Sunday Catch up

Hello everyone hope you had a good Christmas.

It has been a lazy day here today - I am recovering from how not to do Christmas - everything went wrong at the last moment - but Christmas still happened even though not how planned and I nearly made myself ill in the process. But apart from that it wasn't too bad. Needless to say that is not going to happen again so I have decided to start Christmas early i.e. from the 1 January 2013 in an effort to get things done so that I can in future enjoy the run up to Christmas properly and take pleasure in the preparation work. 

OH was not around due to his working commitments when he was needed and because at the moment I do not drive and have problems carrying things it became a bit of an unnecessary and sometimes painful  slog.  I have also decided to budget for Christmas and my preserving exploits from early in the New Year so that I have the pennies there to take advantage of seasonal fruits and also have Christmas paid for without having to dip into the bank account.  I also thought that I might be able to pick up some lovely presents for friends and family and/or make the same (taking advantage of  if I have a bit more time to play with and get myself organised a bit more. I have already had my large page a day diary out plotting and planning things for later on in the year and I have a large plastic box in which I am going to pop the prepared items basically so that I can find them when they are needed.  Besides I am a little tired of the excessive consumerism that seems to hit any kind of celebration it is excessive an a lot of it is totally unnecessary.

Christmas by my reckoning is not over until Twelth night i.e. 6th January 2013 - I still have a few decorations up not many as that was part of the shambles - yes we have New Year's in between but I went round to my local Co-Operative store yesterday only to file Cadbury's Easter eggs in bags (the sugar coated ones) and the Malteser bunny rabbits!  I thought that this was more than a little off and out of order.  Consumerism Argh!

It has been a lazy day here today the cats have been sprawled on a sofa each for the best part of the day both sprawled both comfy thank you very much.  Occasionally Missy pops down to check that I am okay and that I am still in the land of the living and to sprawl on the new bright red hearthside rug and to roll on it.  She is quite taken with it as am I, I have always been a bit of a beggar on sprawling on a fireside rug since being small whether there was a fire there or not (we sadly have the fireplace with a dreadful gas fire in situ which is disconnected) I would love a proper fire and then I would be in my element.  One day. 

It has been grey and dull again today with the occasional drizzle.  I have a lovely new book which I have been trawling through and which I got for £5 from our local remainders shop (The Works) on Friday called Gifts from the Garden by Debora Robertson ISBN 978-0-85783-081-4.  It has a lot of lovely ideas in it and some lovely recipes.  It will go very nicely with the other books I have.  The idea being to create presents to give to your nearest and dearest from what you have available to you including a section on how to propogate your own plants from cuttings, ideas on how to prepare your own materials for gift wrapping, making home made cassis, mushroom ketchup, herb cushions, moth repellants, fabric conditioner, Antiseptic vinegar, fragrant firelighters, home made cosmetics, lavender ironing spray, lavender hand warmers; parsley dog biscuits, Queen of Hungary water, etc etc etc. It is basically a little gem of a book with some lovely simple green ideas in which has a different take and a very creative bent on those things that many of us could have to hand with ideas of what to add to expand the repertoire.  It is nice just to occasionally slob out and come too and breathe again and to start plotting and planning for the year yet to come.  

I always have mixed feelings at this time of year as it is sad to say goodbye but it is also exciting because something new is coming in to replace that which has come before and to rejuvenate our situations.  As one door closes another one always opens. 

 Here's hoping that you have as relaxed an afternoon as me. 

Pattypan


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