Livingin22: December 2013 in St André

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

December 2013 in St André - lovely!

Happy New Year to everyone reading this.

It seems that I haven't posted since early December but in my defence it has been quite a busy time. Two Christmas lunches for groups to which I belong. First the Writers' Group enjoyed lunch at La Lanterne Rouge in Pontivy

The second was the Book Club Christmas lunch at Jerome et Virginie's bar/restaurant in Lanrivain, thankfully close to me so I didn't have far to drive. I wore jeans for the first time in my life!

When I arrived home I let my hair down. I don't often wear it loose.

The weather, on the whole, has been absolutely atrocious with gale force winds and endless rain. The field is a quagmire of liquid mud which liberally coats my fleece and trousers every time I slip over. I can't believe the ground is so sodden this early into winter. The night before Christmas Eve the winds were so strong I was sitting downstairs doing stuff on the laptop at 03.00hrs. In the cold light of day I found this:

My polytunnel had collapsed in the winds. I am hoping that the frame maybe prove to be ok and I'll just have to buy another cover - we only replaced this cover in the Spring. Still, I had it easier than my friends.

I should have been going to Sue and Daryl and their son, Dave, for Christmas Day and Boxing Day but on Christmas Eve morning they unfortunately came downstairs to 12"/30cm of water in the downstairs rooms so festivities moved here to St André. They are mostly dried out now and hoping that it doesn't happen again. I enjoyed having them here and it meant I had company without leaving home which is always good in my book.

I prepared the 6 kilo turkey which my friends brought with them by slathering it in lots of butter, seasoning and streaky bacon slices. Inside the cavity I placed oranges and onion.

As you can see they set to work doing the preparation, cooking and carving on Christmas Day. The turkey cooked beautifully thanks to a glance at Delia's suggestions for timing and temperature. Sue did two different stuffings which she cooked separately and very good they were.

My son, Oliver and his partner Emma allowed Mia free reign with the Christmas pressies under their tree.

And another photo this time with Charlie holding Mia - two of my very favourite people!

My Christmas tree was decorated by my Scottish friend, Jane, and as you can see she did an excellent job. When we brought the tree inside it had been drinking in the fish pond for a couple of weeks and had frozen into ice on the surface!f

The Sunday after Christmas a friend, Colin, invited lots of us to have an outside lunch - yes outside in December - with veggie chill, beef casserole and turkey curry at his home. How he managed to order up the blue-skied, warm and sunny day I do not know, but it was lovely and the sun shone through the whole afternoon.

New Year's Eve saw me in Jane and Paul's home, having a traditional Scottish starter of Ham Hock and Lentil Veggie soup which was delicious. A couple with their two boys were also invited and we had a lovely evening seeing in the New Year. I came home to watch the fireworks in London welcoming in 2014 in England. My oldest son, Matthew, called me just before I went to sleep at 01.20am - I could just hear him against all the celebrations at his end of the line.

Here are the two youngest cats this afternoon sleeping off their turkey and ham leftover lunch.

So that's Christmas and New Year's Eve dealt with and now we're going into a new year. If the weather can improve it would be good but even with the rain my life is good and I am looking forward to enjoying another year here in St André, and spending time with friends from here and those coming to stay from the UK.