unorthodox christmas

We are planning unorthodox Christmas this year. We want to do it the other way.
No cooking!
None of the twelve dishes!
No Christmas Eve!
No presents on the 24th but 25th in the morning!

So what we are going to do is an English Christmas:
Pudding is steaming the 4th hour now!
Pub dinner on the 25th!
Santa train ride on the 24th followed by dinner with friends!
Carol singing on the 24th!
Stockings on the mantelpiece - how shocking, it is a gas fireplace!
A carol singing event in St Pauls church in Clifton!

What is my granny going to say?!

apple pressing

While some of us are bed bound the rest is having good time. My family went on the apple pressing day to Willsbridge Mill.
They saw apples being shredded, then juiced.

They helped along the way.

They learned names of local apples, they listened to a storyteller and danced till they drop.

 They brought me some juice home in a plastic bottle to sample. Pure nectar.

think twice what you wish for

...yes why not? I wished I could lie down for few days and do nothing. I wished it was hot, huh, I wished I could sweat in that heat and I thought I would never, ever complain that I am too warm. I wished I had time without kids and everyday madness. There you go. I got what I wanted. Since Thursday I am in bed with temperature, resting, not doing anything, my kids are gone having fun with Florian. I can't read, I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't even speak! My throat is sore, my body is in overwhelming pain, my ears ring, my neck is funny. I see things, I hear things, I can smell things that other people can't.
I wish I didn't wish what I had wished for.

treat of the week

I know I wrote about it before here, but I just love self indulging myself in food that no one else in my family really appreciate. So the key to the absolute nirvana is get yourself some green veg plus standard garlic/onion/ginger/chilli base. Here I added some watercress and tofu as I just had them in the fridge. Stir fry the life of it (ground nut oil is perfect), add splash of fish sauce, tamari, lemon juice, sprinkle of sesame/pumpkin seeds teaspoon of honey and gorge yourself immodestly. Mop the juices with naan bread or piece of crusty baguette. Make sure they are asleep and put your legs up...

stapleton road train station

Guess which detail was the favourite of all? 

countryside

Summer is gone. We turned on the heating, packed up all summer dresses and got all the scarfs and coats out of the storage. Baba just finished her biggest infection ever with temperature as high she could burn your fingertips. So while another batch of apple chutney is bubbling away on the stove I wanted to show you our last proper summery walk.

 hawthorn

 sloe

sunburned Stuie

haircut

As we all needed a haircut we hired lovely Maya to do it for us at one go. Not too bad of a result.

ireland - italy

Who on glorious Sunday morning 8.30am goes to the pub to watch rugby? Real Irish people do.