Advent 2016

Although last Sunday was the start of Advent, we traditionally decorate for Christmas over the first weekend of December, which is also when we usually celebrate Liz's birthday.

It went faster than it sometimes has, as we'd managed to do a thorough clean and tidy during the week, which meant we could get straight on with actual decorating.

The recently-enclosed front porch, where we've temporarily placed my plant stand (© Ian)

An extremely tasteful Santa painting adorns the hall (© Ian)

Dining room fireplace (© Ian 2016)

No, I've still not finished the wall hanging. But the grandfather clock is a good distraction. (© Ian 2016)

Giles the moose, who is going to need some sort of seasonal adornment (© Ian 2016)

Sitting room (© Ian 2016)

Fireplace with leylandii swag (much easier than holly) (© Ian 2016)

Kitchen (the tidy end) (© Ian 2016)

Honey

We had a fun trip to the Ideal Homes Christmas Show yesterday, picking up a few presents for people—and a moose for us. For no better reason than we liked him.

Giles the Moose (© Ian 2016)

From the ridiculous to the sublime: we managed to get our new grandfather clock working this afternoon. As we thought, the chains for two of the weights had got jammed too high: my theory is that it was wound with a little too much enthusiasm, and the chains pulled too far, which sprang the hooks off the weights' rods. With a little care and persuasion, and aided considerably by the fact that the case has the removable side panels I hoped it would, we were able to work the chains down fair enough to rehang the weights. There's a bit of damage to the brass shells of the weights, but it's pretty cosmetic, and I've been able to resecure the weights (luckily, the threads don't appear damaged by being yanked free).

It's now up and running, and we'll next check whether it keeps time.

This afternoon's project was processing our first batch of honey from the bees. This has been sat, still in the honeycomb, for a few weeks since coming off the hive. First step is to slice the top off the comb (the cappings) using a large serrated knife. The frames then go into the centrifugal extractor, and are spun round to drag the honey out of one side of the comb. We flip them over, and do the other side, before draining the honey from the tank. From fourteen sides (two frames were only filled on one side), we've got about 14lb, which is a good rate. The cappings are now in a sieve, draining the last of the honey, and then we can clean the cappings and melt them: this wax is, typically, the 'best', as it's only been in the hive briefly (so less time for bees to traipse muddy feet over it), and only for honey (the comb that's used to raise baby bees gets dirtied from the process). It will probably be very light in colour.

A comb of honey ready for uncapping and extracting (© Ian 2016)

New Year Visitors

David and Ann have been with us since 27th, and we've had a very relaxed time, which I think we all needed. We managed to watch all three Hobbit films, and the original three Star Wars (Liz and I squeezed in the prequels before they got to us), had a couple of walks, have had a lot of good food and wine (and a disgraceful amount of chocolate on New Year's Eve, delivered by chocolate fountain, a Christmas present). It's been magnificent. Sadly, we must go back to work, soon.

Christmas 2015

It's been a busy few days, with quite a lot of entertaining. We had Liz's parents with us for a few days over last weekend, and her sister (and nephew) managed to come up for a bit. Some of our other mutual friends called round, and we enjoyed a day with a house-full. On 23rd, we had a day out in York, shopping and then a performance of Peter Pan on ice in the evening, which was good fun. Christmas day we spent at my parents' in Thirsk, which was a lovely relaxing day with lots of food. Today, Cath and her family were with us for the afternoon, with...yes, more food.

Tomorrow, David and Ann arrive: they're staying with us until the new year, and it should be a really relaxing few days.

Birthday

We've had Liz's parents with us for the weekend, and spent a day in Scarborough with grandparents, all to celebrate her birthday. It's been good to see them all, and we went out to the stained glass centre which we all like. Next weekend, we have my parents with us on Saturday, and then we're hosting the neighbours for Christmas drinks and nibbles—so we'll probably spend the whole weekend cooking, eating, and drinking...which I can scarcely complain about.

Christmas Cake 2015

The Christmas Cake bake was upon us, having soaked the fruit for a couple of days. It took a couple of mugs of tea, which is more than the recipe, so we'll see how that's worked. It took 4:20 to bake, which is a bit quicker than last year—I don't think this is a precision thing, though. Anyway, it's made, and it looks very tasty. We'll probably marzipan it in a couple of weeks, and ice it the first weekend in December—so I need to remember to give it a drink a couple of times before then.

The curtain isn't finished, partly because we had a machine failure: the feed plate has stopped feeding, because a gear broke. I need to order a replacement, and figure out how to fit it... However, the bit that's done looks really good, so that's very pleasing.

Christmas Cake Fruit

We're getting on well with the wall hanging, but it won't be finished this week! We're going to bake our Christmas cake on Sunday, so we've also had soaking the dried fruit for that. It's the same recipe as we made last year, which was very tasty: notes to follow on Sunday.

Quick Trip

At about this time last year, we went for a quick weekend trip to Cambridge, and we've done the same again. We stayed with Philip and Rachel, and had a nice time with year-old Luke, who's grown again since we last saw him. I'm told they do that. Very relaxing, and we called in to see our old neighbour on the way home, too. We're back to work for a short week, and have made our cooking plans for the holiday...we're doing quite a bit of entertaining, actually, so it's going to be fun.

Decorating for Christmas

We've had a long weekend, with a very pleasant two-night stay in Scarborough, before coming home yesterday morning. We've turned our attention to decorating for Christmas, which is always a two-day affair, and which is now finished...it did involve wiring up the new outside socket, in order to put lights on the acer in the front garden, and also replacing the double light switch on the hall wall with individual pull-cord switches in the cloakroom and downstairs toilet. That's been on the to-do list for years, so it's nice to get it done. It means that the little bit of wall where the switch was, which is about the only hanging space in the hall, can now have something attractive on it, instead of a two-gang switch. While were in Scarborough, we visited the excellent Stained Glass Centre, where Liz's grandparents have bought her a lovely stone-effect arched mirror, which now graces the space—the final impetus to moving the switches.

Christmas Cake

We started soaking the fruit for our Christmas cake earlier in the week, and it was ready, this morning, to make the cake. Last year, we used Mary Berry's recipe, instead of the Delia Smith recipe we've used for many (nine, I think) years. We've tweaked it slightly.

Dried fruit:

• 6oz glace cherries
• 1lb 2oz currants
• 7oz raisins
• 12oz sultanas
• 2oz mixed peel

Soaked with 150–200ml strong tea for three days.

• 9oz butter
• 9oz light sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1tbsp treacle
• 4oz flaked almonds
• 3tbsp marmalade

All beaten together, before folding in:

• 9oz plain flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 1/2tsp cinnamon
• pinch salt

The fruit is then stirred in, before it's spooned into a 9", double lined and greased tin. It cooked for 4:45, at 140°, covered from the start with a greaseproof paper lid.

Compost Turning

I've had a day off today, getting a few bits done around the house while Liz works from the sitting room. It's been a useful one, with reasonable weather, too, and we finished the day with a trip to our local garden centre's Christmas preview evening (with 15% discount on everything...irresistible).

A lot of this morning I spent getting the plumbing and worktop in our bathroom sorted, and now the sink is properly connected, and the worktop is in place, attached, and sealed. This is rather necessary, as the plan is to dismantle the pink (house) bathroom at the weekend, so we wanted a working toilet and basin, even though we'll be using the guest en suite for showering for a while yet (until we can tile ours).

I've trimmed the old hollow-core back door, ready to re-use in the doorway between the master en suite and the new guest room. For now, it's just secured in the frame: the existing wall prevents it opening, so (as I can't, therefore, get to the hinges) it can't be screwed to the frame until the wall's taken down.

I've finally got round to labelling the plants we bought at Tatton in July, before they die back and vanish for the winter—unfortunately, I've lost track of a eupatorium, and the two echinaceas ('Secret Love'), so I'll have to hunt again for them.

Over lunch, we set soaking the dried fruit for our Christmas cake, which we'll make at the weekend. It has loads of dried fruit, nearly three pounds, which we soak with a mug or so of tea for a few days.

Before dusk fell, I managed to turn the compost heaps, thus freeing up (kind of) the first bay, which promptly half-filled with the mound we'd formed nearby. It has let me empty the bin outside the kitchen, though, which is good. Hopefully the space will suffice until spring, when we'll start needing compost again, thus emptying the third bay, and creating trickle-down space in the system.

I also managed to knock a long-standing job off The List, and cleared a silted up corner of the drive, and the drainage channel between it and the track, so the drive will, hopefully, flood less badly this winter.

This evening's shopping trip was good, with a few Christmas decorations, including a long string of lights for the acer in the front garden, and a half-priced holly (the variegated form, 'Silver Queen'), which will go on the hillside, to complement the pure green hollies already well established.

Twelfth Night

And the last day of our holiday arrives.

2013's Christmas Cake ( Ian 2014)

Almost all our of jobs have been done, in fact, which is most surprising. We de-decorated this evening, having left it to the last minute.

Waes hael!

Digging the Apple Walk

As intended, we've managed to spend a day working towards planting the apple walk. Unfortunately, about halfway up the left planting line, we uncovered a massive boulder, which is part—I think—of a terracing wall from long ago. The terrace has disappeared into the undulations of the ground, now, and isn't so necessary: the soil is stabilized sufficiently by the trees, I think.

The boulder, probably a meter square, and 30cm thick, has defeated us so far: it's too heavy to move (probably 500kg). I think it's entirely uncovered, so I have resorted to using the sledgehammer to break it up. Once it's smaller, and moveable, we'll heave what's left out. The ground here is so stony that the spoil heap of stones looks a lot like we're building a dyke.

Our other bits-and-pieces have gone ok: we've split a load of firewood, and stacked it, and re-oiled the hedge and fruit trees on the hillside. Some of the hedges had been nibbled, which prompted this reapplication of deer-deterrent. Fortunately, the hedge plants will benefit from the trim, as it should promote a bushier, denser growth.

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas, predictably, was a gourmand affair. I think we've had three 'Christmas' dinners, now.

Table set for the second Christmas dinner of 2013 (both © Ian 2013)

Start of a Break

We finished work for Christmas on Thursday, and spent Friday getting ourselves a little more organized for the holiday. There's a list of things we want/need to to get done, and I think we're on top of the urgent ones. Ideally, we'll spend a day quilting towards the end of the holiday, and there's some things we'd like to work on outside, weather permitting. There's always boring administrative things to get done inside, when the weather fails to cooperate (like filing the receipts for 2013...). We spent a lovely day with my parents yesterday, having a pre-Christmas dinner, and finally watching the first Hobbit film. The pork liver pâté we made in October (and froze in anticipation!) was delicious.

With some luck, we should be able to make progress on preparing the site of the apple walk. We started about a month ago, having had the idea back when we visited Barnsdale. The apple arch there (photo on this website), and a similar one in the Highgrove walled garden, are the kind of thing we're trying to create. Each side of a 33' long, 8' wide tunnel will have apple trees planted (every 3'; eleven up each side). They'll be trained up each arch of the walk (each arch being 4' vertical, then a 4' radius, 180° arch, and back down 4') to the top, where two apples will meet. They'll be trained into one-sided espaliers, with 3' long arms coming off every 18" or so, to create the structure of the apple walk.

Ideally, on a level site, each tree would have arms on both sides, half the length. However, because the walk is going to slope upwards, unavoidably, this won't work. Branches trained downhill will fail to grow.

We've got twenty apples on order, and I've found two more that I can obtain grafting material for, which we'll try grafting ourselves. They all originate (as far as we can tell) in Yorkshire, and date from Roman times, through Norman introductions, and the Victorian boom in apple varieties. Whimsically, we're going to arrange them chronologically, so that the oldest are at the top, and the most recent (just a few decades old) is at the bottom, or start.

However, long before it looks like anything at all, we need to smooth the plot, dig out the stones, and improve the soil. And, probably, dig some drainage.

Flying Visit

Just a very quick note to record a one-night trip to Cambridge, to catch up with friends before Christmas. We'll see everyone at the start of February, but as Philip & Rachel's son was born a couple of weeks ago, we wanted to meet him, especially. By happy coincidence, Robert and Liz (and nearly-year-old Ash) were around, too, so I think we actually saw everyone.

Christmas Greenery

On Friday, we managed to use a dry spell to plant about thirty saplings along the back of the birch clearing. When they've grown, they'll form a boundary to the space, and delineate the 'maintained' clearing from the untamed hillside above, which we plan to leave as gorse, heather, bilberries, brambles and bracken. They're a mix of crabapples and hazels, left over from the hedges on the other side of the plot, and they've been planted, like those, with mycorrhizal fungi on their roots, and chilli-oil on their shoots.

The rest of the weekend, we seem to have spent decorating the house for Christmas. I like to think we do things properly.

All photos © Ian 2013

Spiced Apple Mincemeat

Most of today's been spent on odd jobs. A big garden tidy up has started, to put it 'to bed' for the winter, and we've planted the rest of the bulbs. The two apple jellies we started yesterday are now made (possibly slightly softer-set than intended, but still perfectly acceptable), and very tasty. We've added to this a batch (a rather large batch, in fact) of apple pastilles, which may turn out to be slightly more toffee-like than planned. And we've filled the slow cooker with the ingredients for the eponymous Spiced Apple Mincemeat, which we're trying for the first time. We've previously used a different recipe, but the method worked well. This has slightly more apples (and we increased it a bit further, using the 'pre-peeling' weight for the post-peeling weight), and a different balance of spices and fruits. It's all in the slow cooker to start to infuse/mellow/blend, and we'll turn it on in the morning. It'll slowing cook all day, cool overnight, and the brandy will be added right before jarring, on Saturday morning.

Quilting and Mincemeat

The last two days of our holiday have been a bit of a mix. We spent most of yesterday working on our quilt: we started cutting the calico squares for snowballs, adding the corners, and then applique-ing the leaves onto them. We're hoping to have at least some time next weekend getting a bit further, but this at least has made it possible to get a sense of how it will all look once finished.

We also undecorated the house, and swept up lots of holly leaves and berries; I put up a new coat hook in the utility room; and we made mincemeat.

Yes, mincemeat, for Christmas 2013. It improves with keeping! Same recipe as last year, a nominally 6lb batch, though it seems a bit less than that.

Christmas Party

Christmas 'Tree' (© Ian 2012)

We spent Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, with Jenny, Philip, and the fosterlings, and Philip's parents while they visited. It's been a pleasant few days, with lots of food and games and presents (including two rather good garden books by Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh). Yesterday, we made the most of the garden centre's sale, and found some new/extra lights for the fireplace swag—the lights ceased to function a couple of days ago, but the new, more numerous LED lights are really good.

Our more-tasteful-than-sometimes Christmas cake (© Ian 2012) 

This evening, we hosted a small party, for Jenny, Philip, the children, Cath, Jason, and Cath's parents; we've spent a lot of today, and bits of the last couple of days, making things: including some very tasty mincemeat-laced muffins, and rather tasty cheese nibbles. I might get round to recipes; you never know.

The dining room (© Ian 2012)