Something to get your teeth into🍪❄️🎄

On Thursday - the only day we all had time spare - we baked our marathon-relay-tag-team gingerbread festive biscuits. Making sure we had enough to share and to scoff, there was a lot of rolling and cutting and cooking. 

Whilst we were waiting for the biscuits to dry, Moss took us for a quick dog-loop before the weather closed in

Once we'd returned there was a bit of a mini panic when I could not find my icing kit, so Himself and I galloped off to purchase a replacement icing nozzle set (which in the end meant going to five (yes 5) different shops until we eventually found enough to get started.

It could be said we had fun! We now have aliens, snowmen, gold and silver stars, festive trees and pigs ... yes pigs!

Despite all the 'taste testing' and 'pre-icing nibbling' we still managed to fill three jars - perfect for sharing😊🍪

And if you fancy a mad marathon baking sesh of the gingerbread kind - here is the recipe....

350g (12oz) self raising flour

10ml (2 tsp) ground ginger *

100g (4oz) butter

175g (6oz) light brown sugar

60ml (4 tblsp) golden syrup

1 egg - beaten

sift flour and ginger*, add sugar.

Soften butter in the microwave, stir in the syrup then add the egg - mix well

knead til smooth, roll out to about 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Choose your favourite seasonal cutters and have fun!

Lay on to baking trays (either greased or lined)

Bake at 190°c  (375°f) for about 10 - 15 mins until golden.

Cool slightly then finish on a wire track

Decorate to your heart's content and scoff!

* I doubled the ginger, added mixed spice and then for good measure a pinch of ground cloves - I wanted a very festive hit in each biscuit!

They don't last long...

Wreath making🎄

During the first weekend of December we gathered around newspaper covered tables and we crafted many wreaths.  For ourselves, for friends, for colleagues and for family. 

Food was shared and there was so much - the table groaned beneath plates and despite our best efforts, the left overs were shared out and sent home to be eaten later.

By the end of a wonderful day of cutting, snipping, chatting, eating, tying and tweaking, between the ten of us we had made 15 wreaths.  Our home smelt gloriously of wood and pine - quite heady and spicy.

Then, later, once our guests had gone, the house quiet, left over foliage and fripperies put away we cradled mugs of tea and toasted our toes in front of the fire.

It had been a good day, a very good day, made the more special as we'd not been able to celebrate wreath making for the previous two years and it was wonderful being able share food and friendship once again ❤️❄️🎄

Holly & Happy

 Thank you.

I have been greatly touched by your comments about my tentative return - I was not only surprised by it's sudden return to me but also by the fact I hadn't realised how much I had missed the interaction with you lovely folk whilst posting my version of normality💙💜

Sunday - today, is miserable. The weather has gone from that crisp Baltic blue sky winter to a driech mushy grey wet disappointment. 

So, Himself and I busied ourselves inside, trying to keep warm whilst tackling a few jobs which have been on our list of 'things to do' (some of them for quite a while).  I will share one of our tasks once the family have seen - don't want to spoil the surprise!

I can share with you (and heartily recommend) my latest baking - Mincemeat Shortbread from Jules of Along the Way. I have made them before, a couple of years ago but had forgotten how absolutely delicious they were.  I can see another batch needing making fairly quickly😊

The tree is up - over the years, I have not felt the need to plaster the house in festive decorations, paring it down each time until I feel gently satisfied with the result. This year is the most minimal (the most Scandinavian) I've ever gone and it feels right. 

Time to put the kettle on, Youngest and his lovely girl will be here shortly and I think those mincemeat shortbread will not eat themselves 😆

Before I go - are your decorations up? have you gone for all the glitz and pizazz you can to brighten up the season or simple and minimal?

And do try Jules' recipe and if you do - drop her (and me!) a note if you can and report back - coz they are definitely nom nom nom!

Wow - a second post, I think I might be on a roll.....

A blue sky day

 There are rituals around this time of the year that call to me.

This particular one - the village card delivery walk - has so many precious memories linked with it and they filled my head and heart as I walked with Moss while we dropped off cards. I think that this is the first year that I have been on my own - most of my pack are working or away so it was up to myself and Moss to fly the flag today.

We both wrapped up, well I wrapped us both warmly. I ignored the snarky side eye and exaggerated sighs from the dog as I lashed her into her harness to make sure her green fleecy 'jimjams' stayed snug. She is not a regular wearer of dog attire but with the temperatures as low as they are at the moment and with our route being a fair bit of trudging through icy fields and lanes - I ignored the irritated eye rolls and buckled a fidgety dog into her outdoor gear.

There was something familiar and comforting in following the route we'd used since we first moved into the village. I stopped and breathed in the icy air - great lungful's of the bitterly sharp stuff making myself cough and my eyes water - took a moment to recover. Moss did give me a bit of a concerned look then sped off skittering and slipping on the ice with such a silly grin on her face leaving me gasping and wheezing and laughing.

The sky is a brilliant blue - one that fills my heart with such joy.

We're back now, most of the cards delivered, one or two still to write, but with a snoring dog and a steaming mug of tea there is a gentle feeling of satisfaction that this year and with this little ritual completed that small moments like these are worth treasuring.

I have not gone, I am still about, I just needed space to breathe. Sometimes simple things in life just seem to sparkle and I had felt to have lost that spark - I am hoping it has returned.

Baby it's cold outside ☃🎵🎶

There's been snow over night - a soft wet slush and the garden is full of the sound of rain dripping and sloppy snow dropping off the trees. There is a bitter damp chill to the air - the sort that makes you pull your coat tighter around you and your toes curl with the cold.

Christmas, just like that, was over with a blink of an eye - this year is will continue to be a gentle spread out affair, the meal was on the eve, then my folks, Youngest, pressies and a shared lunch on the day. Now, during twixtmas, Eldest and his girlfriend and Youngest's girlfriend will return (restrictions and isolations permitting) and they'll find their gifts under the tree. A good excuse to make brownies, share stories and sip warm drinks around the fire with the family.

Himself, as I type, is in the kitchen making 'Sunshine Soup' - a butternut based thick and warming soup that we'll have for lunch. The scent of sautéing onions has drifted into the dining room where I am working and is rather enticing.

I'm painting - a birthday commission - won't show just yet as it is a surprise but I will share the first step ....

So, that is today in a nutshell, a quiet day at home, gently doing simple things which I have to say, I am rather enjoying and the best of it all? The complete lack of inane festive songs and jingles on the radio - aaahhh, yes bliss!

Hope your day is as kind and as loving xxxxxxxx

Today

A chilly walk to deliver the last of the village cards.

The lighting of the Swedish Angel chimes and cooling of the yule cake 

Finishing off the handmade gifts.

Making leek and potato soup in the slow cooker. 

Cooking veggie lasagne and sticky toffee pudding.

Wrapping the last few pressies.

And displaying the last (yes the few remaining uneaten) gingerbread stars in a wreath.

And you?

what are you up to today?

We're are about to set off for our chrimbly meal with my folks,

we eat ours on Christmas Eve.

Wishing you all a gentle, loving, peaceful

and kind Christmas, 

I'll pop back during 'Twixtmas' and say hello

with love and jingle bells

kate

How dough you do it?!

Idly, a few nights ago, I came across a rather beautifully (probably professionally) gingerbread 'wreath' covered in iced gingerbread stars. I gazed upon this gloriously made confectionery and thought ... I want to try that!

So quick as a I could, I purchased some star cookie cutters and informed my co-conspirators (although at that point they did not know this is what they had become) and after a bit more research into recipes, I found the ones I wanted. One which produced a gentle hint of ginger in a golden biscuit and a second richly spiced punchy one in a dark dough.

The ingredients purchased, the dough made and chilled in the fridge overnight,  the cutters washed and ready - all that was needed was my co-conspirators to land with their icing kits and cookie cutters and their best icing ideas!

This afternoon we started. There was lots of rolling of dough, cutting and cooking in shifts, cooling and stacking until we were ready to mix the icing and blend the colours.

Some of the biscuits had windows cut into them and boiled sweets were crushed and added to make stained glass window panes.

We had tree and star shaped windows and the bubbles and dimples made the 'glass' look soooo good!

We all sat around the diningroom table and with mugs of tea and icing bags loaded and ready, we began to decorate the stars and festive tree shapes. The early decorations were stars and snowflakes but as the afternoon wore on slightly more wacky decorations began to appear  ..... headphones, Sydney Opera House, the cat and the dog, squid, Santa, flowers, and other strange designs!

We chose to make the colours wintery and frosty and had great fun adding (one drop at a time) the blue or the black to the lavender or three drops of blue to the white until we had the shades we were after.

Eventually Eldest's girlfriend was defeated and I had to go into the kitchen to start cooking the evening meal, leaving Youngest and his girlfriend to complete the icing and eventually all 130 (ish) biscuits were decorated and ready for their photographs! I say 130 - ish, we did not count them at the beginning, so we did a tot up of what we had 'sampled' as the afternoon went on and added them to the survivors on the table.

Then in the evening, after we'd eaten and washed up - we sat around the diningroom table again and played a boardgame and ate biscuits ... lots of biscuits... !

I think we may have started a new tradition although next time, I will probably make less dough - chuckle.

Completing the circle

It could be said that 2021 has been quite a ride - a complete sea change in fact. It was incredibly difficult to choose a photo a month so, rather than trawl up and down until I saw what I wanted, I have chosen at random the first one that catches my eye and have written about that one  .... 

Top left - January : I started a new job, as head gardener in a walled kitchen garden as part as a charity which works to help with people's minds and mental welfare. It has been a steep learning curve, not just how to manage a large vegetable garden so that it produced a steady flow of fruit and vegetables to the cafe and for sale rather than a series of gluts, but how to manage volunteers, meet their needs, teaching them new skills, making use of their existing skills base, form a community and a safety net whilst getting the best from them - I am still learning.

Top Right  - February : I, on a whim, sort of 'sashiko style' stitched my work trousers all down the left leg. Why? Well why not? It does sometimes start a conversation, which when meeting someone new does help break the ice.

Bottom Left - March : Although we walk all through the year, March really kicks off walks that are further afield.  This particular walk resulted in a rather muddy and wet (but very happy) dog,

Bottom Right -April : A good month for walking,  gently balmy days, camping, once again a happy (and usually muddy) dog.

Top Left - May : Wild camping as often as we can, we walk along pathways strewn with cow parsley. The light levels are clear and bright and days are warming while nights remain chilly.

Top Right -June : I'd decided to allow the garden to gentle 're-wild' and for a brief few weeks in June, it was beautiful, romantic, flower filled with birds, insects, frogs and hedgehogs. However, it was not long before it became not so much 're-wild' but down right savage so required a bit of a machete job....

 

Bottom Left - July : Warm and wet. Sunny days that warmed me to the bone and rainy ones that drenched me in equal measure.

Bottom Right - August : Dusky hot days melted into sultry evenings with the most glorious sunsets

Top Left - September : The call of wild camping and walking had us revisiting places we love, sharing them with Moss who delighted in swimming in rivers and the sea, walking in woodlands and along the coast line. May have to take her back!

Top Right - October : The mellowing of the seasons, softened the light, made things feel reflective and contemplative. 

Bottom Left - November : I tentatively dipped my toe into the loom-weaving waters and was dragged off into a delight of weaving. The rhythmic movement and the gentle building of the woven fabric really pleases me - I know I need lots more practise and I have been experimenting with reasonable success - I shall certainly be playing with this a whole lot more!

Bottom Right - December : take today, this misty early morning photo brings the circle around back to January when I started at the walled garden.  I wrote - this year has been quite a ride and a rather good one.

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Don't think you have reached the end of my waffle just yet!

I have just one (or three) more photographs to share with you - December 2021 to me will be forever linked to festive wreath making, the pictures only show about half of what was made .... 87 in total to be precise ... a mixture of wreaths made by myself (44) and the rest made by participants of the wreath making workshops.  

It has been a busy month.

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