Yes, B, very quiet. I think the Northerners are settling in for winter, gathering the acorns, boiling up the puddings etc.
Over here, my calendar is getting too full again. It seems to be the way of life. Nothing on, or too much.
I’ve bought, wrapped and posted Christmas presents and ordered the ham and pork for the 25th. Ours will be a big family, everybody bring something, day. I refuse to get stressed or overcater! If the weather remembers to become summer, we’ll be busy swimming anyway. So far we feel more like autumn than the day before summer.
No success with weight here…but I don’t really care. Life is far too short. 😁😁😆😆 Cheers P

Well no Christmas preparations yet here.

Storm Arwen took out our electricity on Friday evening. It came back on on Monday evening (bliss, hot running water, central heating and a proper cooker!!) but went off again on Tuesday before 5pm. Back on this morning… hopefully for good this time!

So the weekend was fun. Not. Long detours on Saturday trying to find routes into town not blocked by fallen trees. I ended up leaving the weekly shop outside in bags as the fridges were off, but it was subzero with windchill by day and down to -6 overnight. Oh and it snowed on Sunday… We’ve got a wood burning stove in the lounge, so we had one warm room. Torches and candles for light, and a camping stove for rudimentary cooking. The storm also took out our mobile networks for much of the weekend. The long winter nights were really really long….

I’m going to have to think about Christmas this weekend though, else it’ll be beans on toast and no cards or gifts or social events….

Poor you, Happy. I can’t imagine how many layers you had on to sleep! At least your body should have been burning a lot of calories to keep warm. 🙂
We had a sudden blackout last night here. No storm, they were last week. Obviously widespread, locally, but is on again this morning. I’m looking forward to a shower, it was hot and stuffy all night.
Thank goodness for the backlit Kindle as my eyes couldn’t possibly read by candlelight. It must have been very hard on our ancestors. My dad lived on a farm and studied for his highschool exams by kerosene lamp after finishing his jobs. He wore glasses!
You are inspiring me girls. I must dig out the Chrissy decorations today and dust them off. The meats are bought and frozen and the presents all bought, but some need to be wrapped. No stress.
Fingers crossed your power stays on Happy. P

I know my educated Scots ancestors read at night, B. They were busy working in the daylight. It would have been sinful to sit and read during daylight hours.
Interestingly, apparently early humans used to get up in the middle of the night and have a meal. They never expected to sleep all night like we do! ☺☺ Sounds good to me. 😉

Is that simply because we think we should be asleep, B? My daughter suggested doing something mindless (she folds nappies) when awake at night, instead of lying there getting frustrated. 😑
Thursday fast here. We’ve walked miles up to the local markets (bought nothing) and now deep into reading history. My ancestors would be horrified by my wasting a beautiful day outside to put in some work. 😅😅

Screen watching is the worst thing to do when you should be asleep, B.
We are having our first beautiful day in weeks. We’ve had SO many weeks of rain, the garden is becoming a jungle. I’ve suddenly had to dig out summer clothes! Helps with fasting though. 😉

Then I’d recommend a rest after lunch to catch up. I always sleep better at night if I have some down time about 3pm.

I am fortunate as I sleep well 99% of the time.
My job involved doing 24 hour shifts and it was usual to only get an hour or so of sleep during that period and it was tough as we worked single handed from 8pm-9am.
I also did on-call which meant getting out of bed in the middle of the night, driving to work to deal with an emergency then coming home and sleeping for what remained of the night before being back at work for a full day.
I learnt to sleep at any opportunity and it has helped enormously as I can take a short nap whenever I wish and when travelling long haul I cope well with time changes.

It’s a frosty and sunny morning here in London and it feels very wintry with shortening days and the need to wrap up well if venturing outside.

I am contemplating getting started on icing the Christmas cakes and writing some cards.

I’m fasting again today and I have the last portion of a delicious fish stew to look forward to.

Yes, I’m very lucky and on the odd occasion when I don’t sleep well it’s usually because I’m not very tired.

Three cakes now covered with marzipan and the kitchen and myself now icing sugar free zones. I’m not a tidy worker in the kitchen and the stuff gets everywhere 😆

I tidy up as I go but I make a lot of mess 😆

I love marzipan. I used to make it but I’ve found some which tastes as good as homemade.
It’s easy to roll out but more delicate to handle than pastry or icing but if it tears it’s easy to push it back together.

I don’t usually ice my own cake but this year the cake I chose for myself goes better with marzipan and icing than the nut topping I usually favour.

The recipients of the other two cakes both love a traditional cake covered with marzipan and icing so that’s what they get.

My fish stew was fab thanks as I knew it would be as I’ve already eaten the other 3 portions from the batch I made.

I’m watching an old Rick Stein show and he’s visiting the farm where I bought my Christmas goose 🙂

Well the power has been on solidly now for 36 hours, so hopefully that’s our storm damaged power lines repaired. We’ve been fortunate as I know there are a lot of people still without power (nearly a week) and some have been told it won’t be fixed until after the weekend. What a nightmare. That’s 5 days I never want to re-live!!

I very often wake up at 4am, sometimes dropping off again quickly, sometimes not. I used to stress about it (thinking how tired I’d be the next day if I only had 5 hours sleep etc) but now I just lie in bed and practice clearing my mind. 9 times out of 10 that works. The key for me seems to be not making a fuss about it and just quietly going with it, like my ancestors 😂

I haven’t decided yet whether to marzipan and ice the cake. I might make my own marzipan and add a thin layer of bought fondant. Not sure I can be bothered with Royal… Would it be weird to marzipan the cake but not ice it?!

I’m with you P, I tidy up as I go too. Nice to get to the end and not have much to do!

Amazon, I will make some Christmas plans this weekend. Unlike last weekend, when we were too busy trying to survive, I hope to have time (and light and warmth 😁)

Oh no, you couldn’t make it up. Your poor neighbours!

Happy,

You could put a layer of marzipan on and toast it under the grill in the same way as with Simnel cakes. If you’ve not done it before and want to try it I suggest you look up Mary Berry’s Simnel cake recipe on line.
You could leave off the 11 balls of marzipan and maybe cut out a few holy shaped leaves to decorate.

Toasted marzipan tastes fab.

I’m not a tidy worker in the kitchen wasn’t the most accurate description of what I was trying to convey, I should have said when rolling out marzipan and icing I always manage to get icing sugar everywhere and it’s a similar story with pastry and flour. I do tidy as I go along.

It’s a dull wet day here today, a good one for catching up on the never ending list of things to be done.

Have a good weekend everyone 🤪🎄

Simnel cake has it’s history in Mothering Sunday which is/was the 4th Sunday of Lent when people visited their Mothers bearing the cake as a gift. It was a respite from Lenten fasting. At some point it became associated with Easter.

It’s basically a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle of the batter and then covered in marzipan.
It is delicious, lighter and less rich than a Christmas cake.

The only warning is not to step away from the grill because if you do you’ll have burnt marzipan 😆

I often cook fruit which needs to be used with a splash of vanilla and I like it at room temperature with yoghurt.

I’ve changed my mind three times regarding what to cook for dinner and I’m going to make chili and garlic prawns but instead of pasta mix them into stir fried veggies.

I had to rearrange the larder this morning as I needed another large container for a Christmas cake which won’t fit a tin once it has been iced and I found several things I had forgotten about and need to be used soon plus a huge bag of dried chick peas which are now crossed off the shopping list…….

No history of Lent in my background but I’m very interested in the history of food and how/why recipes and traditions were formed.
I like brussel sprouts but too many people overcook them which makes them bitter. They are great raw in slaw, something I discovered one Christmas when I wanted slaw to go with my ham but had no cabbage so experimented by using sprouts and they were really good.

It’s a beautiful bright sunny but cold morning here and with the sun so low in the sky I was almost blinded on my trip to the newsagent 😆

I was up early this morning and have already prepared a veggie lasagne style dish which has made me want to eat but I’m holding off and filling up with coffee.

I usually have cooked chick peas etc in the freezer but I’ve used up the last batch and there’s no room at the moment. Not that I’m complaining about having a full freezer.

Happy,
I can recommend toasted marzipan but you have to keep an eye as burnt marzipan is a 2 second loss of concentration away 😆

I have a sack of clothing on my bedroom floor waiting to go to a charity shop.
I’ve been walking round it for a month but I’m going to pack it into a bag and take it next week when I collect my new glasses as I’m tired of having to walk round it!

We have enough cupboard space in our house to keep all sizes of clothes. I have jeans in Sizes 8 to 14. Of course it depends on the brands, but I just can’t give them to charity in case I can rewear them. Also, it’s rather fun to open a drawer in a spare room and find something different to wear. P

Welll, middle of another week already, where does the time go?!

I had a good no food fast yesterday, helped through by peanut butter and marmite. I sort of feel I should do 2 fasts per week in the run up to Christmas to buy a bit of wriggle room in case of overindulge… there’s no way I’m not eating cake and mince pies when I slaved to make them 😂 Also, I have a few social events in my calendar now too, so that’s more incentive to try for a bit of rigour in advance!

This week’s storm was thankfully nothing here, although I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get snow. It would be preferable to the damp dark days we’re currently enjoying.

I’m meant to be fasting today, but really don’t feel like it! We’ll see. 🤭🤭
We’ve had storms every afternoon this week. Very noisy thunder and heavy rain. The garden is now soaked. We managed a quick swim, but had to get out as the thunder rolled in. It really doesn’t feel like summer! Yesterday was so dull and wet, we resorted to watching a movie.

Superb work, Amazon! You are a champion!
Taking control ourselves, using rational, educated knowledge to guide our behaviours is the sensible way to move through this. Why would we ever trust politicians to give us health advice? Their only interest is to stay in power.
Most people here are also ignoring the new eased restrictions, continuing to wear masks, hunkering down and distancing when we MUST go near others, while cases increase at a massive rate and there is a growing risk of losing yet another Christmas! This would be our 3rd in a row, as bushfires raged in 2019. 😐 We have a vax rate of 95% here, but this isn’t stopping the rapid transmission among the young people attending crowded pubs and indoor dance concerts. Madness.
My weight sits at too high, but steady, and a first visit to the GP since April shows good healthy levels of vitals. With my booster in my arm, I’m sitting tight until the 25th, 2 fasts a week and mindful eating otherwise.🙂🙂
🌲🌲 P

Yes, Amazon, it is mostly mind games, no matter how many years you’ve done fasting. 😑 I can see your smug face on Monday already. 😏
This weekend is finally a typical Aussie summer…mid 30s, hanging around the pool and The Ashes on TV! Only the sound of cicadas missing. 😄 I packed the heavy winter jackets and gloves away in the spare wardrobe (we were still wearing them last week…unheard of!) and pulled the pool umbrella out of the garage. It’s full on Xmas weather at last!
The UK double vaxxed rate of only 70% and the very late decision to vax teens must have a significant impact on the cases. Combine that with winter and clearly very poor transmission of public health advice (from the Govt) and you get the inevitable. It is incredible how Govts can starve public facilities for years and then decide they need to privatise them. Hmm..I wonder why that is? And we all know how well the lack of a publically funded medical system has worked in the US. 🤕

Thanks B. The storm cut a very narrow, fast swathe through the Northern Beaches. We had heavy rain, very briefly and some strong winds and a short blackout. Nothing extraordinary for here. This IS our storm season. 😒
The weather has been very hot and steamy, including sticky, hot nights this week, so the meats on Christmas Day will have to be pre-cooked and served cold with salads. We’ll all pitch in, so I don’t have to do too much.
P

We often have turkey, but this year we will just have roast pork instead (with the addition of all the usual Christmas meal accompaniments!). We had been forecast a white Christmas, but that’s now changed to rain ☹️

I did a fast at the weekend. I know I ought to try and do another one this week, but my thoughts are turning to mince pies and other seasonal treats 😊 Amazon, I need some of your determination!

I got through 6 days of fasting but day 7 things didn’t go well.
I went out to lunch with friends yesterday and am at home today baking cookies and making Rocky Road and despite all the temptation I’m aiming for another 800 calorie day.
I would like to fast tomorrow and will do my best but I’m visiting family on the afternoon which might make it tricky.

The mains menu at the pub was carb laden and the best option was steak and chips with béarnaise sauce which was hardly a disappointment as their steaks are always perfectly cooked. I’d like to be able to tell you I left the crispy piping hot big fat chips but that would be a lie 😆

I am awaiting a cheese order which is due to be delivered today. So far I’ve not received any shipping information and the company are not answering their phone.
I’m trying to be patient as I know they are busy and the new variant is causing issues with staff calling in sick but it’s frustrating not knowing if it is on the way but there are far worse problems to have right now….

It hasn’t arrived. When I called this morning I left a message and someone called me back at 6pm.
She was really helpful and when I said I’m out most of tomorrow and from mid afternoon on Thursday she arranged a “by noon” delivery for Thursday.
Apparently they have so many orders to complete they’ve got behind with packing and delivery which is actually good to hear as so many businesses are struggling.

Christmas without cheese would be a DIS-AS-TER 😆

The chips were fab. My friends both had burgers which came with skinny fries and I caught more than one avaricious glance in the direction of my fat chips 🤣