Stormy and beginning to think about Christmas Preparations

It has thus far been a wet and stormy day with the weather being more indicative of autumn.  The wheel has turned again.

We are in one of the 51 areas that are likely to be subject to storms over the next 9 hours or so with the possibility of power cuts, flooding and total disruption.  There is a full rolling thunderstorm going on at the moment 2:45pm. the time when I started writing this post.  We were always told as children when there was a thunder storm going on, predominantly to keep us calm that it was "Santa Claus turning his toys over and if we were not quiet and good he would not bring us toys at Christmas and we would be on the naughty list".

That being said, even though it is stormy and even though I am in the older stages of my life, I still believe in the magic of Christmas and the celebration of Christmas itself.  A time to be with family, and fundamentally all about family and to show that love of family by cooking and making nice things to eat.  Sometimes people do not always say "I love you", but they show their love in a myriad of other different ways by cooking and making things and making a house lovely, comfortable and a welcoming a safe place for everyone to be. Most of all being with you when you need comfort and support; something that we all need from time to time.  Sometime that support is there and at others none whatsoever.  We are taught how to love our family members but never really how to live without them. 

I am from the type of family background where vegetables were grown in the garden, apples and wild fruits harvested and preserved, (lots of preserves to take us through the winter months) always a good hot meal on the table on a daily basis making the most of what actually came away and being taught to make something from nothing.  The latter being my Nan's speciality.  This was a need to be able to live well on the food front as things were very different back then.  The girls were taught to cook and sew and keep house. Classed as essential life skills. I was taught that when the pennies are sparse it does not mean that you have to live a second class life, you learn to make informed choices with what you do have.  Take an alternative way there in order that you can reap the maximum amount of benefit. 

Many of those loved ones who provided our base love and care have now passed over however they are not forgotten and they are forever in our hearts.  I have recently reconnected with my older cousin on my Dad's side of the family and the reconnection is healing me.  J and I were always close, but life often takes you in different ways and to different places.  I have a load of family photos from all over, and indeed J gave me some older family photos that came from his Dad's home.  However, yesterday I was able to provide him of a photo of himself sat on my Aunty L's knee.  He was a participant in a Bonny Baby competition at the family Church where we were all mostly christened.  I sent the photo to J and he came back to me asking about it and who the people were in the photo. I therefore gave him the explanation he needed.  He had not seen it before, there are few photos of him as a baby, and it has been nice for him to pass onto his children.  The competition was held at the Church my Dad used to attend, was a choir boy at before he went into the Lincoln Cathederal choir.  He was mentored by the local Vicar Mr Guy.

Reconnecting with J is doing me good and healing me as I am able to talk with him about our family members alive and no longer with us and a lot of family memories.  Our family have always carried on stories and tales from one generation to another by story telling about real life events as a way of passing on the characters of family members and a way of bringing them to life for us.  My Granddad (Pop) was a born story teller as was my Dad.  I remember a lot of the stories that were passed on.  I also remember Christmas from when I was very tiny and when all the family used to descend on Nan and Pop's for Christmas Dinner.  A time when our family were together and I got to spend time with my cousins.  One particular Christmas I remember in that the Piano was still at my Nan's home, before coming home with us. It was also the last Christmas where we had to go out of the dining room into the hall to gain access to the front room as my Nan and Pop had a very large conservatory put on the front of the house, which meant a different arrangement inside the house.  I think it was also one of the first Christmas's that I remember.  All the family got around the piano for a proper old sing song, with my Dad playing the piano.  Nan's front room was always very formal and only used on Sunday's and special occasions and there was a big fire in the front room as well as in the dining room. That room by firelight was certainly very cosy and comforting.

Over the next few days I am going to be carrying on the long tradition of preserving, primarily to get us through to Spring, but also to cater for feeding us during the winter months and notably having the choice of ingredients to use.  Plenty of good home cooking and a few treats too.

The bulk of the preserving will start tomorrow.  G is fishing again, and I will be able to play a little bit and get some of the preserves I have been itching to get made started and completed.  I also need to make Mincemeat.  This year I have decided that I am going to start the Christmas cake and the Christmas puddings early basically to get them out of the way with and stored in the Pantry.  I can then forget about them and concentrate on other things.  There are usually a lot of preserves to make moving up to Christmas and they will also hopefully join the Pantry shelf at the appropriate time as well.  I nearly always make Cranberry and Apple jelly when Cranberries become available in the shops, and I always freeze a scuttle full as well just in case I run out mid-way through the year.  My Christmas and Preserving plans are starting to formulate.

Tonight we have homemade Lasagna for tea.  I am looking forward to it as it has been a while since I made one.  On the face of it there should be two good meals out of it for two adults, two days running.  So that pleases me.

I have also made a Cottage Pie and will also start Beef Bourguignon as well.  That should take us through to Sunday when I think we will be having a roast dinner of some sort.

I hope everyone has a lovely evening.

I am just about going to get my tea (a bit late tonight).

Have a good one.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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