December 2006

1 I got an invite to my ex-works girls Xmas night out and we enjoyed fun and food at Azurro in Witham.  Sandra was guest of honour as it was also her leaving day.  A very good time was had by all.  See the pictures here.
2 Both Crow & I worked in the garden today - weeding paddock bed 5, spreading manure & leaf mould on the paddock beds, removing old runner bean plants & wigwams, a general tidy and sweep up in the veg plot, leaf mould spreading in the veg garden and fallen leaves collection.  Quite a productive time.
3 I bought a patio Red Delicious apple tree for by best buddy which I potted up & delivered.  I also had the chance to meet their new eight week old cocker spaniel puppy.  So, so gorgeous!
4 A visit to mum-in-law was the main event today.
5 Another scarf knitted tonight - I hope I sell some at the Maldon Victorian evening on Thursday!
6 Ron here again to do some more paddock digging and to, amazingly, dig out the absolutely massive bay tree stump and roots.  Touch & go for a while and failure looked imminent when some final twisting and chopping yielded success.
7 My first venture into market trading at the Maldon Victorian evening.  After such a nasty stormy day, shoppers were less than expected and most traders were disappointed.  I, however, was quite pleased with my trading, helped by one big sale near the end of the night.  In fact, my gross revenue exceeded five times the cost of my stall.  Not much profit margin in the sale of hand knitted & crocheted goods though, as the price of materials is so high, and I was very disappointed that I only sold 5 jars of jam/chutney.  Better luck next week?
8 2 more scarves made for sale next week.
9 Yet another scarf!  See them in Chick Originals.
10 Out today for lunch with friends.  Good food, good wine, good company, a roaring log fire...  what could be better?
11 Another two scarves for my collection.
12 Ron came back today and finally managed to remove the massive bay tree stump from the veg garden and construct a hand rail alongside our steps down to the patio.  He's such a versatile chap!
13 Amazingly, I picked two ripe cherry tomatoes from my last plant in the potting shed.  There's just one left, still to ripen.  Then, a trip to London for dinner with Crow's two daughters and one of their boyfriends.  Excellent, and we get to see Caroline & Bex again on Sunday.
14 My second evening at the Maldon Victorian market.  Completely opposite to last week, I only sold one knitted item but over 25 jars of jam/chutney.  Both greengage jam and green tomato chutney sold out as it seems they cannot be bought in the shops, not even at Wilkins in Tiptree.
15 Spotted a Jay in the garden - pretty little thing - but I won't be saying that in the Spring if they come to raid my broad beans!  Crow's having a get-together with 7 of his rally buddies tonight, so most of today was consumed by framing some cartoon awards for their "do", ferrying five of them to and from the event and visiting Tesco to put Xmas in the freezer.
16 Four rally friends stayed over.  So, for the only time this year, I did a full English cooked breakfast, with help from Ken, who did the mushrooms.  
Whilst waiting we watched a stoat stalk a rabbit across our front garden then chase it all of the way back, before we heard the catch and the rabbit squealing...... that's country life.
17 We celebrated Mum-in law's birthday by taking her out to lunch at her local Harvester, with Caroline & Bex.
18 Off to Portugal today, for a few days with our best friends "abroad".  Minus 0.5C here at the start of our journey at 5am.  Sunny & 20C at our destination.  Wow!
Now, let's talk about eating out in Portugal.  The food and wine is wonderful and cheap.  An excellent three course meal for four, with wine and coffee will be about 60 euros at the "better" restaurants....  So I guess we'll be doing lots of feeding while we're here - what bliss!
Tonight I had a lovely fish which I'd not had before and a delicious fig tart for pud.
19 Another beautiful day.  The aim of our holiday is really just to chill out and walk in the hills.  We're in the Algarve, up in the hills about 20 miles from Faro.  Crow is using the break to accelerate the writing of his fourth novel.  Wonderful duck tonight and a gorgeous almond tart that was more like a cake.
20 We explored Faro shopping centre today on the way to the coast for lunch.  A fabulous display of lights and trees decorating the mall, plus a temporary ice skating rink and no crowds to fight even though it's so close to Xmas!  Spent a whole 1.5 euros on two very unusual mats and longed for a singing santa or reindeer to match my singing snowman at home.  A snip at 15 euros but too big to go in the case and no good for hand luggage with the current flying restrictions.
We ate lunch outdoors by the sea - fresh prawns and conchillas (clam shrimps) with salad and mash, followed by my all time favourite Portuguese dessert, tarte de natas, which has to be tasted to be believed!  The big lunch meant that we had an evening in, watching TV in front of the log fire.
21 We've done very well with the weather this week.  In the past, we always seem to have brought bad weather with us!  There's been a breeze for the last two days, so a little cooler, but still warm enough to sit out on the patio by the pool.
A traditional dish tonight of pork and clams, followed by a yummy carob tart.  Back to fat free healthy living from tomorrow!
22 Breeze dropped, full sun and temperature up in Portugal.  Landed in freezing fog, still at -0.5C in England.  The fog has been extreme this week here, causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled at Heathrow, Norwich and Coventry.  Luckily (?) Stansted was largely unaffected.  Just a hour's delay as the outbound plane was late leaving.
23 Our local stoat is still out and about killing rabbits.
24 Crow picked up his mum to spend Xmas with us.  Mine's with my brother this year, for the first time ever.
Harvest: leeks, turnip, carrots, red peppers, celeriac - veg for the next three days.
25 Xmas day is very strange without my mam.  Caroline & Bex came for the morning, so we had a little family get-together.  I was quite modest with present buying this year - I must be getting old.........  Caroline & Bex were exceptionally ingenious.
26 Finished the front of my latest top, just the last sleeve to go.  Started another scarf and made broth with stock from the turkey bones.
27 Caroline & Bex visited again for lunch of turkey broth (courgette with mint soup for Bex) with home made bread & a very inventive veggie meal on my part made from leek, roast chestnuts, mushrooms and brie, served with a side salad. Later I finished that scarf I started yesterday.
28 Forgot to mention that I made Tarte de Natas for our Xmas pudding.  Five of us sampled it and we all thought we'd gone to heaven.
29 Started Sloe vodka brewing today, using the sloes I froze on 15 November.
30 2 hours of leaf gathering from the back lawn, which was completely covered.  I've now got a green patch back.  I also finished knitting my latest top, just the dreaded stitching up to do.
Harvest: melon pear pepino!
31 The stoat hunted down another rabbit this morning, but it managed to get away.
Friends visited with late Xmas pressies - mine was Pippa Greenwood's "Garden Problem Solver", which looks excellent.  Sorted out scarf knitting oddments and knitted them into my oddment scarf (does this make sense?).