Hope you all had the most marvellous Christmas you could have hoped for. We certainly did! It was wet and windy but still remarkably mild for the end of December – the temperature was 58 degrees Farhenheit as we drove to Nick and Lucy’s for lunch. The wet and windy bit I understand but what is going on with the moderate temperatures? Mother Nature is becoming increasingly confused – our lawns need mowing (I retired the lawn mower for this season in the middle of October, I thought), bulbs are bulbing, and even the birds are beginning to look at one another with a little twinkle in their eyes. Crazy.
As well as a splendid Christmas, I also enjoyed an excellent birthday this weeks. Thanks to all of you who sent greetings in some shape or form although perhaps the reminder that “With age comes wisdom . . . and deafness and unwanted nasal hair and incontinence” was perhaps unnecessary cruelty. I had dozens of text messages, e-mails, telephone calls and cards delivered in the cute, old fashioned manner – by hand by the postman! I also had a plethora of Facebook greetings, many from people I haven’t seen or communicated with in almost 50 years! Wow, I didn’t realise I had that many “friends!”
Nick and Penny had organised a birthday surprise for me – we met up with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle for a birthday lunch at le Bistrot Pierre in Leamington which was more than delightful. The company was excellent and the food was lovely. I had a delicious piece of salmon with moules – the only drawback from my perspective: there were only about five mussles – I am much happier when presented with a bucket-full.
If we didn’t know it already, this holiday season has shown to us that we have certainly moved to a “traditional” English village – much of what goes on here seems to be reminiscent of how life used to be in less hectic days gone by. Early in the week we had a surprise gift delivered by one of the older women in the village whom we have met on a couple of occasions. Rosalind was bringing round a Christmas “hamper” courtesy of the “Lord and Lady of the manor”. (Not really the Lord and Lady but some generous folk who live on a large estate on the outskirts of the village). It seems that each year they produce a bundle of Christmas goodies – Christmas crackers, biscuits/cookies, sweets/candies, a couple of satsumas, etc. all very neatly and decoratively wrapped which is delivered by Rosalind, former postmistress of the village and current church warden. We were very lucky to be included as they are delivered to pensioners in the village and, as I have only recently achieved pensionable age, I felt very fortunate to receive such bounty.
Then, on Thursday as I was sitting upstairs in my study pretending to be busy, my slumbers were interrupted by a loud clattering noise and raised voices outside the window. One of the local farmers was moving his sheep from one field to another and they were marching down the road, carefully shepherded by the farmer in the front and the farmer’s wife (I imagine) at the rear chasing up any wanderers or stragglers. Not surprisingly, there were about forty cars following slowly behind no doubt desperately anxious to get past and get on with their Christmas preparations. Slow, however, is the pace in the country – get used to it.
And then, on Christmas Eve (also Thursday) we had traditional Christmas carols on the Green just about 50 metres from our front door. I would guess virtually the whole village had turned out. There was a bonfire, mince pies and biscuits/cookies as well as the mandatory mulled wine, although not nearly enough of it. I have to confess, Christmas carols are not my favourite form of musical entertainment (I was reminded of the advice in the Worst Case Scenario booklet – Make Yourself Look Big!) and these were the proper, old dirges of which we had to sing all forty-seven verses but it was still fun. I think I will suggest, however, that if they want to really make the evening a success in future, they need to produce much, much more mulled wine – if people get really inebriated their capacity to sing Christmas hymns is significantly improved, I’ve found.
Christmas day we spent with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle and it was a splendid day from start to finish. Nick was keen to do the cooking for the Christmas meal and who am I to argue with him. Not surprisingly, it was delicious and one participant was exceedingly full of Christmas cheer (mentioning no names, Annabelle!).
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On Boxing Day they came to us for another splendid feast – this time, Ms Playchute’s favourite from our visit to Opal in Santa Barbara with Ben and Donna summer before last – Sauteed Chicken on Penne Pasta with a Homemade Chipotle Cream With Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes, Roasted Red Peppers, Sweet Basil and Fresh Grated Parmigiano Reggiano. OMG – it is delicious!
Boxing Day also saw the debut of Bubble’s Amazing Puppet Theatre and the premier of a blockbuster performance of Molly in Space. Great fun.
I gave you a link to the Guardian’s 12 Cartoons of Christmas the other day. If you’re anything like me, however, you might have glanced at it once and then never visited again to see the rest of the offerings. I’ve saved you the trouble! Here are all 12 – my favourite is still the Quentin Blake – Unicycling Home for Christmas.
Finally, if you’re struggling with what to get your nearest and dearest for Christmas (or a birthday, perhaps) next time round, how about a can of fresh air from the Canadian Rockies? Honestly, you couldn’t make it up!
Love to you all,
Greg