen supermarket trollies loaded with festive foods for weeks now, huge queues and extra large vegetable displays started happening weeks ago.  And let’s not mention the dreaded party food that has been available since well before anyone was thinking about a party.

On our way out yesterday we called at our lovely northern supermarket Booths for our Sunday paper.  At 10 am when the shop opened we had to queue for a parking space.  I dashed in for the paper, negotiated the overflowing trollies and was out again to find MrFF hadn’t moved an inch, we then had to queue to get out of the car park.

We were meeting my youngest niece, her husband and their two young daughters 3 and 5, for a visit to Cliffe Castle museum followed by a late lunch back at the penthouse.  The little ones had a lovely time, there was much to engage them particularly in the natural history section where the eldest chatted knowledgeably about fossils, dinosaurs and the solar system. We had a lovely few hours.

After lunch we were treated to a rerun of the eldest’s school nativity, Isla had learnt all the words to some specially written songs, Elodie joined in as best she could and then gave us her own rendition of jingle bells. There was a lot of dancing, running about, rearranging of cushions and in the end both girls were so hot they stripped down to their little vests and tights.  It was lovely to have them here and see Christmas through their young excited eyes, a good antidote to all news we've had on cards this year of failing health from friends.  

As a bonus they were able to bring all our presents from family, plus a lovely arrangement of greenery and fresh garden vegetables from my brother and his wife.  We sent them home with our gifts to family as they’ll all be together on Christmas Day,  so that’s all done and dusted. 

Nothing much to do tomorrow as today I’ve cleaned the house and done all the laundry including changing our bedding, I just need to find something for our Christmas dinner.  MrFF has already attended three turkey lunches so he won’t be missing out if we settle for a duck and if all else fails there’s a nice leg of lamb in the freezer and two boxes of mince pies, I may get more tomorrow.

I hope you are calm and bright, won’t be long now.  Happy Christmas 

 

Eco gifting

I am sure you have been wondering how MrFF and I managed in these difficult times to provide each other with a stocking of Christmas gifts to the value of £5.  We failed in that that we both exceeded the budget, doesn’t everything nowadays, however we gave each other acceptable, inexpensive and sustainable gifts, mostly preloved and sourced locally.  Here we go.

I received a set of 9 slate coasters which I like very much, they are displayed here with the two beautiful Alessi white china mugs I also received.

A book of glove knitting patterns

My star prizes was a seemingly unused floor mop which he sourced from our communal bins.  We feel we do a service by taking out useable items which should be given to the charity shop.  

My gifts to MrFF were  

A book on egg cookery.  He is very particular about his eggs and will often walk miles across the moor to find farms selling fresh eggs of interesting varieties, now he has even more reason to do so

A bar of wool fat soap, if you’ve never used this you should give it a go, it smells lovely

A t shirt emblazoned with a graphic of our favourite Tour de France ascent.  Now he feels he needs to ride the route, I think not.

We open our stockings before we get up on Christmas morning.  MrFF says he regrets not getting a photo of me lying in bed drinking tea whilst admiring my new mop.  Sadly I haven’t been able to use it yet as I need the bucket to squeeze the water out. So far I am still washing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees but it worked out well for Cinderella so I live in hope.

Count down to Christmas

Returning from Italy mid November to find the shops full of Christmas is always a shock and a wake up call too.  Our town Christmas light switch on takes place this afternoon, cue frantic shoppers made crazy by all the Christmas music and restaurants full of office parties.

So I thought I’d better make an effort. I’ve thought about our Christmas meal, I’ve thought about buying presents and I’ve thought we could maybe have a larger tree this year.  As if that isn’t enough I have also made our Christmas cake, safely wrapped and tucked away.  

I think there quite enough for now.  Oh yes and I’ve started eating mince pies.

Our Christmas stockings

This year providing each other with a Christmas stocking of gifts costing no more than £5 total was really challenging but we were determined not to up the budget. 

I didn’t do very well with my purchases for MrFF, some organic dark chocolate, two spf lip balms to take to Italy where he is prone to cold sores from the sun, a geology book and a rather lovely landscape book on water gardens costing 50p in the charity shop. It has beautiful illustrations and detailed plans, In case he ever runs out of projects in Italy I would like this one.

My stocking contained all these, he found some lovely things. 

The mini battenburgs were on their expiry in the bargain bucket, I don’t mind that at all.  

The little wooden sphere is a yo-yo, he thought the picture of the badger would remind me of our Italian garden, though not in a good way. 

My favourite item is in the white paper bag, it’s liquorice from Skipton market, where he travelled for free with his bus pass.   The disc shaped ones are Pontefract cakes, which are soft and delicious, the tiny little cats are Dutch liquorice, they are so lovely I cannot bring myself to eat them.  

Slightly less delightful is the grater for taking hard skin off your feet, MrFF thought it might be quite aggressive but it isn’t.   Finally there is a collagen face mask that might get passed on, I am not convinced such a product also containing glitter and costing less than £1 is what my 74 year old skin needs.

Of course we had gorgeous gifts from family to open later in the day but opening our stockings on Christmas morning is always great fun and cheap fun at that which is what we like.

Light at Christmas

I am wondering how I feel this year about outdoor Christmas lights.  Living in our penthouse we don’t have the option of an outdoor display but when we lived in houses we generally had white lights in a tree near our front door at Christmas. I think there is a natural desire for increased light during the cold of winter and the long dark nights but this year feels different.

We were invited by our energy supplier to take part in a savings exercise that we happily agreed to join.  Basically at specified peak usage times we must try to  reduce our normal power consumption by turning off what we can.  In return we receive a small credit and help reduce demand.  The first time we did this, turning off tv, computers, anything on standby and using only one light we did well and earned a credit of £2.99 in one hour.  We were invited the next week to do the same for one hour on two consecutive days. We took the same action but our total saving was disappointingly about £1.50, twice the time half the return, maybe we missed something.  The latest request was to save for two hours between 5 and 7 pm which seemed a bit daunting but in fact wasn’t, again the saving was only £1.50.   

Of course it’s no great financial benefit given the enormous rises in fuel prices but we like to think it’s one in the eye for Putin as we reduce consumption and demand,  also it reminds us not to take power for granted or waste it.

So I am finding it hard to accept some of the lavish outdoor light displays we see around us. We look down onto this terrace of smart townhouses, almost every one is illuminated from dusk, most until late at night and one all night long.  I feel this is rather ostentatious, not because I dislike excessive displays (I do) but as more and more people are struggling to cope with financial pressures it seems insensitive.  It’s a tricky one, I love the lights in our town and everyone has the right to spend their money as they wish but with a worst case scenario that we could in future face power cuts shouldn’t we all be thinking about how we use this commodity.  Besides being from Yorkshire I would be inclined to have no lights, enjoy my neighbours to save my money and demand.

An early Christmas surprise

Proud great aunty moment.  This is my eldest grand niece Amelia, 13 years old.  I sent to her and her younger sister Esme 10 years old via their grandparents, my brother and sister in law, kits to knit their own Christmas wreaths.  3 balls of chunky white wool, a pair of lovely large wooden needles,  a circular metal frame, a red ribbon and full instructions.  It’s quite a while since I taught the girls to knit so I cast on for both of them and knitted the first couple of rows to get them started.

Imagine my delight to receive an email from their mum thanking me for the gifts and saying that within a day of receiving hers Amelia had finished.  

Amelia looks so cosy and calm knitting, I am beyond being proud and the finished article is beautiful. The little socks were some I made and gave my sister in law to distribute as she wished or keep for herself, I must make more.  I can’t wait to see Esme's wreath and I cannot say how happy this post makes me.  The knitting genes might have missed a generation, neither of my nieces is interested. This feels like a lovely and lasting Christmas gift for me and I am hoping the chunky needles might next be used for scarves.

Christmas countdown

Obviously we haven’t put up our Christmas decorations yet, it’s only the 12 December so they are still in the loft.  However we have done our present exchange as my brother and his wife were able to come over at the weekend.  It was fairly short notice for us all but fortunately I had decided the day before we arranged this to tackle the present wrapping and with a few last minute purchases we were ready.  

It’s so nice to have all these parcels in our hall, a neighbour called in and said it looked lovely that I shall leave them there.

My sister in law made for beautiful festive arrangement for us, it’s on the hall console.  They also brought us 

pink hyacinths 

and a white amaryllis in a decorated glass vase.  Already we look so festive, by my standards, there can’t be much more to do.

It’s unlike me to be so organised, just the usual exchange of gifts to the value of £5 between MrFF and I.  That’s proving this year to be quite a challenge given the rising cost of living, we thought about upping the budget but decided not to break with tradition. 

No getting away from it

At the weekend the Christmas lights went on in our little town. MrFF was there and took this video, it was a well attended event.

This afternoon the tree went up in the atrium of our building, at present it’s undecorated and wonky, I reserve judgement. Yesterday only one of the houses we look onto had outside lights, today it’s three, no doubt the whole road will be decorated soon.

I am holding off, our decs are still in the loft but they will make an appearance in a subdued way eventually.  More importantly I am holding off the mince pies, for now, I expect them to make an appearance well before our lights.  

Stir up Sunday

Sunday 20 November is Stir up Sunday the official day to make your Christmas cake, puddings and mincemeat allowing them time to mature for the 25 of December.  I didn’t realise that when I prepared to make my cake, I was waiting for delivery of a new set of digital kitchen scales that arrived today, mine gave up the ghost last week.  In the meantime I had collected together all the necessary ingredients. I shopped locally, just a stroll the end of our road, to an eco grocery shop where you take your own containers to reduce packaging. I kept the glacé cherries separate as I like to rinse off the sticky sugar coating otherwise everything went into the same box.

I’m quite risqué when it comes to dried fruits (that sounds so Victoria Wood, must be a northern thing).   As well as sultanas, raisins and cherries, no currants, I added dried mango and cranberries with a shot of limoncello in the mix for flavour.  MrFF and I each made a wish while stirring the mixture, we didn’t reveal what they were apart from the fact that both were cat related.    The cake turned out just fine.

To get my moneys worth from having the oven on for 4 hours I also made two banana loaves from a 25p bag of overripe bananas,  later I stuck some jacket potatoes and braising steak in the oven, that kept the penthouse toasty and smelling delicious all afternoon. 

I am so pleased to report all this activity and confirm that I am now fully recovered from our journey home.  It’s taken almost two weeks to feel like me again. 

Boxing Day

Our Christmas was calm and cosy, exactly what I wanted.  MrFF’s insistence that he would forage for our Christmas meal late on Christmas Eve was a success, he came home with a duck crown with stuffing and plum sauce reduced to half price.  My culinary skills decline in proportion to the amount of Prosecco I drink so I need something foolproof, this was easy and delicious.

Beautiful gifts from family, my brother and sister in law must have remembered me telling them that when we returned to the penthouse after 13 months I spent an hour looking for my George Forman grill before realising I don’t have one here.  They gave us just the right one to replace that which never existed.   Candles and smellies, food and drink treats and pretty scarves all made me happy.

MrFF managed the £5 stocking challenge.  Despite many forays to the charity shops with much moaning that he couldn’t find anything and was sick of looking, I received a very nice water bottle so I can hydrate on my power walks, books and a sort of advent calendar of pretty stud earrings, 12 pairs in total.

It was just the Christmas I wanted, no over consumption, no extravagant gifts, plenty of recycling, much peace, messages from Italy.  What more could I ever need.

It’s Boxing Day, we have a white world outside and it’s very quiet in the building, we shall have a lazy day and be thankful for what we have and where we are.   I hope your dreams came true this Christmas.

Happy Christmas

When I called in at the local craft shop at the weekend I was gifted these two comes of yarn.  They are acrylic which I don’t like but for my purpose they were fine.

The wreath is models own, made by my sister in law

I have knitted 7 of these tiny sock decorations, a pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits, which I returned to the shop to be sold for charity or gifted to good customers.  Of course I should have thought about doing this months ago not a few days before Christmas, remind me in June to start again as I still have a lot of yarn.  I might even make a few more now and do a secret Santa round our building.

This week we visited my brother briefly and safely after negative covid tests to exchanged our gifts.  We also saw two of our grand nieces which was lovely even if they got over excited about their parcels and did a lot of squishing.  I asked the 11 year old is she was pleased that Emma Raducanu the young teenage tennis player had won the tv sports personality of the year award.  No she replied I wanted Tyson Fury to win, if you don’t know he is a heavy weight boxer from the travelling community.

So we are set for Christmas apart from buying food which isn’t a major concern, it will be the two of us as usual so we shall have a piece of beef or I might bake a ham. And it may be time to stop the mince pies.  I got on the scales this morning and seem to have added a few pounds, maybe making up for last year’s deficit wasn’t such a good idea

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas, keep safe and well

The LORE of gifting

I am definitely not one of those sanctimonious people so keen to tell you how to live, they irritate the life out of me, but would like you to know that I have made a special effort this year with my Christmas shopping.  All the gifts I have bought have had to meet at least one of the following criteria

L local  I have tried to support local independent businesses of which we have many around us

O organic clothes of organic and sustainable materials 

R recycled new items made from recycled products or used items from charity shops

E ethical items from companies that respect the environment and treat their workers fairly

It’s taken much more effort than an online order to Amazon, which I wouldn’t consider given the hideous warehouse they built not so far from us in Italy that contributes nothing to the street scene and forces workers to travel out of town to their low pay jobs. There has been a lot of useful information with links on other blogs and in the press that helped me take this route.

I’ve also used recycled wrapping paper and ribbon and made all my gift tags from old Christmas cards. 

Now all the shopping is over, phew, I am pleased with the effort I made.  After the disappointing non Christmas we had last year I have managed to resist the temptation for over consumption, except for mince pies that is. I’ve already eaten enough of those for 2 Christmases and I’m not finished yet.   And in case you are wondering, despite rising prices MrFF and I have kept to our £5 budget for gifts to each other.  

Over illumination

Having expounded in my last post the desire for festive lighting this year I fear some retailers are taking this too far.  My concern was first alerted when I saw light up bottles of alcohol in the shops.  Generally the concoction in the bottle isn’t anything I recognise so I wouldn’t buy it, various fruit but possibly chemical flavoured spirits.  I like my gin to taste of gin and I certainly wouldn’t want the bottle to illuminate.  

Since I first saw the booze I’ve noticed a trend.  Light up biscuit tins, light up boxes of chocolates.  I have no idea how these novelties work, presumably there a smallish battery somewhere.  But aren’t we all supposed to be reducing waste and pollution, I bet these light won’t last much beyond the festive season and the containers will be relegated to the bins in the new year.  

Having said I won’t be buying any of the above, I hope I won’t be receiving any.  I always get annoyed by the shelves of ‘party food’ at this time of year. Over packaged unnecessary fussy mouthfuls of neither wholesome nor nourishing food but I think this Christmas things have gone a step too far. I know I’m back to bah humbug but really where will it end, light up sprouts anyone.

The festivities go on

Having so late in life discovered the pleasure of excessive stately home Christmas decorations yesterday we visited Harewood House which is not so far from the penthouse.  We met up with our friends Roger and Christine, started with coffee and chat then took a walk round the beautiful grounds, I am not a fan of formal gardens but for some reason I loved this one.  

The parkland is glorious, we walked round the lake through the Himalayan garden then took the little ferry back across the lake to the bird garden, which I felt was unnecessary and rather depressing, I am not a fan of captive creatures in small spaces.

The decorations in the house were not as opulent as Castle Howard, obviously everything was on a much a smaller scale and there were a lot of animations that I didn't particularly enjoy, talking statues that kind of thing, which involved the rooms being quite dark.  We need to go back again at a normal time of year to see the property fully.  

Fortunately I did see the painting of Seymour Worsley, the Scandalous Lady W.  If you haven't seen this BBC film you must watch it.  I watched it in 2015, have been waiting ever since to see the portrait, now I need to see the film again.

The below stairs part of the tour was delightful, you could just imagine the hot and steamy work involved to prepare elaborate meals.  There were a lot of cupboard doors that could be opened to reveal beautiful glassware, china, pots and pans. I came away thinking that I too probably need about 4 dozen individual size cut glass decanters.

And no library, there are 3 in Harewood House, should be complete without a Christmas tree of books.
This weekend we will travel to my brothers for the Santa drop and to attend the carol service in the village where he and I were born.  Another Christmas, another year almost over, I hope you have a happy and peaceful time.

My usual seasonal rant

I'm doing my best with to deal with Christmas.  Last week Mr FF and I helped to put up the large tree and decorations in our communal hallway, bit early if you ask me but really they needed to be done before our in house Christmas lunch.  I attended the latter and stayed the course till around 10 pm.  
I've written the cards, wrapped the overseas packages.  It's not going too badly.  After 6 months in Italy I have lots of socks in the gift department even though I haven't made the various scarves and gloves I imagined I would.  

Mr FF has been busy attending his walking groups lunches, coming home wearing irritating paper hats.  What is it with crackers, we had them at the in house lunch and when I helped to tidy later I found a large selection of stupid plastic items left on the tables plus all the paper debris, I'm pleased to say not many hats were worn.  Such a waste of money, I imagine said crackers had been shipped from China to end up in landfill.   

Much nicer that one of our resident ladies had made table decorations mostly  sourced from our communal garden which we were allowed to bring home, a week later mine looks good.

Its cold outside, 1 degree, but not too snowy here, hope you are coping and cosy.  I may venture out later if there aren't too many Christmas tunes in the shops.

The present situation

Both Mr FF and I managed yet again to spend just £5 on each other at Christmas. Since the rule is no food or drink these two items are excluded though they were in my stocking, 

a fat rascal from Betty's that was enjoyed toasted with butter for Christmas breakfast 

and two brownies from another local shop.  Mr FF used to walk across the valley and up to the farm where they are made to buy them and delicious eggs but now the lady has opened a shop in town so that's much handier but less healthy.

In my proper stocking received several books, one of our charity shops is closing down and with everything at half price these were 25p each.  I've already read the bottom one so that can go back, the others are destined for summer reading in Italy.

Scented candles, white fig and patchouli in a pretty glass jar and fresh linen

and finally this packet of seeds made me smile so much, I know three kitties who might appreciate their very own grass to munch.  This is the photo Mario sent us just before Christmas, the best present of all.  

It's going OK

So the madness intensifies.  I walked into town yesterday for the newspaper, yes of course Mr FF reads the daily paper on line but with £10 of shopping at our local supermarket we get weekend papers free and I love having them.  For some reason all the shops were full of vegetables, extra displays of large packs of sprouts, carrots and potatoes.  I may have got it wrong but why do we need so many more greens a week before Christmas, next there will be panic buying and a sprout will be selling on eBay for a small fortune.  Keep calm people please. There will be the same number of people in this country at Christmas, more or less, eating admittedly a bit more food than usual but this excess is horrible and I dread to think of the waste.  
My half hearted preparations are progressing, I have already spent £1.89 on three items for Mr FF and all the family gifts are wrapped ready for delivery sometime this week.
We had our inmates Christmas lunch on Friday.  It was a bit mental as most people had forgotten what they'd ordered in advance and the organiser hadn't taken the list.  Some took other peoples orders which meant several dishes weren't claimed and other food had to be cooked involving a wait.  At the end of the meal the restaurant provided bills for each table of 8 and sorting out individual costs, some meals from the festive menu, some off piste and then the drinks took over an hour, by which time my feelings of goodwill towards men had left.
On a more positive note my dental extractions are fine, I spoke to my dentist after about 10 days as I was still in a bit of pain and was reassured and offered 24/7 advice if I continued to be concerned, I don't.

And OK yes you can see our Christmas tree on the ground floor of the building. Mr FF and I with a few other neighbours put it up last Sunday, its beautiful as usual.  The houses opposite and below us are well decked too and we get the benefit from our bedroom windows where this was taken.

I hope your plans are going well and you have a calm week.