Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas time and will have a fantastic New Year.

It is nice to write this at half way between the two celebrations. Does anyone battle round the shops during the sales? Or nowadays is it done online?

We went to Bristol today, but not for the shops or sales. Our grandsons wanted to go the museum. Now I really like that in this technological time and despite the new toys to play with that they really wanted to go round a very traditional museum. It was further encouraging to see other families were doing the same. The dinosaurs were the big draw and we spent almost all day there. The only bizarre part of the day was that the cafe was closed between 1pm and 2pm. But we went out for something to eat and drink.

Have you all finished your turkey?

Baby it's cold outside

 It is a freezing cold day. We have a plant tray which I clean and fill with water regularly and the birds use as a bath. When I looked this morning it had three quarters of an inch of solid ice all over.

I broke it out and filled it again with water and very soon birds were having a drink - and a bath. 

I also put out bird feed but like me the local birds do not eat wheat. It seems to be in every bird feed but none of the birds we encourage, blackbirds, robins, sparrows, blue tits and great tits, goldfinches eat the wheat. Unfortunately the ubiquitous and greedy wood pigeons do and will eat everything they can. The only plus side is that the wood pigeons by eating everything left mean that we don't have any rodents scurrying around.

Advent calendar time

 Does anyone buy traditional advent calendars?

Whilst the modern trend is for chocolate filled advent calendars and latterly all sorts of items, there is much to said about a beautifully illustrated advent calendar.

The build-up is far more real and reminds us of Christmas in its best meaning.

You can't bank on it

 We used to have several banks in our town and gradually they have closed one by one. Now we only have... one.

It is odd as the last two that closed were always busy.

Not everyone banks online or ever wants to.

November already

 The shops are beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Does anyone else visit shops We do and find it more depressing each year that fewer shops and certainly independent shops exist.

Amazon is sheer crap and anyone who blindly uses it thinking they are getting a cheap deal is wrong. Often the prices are more than in a local shop.

Reading

 It is exciting watching our Grandson learning to read. Being able to translate black squiggles into words must be amazing.

Especially as he has jumped two levels in a a week.

I remember the first book I read instead of a comic - it was an Enid Blyton compendium. Fantastic little stories.

The modern world

Accidentally my mobile phone dropped out of my pocket on the bus.

Unfortunately the bus was on its way to the cesspit that is Bristol. So it was stolen. Some months ago someone had dropped their phone on a bus and I handed it to the driver. It is the way of the world that is a rarity nowadays. There is so much scum around these days.

It is a real pain having to get a new phone and replace all the programs and passwords.

If you want to cycle get a hat.

 I went with my daughter to buy he son a cycle helmet. These didn't exist as far as I know when I was young.

When we were ten years old, some friends and I cycled about forty miles to the nearest city and camped there overnight before cycling back the following day. Yes there were fewer cars on the roads but none of us wore helmets.

More innocent times.

Swimming

 Does anyone swim regularly? Obviously it helps if you live close to a swimming pool but it is great exercise which works all the muscles with no impact.And it is a true year round activity.

All change or maybe not

 Well a bit of rain is helpful for the garden but it does need a lot more.

I am bored of reading about climate change. Yee gods, it is always changing. People like to quote experts - are these the same experts who forecast a mini ice age. Does anyone else totally ignore these cabals of experts, those who forecast anything from climate emergency, no there isn't and even if there was there is nothing mankind can do about it; to Covid and the huge numbers that will die from it, that hasn't happened either; to the predictions in the early 1970's that oil would run out by the year 2000, yet here we are twenty years on with more cars on the roads than ever.

Get a grip, climate change/emergency is a nudge technique by those with private jets who are laughing at the gullible minions.

Ice ice baby

 Another hot day can only mean one thing, time to de-ice the freezer. Even though it says frost free...

Another chore and it is a chore is descaling the kettle. The limescale in this area is a lot, when we go to London and the soft water there I always forget and use the same amount of shampoo which takes an age to wash out.

Is anyone else picking brambles - blackberries? There are plenty around but I think that they are early this year.

Let's go fly. . .

 Does anyone still fly a traditional kite? 

Apart from me.

I have loved flying kites since I was very young. I remember going out late one day with my parents and sisters by a beach and the wind was blowing from the car park out to sea. We had a box kite made of canvas. I flew it and the wind was pulling the line so strongly that it was beginning to drag me along so my Dad tied it to the handle of the car. I was later mildly chastised for letting too much line out as it took some time to wind in.

Pinny time

 Everyone must have a favourite cake. Whilst a Victoria sandwich cake is always welcome my favourite is a madeira cake with caraway seeds. I read somewhere that the amount of caraway seeds should just be enough to give the cake an aroma of caraway. Not for me, I have yet to eat a cake that has too many caraway seeds.

Another cake favourite is a chocolate cake made with oil instead of margerine or butter. Don't let the idea of vegetable oil put you off, the cake is very light and doesn't leave a claggy feeling in the mouth that some hard fats can.

I have never quite perfected a carrot cake but I do enjoy a well made one. Finally a lemon cake is always quickly eaten.

There is something so satisfying about making a cake, it is relatively quick and the results whilst the cake is still warm can be fantastic.

A toast to the sandwich maker

 After the last post story about a landline phone, more nostalgia now.

A sandwich toaster. Whoever though of buttering the outside of two slices of bread putting a filling inside and heating it up? But they must have had corned beef in mind.

We had a hankering for toasted corned beef sandwiches - with a bit of mayonnaise in the mix. A quick easy meal but oh so tasty. Plenty of mixed vegetables too surely means that it is a well balanced meal. Protein, vegetables, carbohydrates, fibre it must be approved by any decent dietician.

Phoney

 Does anyone else think that quality of almost everything is getting worse? It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a top price item in a product range or a budget buy, they all seem to go wrong . Perhaps it is because some products are getting more complicated.

We had a landline phone (anyone remember those?) which would display the number of the caller. Very handy when we were receiving silent calls. Not the most expensive nor the cheapest but a middle price by a well known manufacturer.

The first one didn't work at all but the second one did. For eight months before that too packed up.

So we had a bit of a day out to take the phone back and this time get a refund rather than a replacement.

Because of the limescale in the water in this area we don't buy an expensive iron or kettle. Those are definitely not worth paying too much for. Whilst not wanting to be part of the throwaway society some things have a limited shelf life.

Nice weather

 On holiday for a week and the weather is pretty good.

Saw the Red Arrows, always a fantastic sight.

Sand see serf

 1. The council are basically employees that we pay for and should do the job that we require them to do. 

2. So after all the stupidity of lockdowns and the effects on children, why are the children not the number one priority for council spending?

The play areas in Clevedon are in desperate need of an overhaul and upgrading. The sand pit is running out of sand, the swings are not swinging as they are missing and the roundabouts are not turning.

Yet this idiotic council think it is appropriate to spend hundred of thousands of pounds on a cycle track. There is already a pupose built cycle track, it is called a road.

May the fifth be with you

 This is a Star Wars free zone.

Does anyone else check their own blood pressure?

As much as I despise smart phones (surely the very worst invention ever) there is one program on it that works extremely well and is very useful. It is called BP Journal it is a free program but I thought that it was so good that I paid for the full version. I do not have any affiliation with the programmer but I do recommend that you have a look at it.

Boot onions into touch

My broken foot is healing well, so no more boot but it will still take two to three months to mend fully.

A mistake in eating a hidden ingredient meant that I suffered stomach pains. The offensive ingredient was onion powder. Second only to garlic powder as one to avoid.

Ah well.

Spring is hurrying on the daffodils were over quickly and there is plenty of blossom on the fruit trees.

Nearly there

 Only a few more days before my hospital appointment regarding my broken foot. Nearly six weeks since going to A&E and being equipped with a large solid boot which has very strong velcro straps. It will feel strange not to wear it. Hopefully an X--ray and an assessment by the consultant will be positive

The first cut is the...

 I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I had read to use a high setting on the mower so as not to shock the grass too much and to allow it to grow fuller before the next shorter cut.

There is always plenty of weeding to do. Each year one weed seems to gain prominence over all others. This year it seems to be Lords and Ladies - Arum macalutum and is a real nuisance.

Home economics

 Does anyone still make their own bread? We started making sourdough bread years ago, before Covid changed so many things. It seemed to get popular during lockdown etc but I don't know if people are still carrying on. It's fun to make and very satisfying. It's nice to be ale to make up different mixes, sometimes more wholemeal, sometimes more white, sometimes more spelt and so on. One local baker makes great bread but it contains milk which we never knew, at least home made only contains what we put in.

Footnote

A morning of potting up in the greenhouse and moving some of the larger plants to their permanent big pots. I found some old fritillaria bulbs, I planted them but don't hold out much hope as I know that they are tricky in the best of circumstances.

Walking along my foot suddenly felt painful. Hmm.

Down in the mouth

 Dentist today. Now here is a place where wearing a mask is not really sensible.

Boxing Day

Quite a few things never seem to go out of fashion with children. Cardboard boxes are one. We made a den out of a large cardboard box today. A paper plate fixed with a paper clip made a good steering wheel or dial or whatever imagination let it be.

Prunes are good for you

 A sunny day. So it was good to get out in the garden and do some pruning. I used a hedge trimmer to shape some of the bushes at fence level. One of the hydrangeas had grown too large so it had a very severe cutback. The garden looks much neater already.

Does anyone else like jigsaws, they seem particularly apt at this time of the year. I have one that has sweet wrappers from years ago. Most sweets are still around today but some are no more - Weekend, Bar Six, Banjo to name a few that have disappeared.