Christmas time

Posted on December 19, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

My friend and I had a super Christmas meet up at Cliveden on Saturday, it was our third annual Christmas walk there and probably the most wintery. Can you see how we walked into the fog in the Long Garden?

Each year there’s a trail to follow and this year it was pantomime theme. Last year it was based around The Twelve Days of Christmas, but these have not beaten the first year when we had to find bunches of carrots, left for Rudolph, hanging from trees and bushes. I can’t even say why as that year it was pretty basic, but it made us laugh a lot (apart from when I grew petulant that an enthusiastic 3 year old, running ahead of us, kept finding the carrots before we could!)

We walked a good 5 miles in all, so it seems my physio’s ~~brutal~~ vigorous sports massages on my sore knee and my conscientious daily stretches are having a positive effect, after weeks of pain and boring inactivity. Walking through fog is weird; by the end we were decidedly damp haired and rosy cheeked for lunch in the Orangery.

On Sunday we went with Mum to find Christmas trees, she found one she wanted immediately and hared off to buy it, before anyone else took a liking to it. We didn’t have the same love at first sight with any, so will try again another day. I’ve stuck to family tradition of only decorating a week at most, before Christmas Eve. To be fair this was the same for pretty much everyone here when I was growing up, until people started copying the American thing of decorating early, as many seem to after Thanksgiving. Are you American? Is that a relatively new tradition? If Christmas lasted the whole of December I’d be truly sick of it by 25th, and the size of the shepherds hut above. This way we enjoy the anticipation and it’s not overkill. I have to say that as I write this I am so looking forward to making mulled wine, brandy butter and mince pies! Did someone mention Twiglets? Cadbury Roses?!

How are your plans coming along? Are you a month long celebrator, or less?

Do Some Crochet!

Posted on December 14, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

…And that is what pops up on my iPhone every day, reminding me to add a row or two, and do you know what? The blanket is growing! Shock horror hey. I’ve reminded myself how relaxing it is to listen to an audio book or radio play/comedy or music doc while crocheting along.

I’m still listening to The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, it’s gooood. One day I flicked over to something on tv and jumped with recognition – it was the smooth (and sexy) voice of the narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, though of course I didn’t recognise his face at all.

Joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along again.

Squares & Stripes

Posted on December 7, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

….is all finished and now I’m continuing my mission to finish my ripple. I’m thinking of taking it to the pub meet up tomorrow night, though I’ll probably swelter beneath it! I’ll see what the weather’s like, as today it’s gone up to a very mild 11 degrees.

As for reading: after a long patient wait the audio version of The Hanging Tree was finally released. This is the sixth book in the series by Ben Aaronovitch. What I really like is that real London buildings and streets are settings for the stories. This one features a building in Knightsbridge that I’ve had my eye on for spending some of my (future, massive) lottery win.