trees through the mist

Project 52 2021 week 51

This week’s been lovely. We’ve not been doing much. A bit of helping out on the farm for N – stacking and moving logs, and feeding a very early calf that’s not fed properly off his mum. And for me it’s been a week off work, and lots of getting ready for Christmas. (with a bit of sale shopping thrown in).

Here’s our week 51 of Project 52.

On Sunday I met up with two old school friends. We usually get together a few times a year, but haven’t since Christmas 2 years ago thanks to Covid. It was only around the corner from me, at Upton House. We decided to stick to an early lunch when it was pretty quiet, then just walk around the grounds rather than going in the house.  It was a shame that it was so foggy as there were no views to be seen, and being the winter walk we didn’t get to see the mirror lake.  It was strange because it’s all hard walking around it.  But it was lovely to see them face to face again.

Monday N started his mammoth mince pie baking.  He decided to get Granny to make his pastry in the mixer, while he did the mincemeat. 2 batches later he was happy. 

N had his catch up private tennis lesson. The coach used normal yellow balls with him, so hopefully he’s happy that N can continue to play with those in line with the age group he’ll be going into. He also brought along a full size racket – flukily the one N was eyeing up – in case we wanted to buy it. He offered me a really good deal – better than all the deals online, so we snapped it up.  Before N starts using it, I might need to, as I seem to have lost my tennis racket – I think I must have left it at a tournament during half term, as I don’t remember playing with it since then. Gutted because noone from the club has responded to my email about whether it’s been picked up, and that racket is no longer available.

On Tuesday we dropped off some mince pies at a family friend’s house who’s on their own over Christmas.  We also headed out for a couple of walks with the dogs. We had to leave the german shepherd in the kennel because she wasn’t behaving – nipping the older dog and not letting her alone, and pulling too hard when on the lead. 

Wednesday was more mince pie making! He’s a mince pie monster. I also made some banana bread with uneaten fruit.  N is very partial to that luckily, as the OH won’t eat it. I thought I’d have to slice up half and put it in the freezer for lunchboxes. But N’s getting through it quite nicely.  My Tesco shop only had 2 sensible substitutions and 1 missing item. Annoyingly it was my celeriac which I use to replace potatoes. But I was quite pleased about the delivery.

On Thursday we did a quick trip to drop off some returns (more bras – to date, about 20 bras tried on – 4 kept) at the post office.  Luckily our tiny little village shop had celeriac in, so I’ve got everything needed for Christmas lunch, and my list of prep and cooking order done.  We finished cleaning the downstairs too, so we’re set (assuming we can keep the house clean for 2 days!).

Friday we spent most of the day prepping the food for Christmas day, including a keto pecan cheesecake. A few more presents arrived for under the tree and we played a board game. In the evening it was a fish and chip takeaway tea as we’d decided it probably wasn’t the best idea having all the family go to the pub.

Saturday and Christmas day. N was awake at 5.30, I heard him head over to the farm at 6.20 in search of a bacon sandwich. Turns out he ended up with Shredded Wheat because he was still full from his tea the night before! I was woken by the OH chopping wood at 6.40, and by 7 N was upstairs and opening his stocking. I have a feeling he now knows Santa is me – as he made a bit of a slip of the tongue saying ‘you, er Santa bought this’, but he didn’t let on during the day.

The weather wasn’t great which meant the football goal and table tennis table gifts will need to wait until it’s drier before getting set up and used. That didn’t bother N. My brother came over, we ate well, chatted and relaxed, took the dogs out for a walk to drop off presents at both sets of cousins. My new wellies fit well – yay to finding wider leg wellies. It was a quiet but nice Christmas.

trees through the mist

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8 Comments

  1. How lovely to be able to meet up with your school friends again. I’m impressed by all N’s mince pie making. Sounds like you had a nice Christmas Day and didn’t get woken too early. Thomas and Sophie slept in until 7 which was very respectable! #project365

  2. I am pleased you had a chance to catch up with your friends after a long break. Shame you didn’t have the views but least you had lovely company with your friends. Well done making so many mince pies, I cheated and bought boxed ones, but homemade are so much nicer. Glad you had a lovely Christmas.

  3. Such a beautiful misty landscape! You can imagine all sorts of ghostly apparitions appearing through the mist. How lovely that N enjoys baking mince pies so much! I confess I haven’t done any this winter. We only had a few bought ones.
    Glad to hear you were able to meet up with your friends, even if you couldn’t enjoy the walk as much in the fog.
    What do you do with the celeriac? Soup?

  4. Such a shame your walk was foggy, but nice to see some friends.Love that you made mince pies and gave them to someone who was on their own, what a lovely thing to do. Happy Christmas

  5. Sounds like a wonderfully relaxing week, glad you managed to catch up with your friends. I have always wanted to visit Upton Park hopefully we will make it this year. We were all up at 5.30! I am wondering if Charlie has guessed here too. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas x

  6. So nice you were able to catch up with friends and sounds like you got a good deal on the racquet.

    Sounds like you had a lovely christmas

  7. Lovely you were able to catch up with your school friends and also pick up the celeric you needed from the local shop. Sounds like you had a good deal with N’s tennis racket, shame about yours going missing, hope it turns up. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a great New Year.

  8. It sounds like you had a great week. It must have been nice to catch up with your old school friends. Well done N with the mince pies and that is great about the new racket.
    Merry Christmas. It sounds like you had a lovely day. I hope you get the football goal up soon. Hooray for the good fitting wellies.
    Fab photo, it looks very spooky. x

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