Welcome to my perfumed garden

Only a dusting, no more than an inch of it but it's sunny and frosty-bright with a blue-pink sky, sugared trees and all rather gorgeous. We just got back from what should be the last shop (and there was much rejoicing!) - a few veggies, parsnips and Ted spuds for the roasties, sosmix for the sausage rolls, more cards, more port (since we drank what we bought last week) and the cheese! From my favourite Chorley cheesemonger



In other news - it's Christmas! Well, nearly. I've been trying to do pictures of my mantelpiece, they don't really do justice to its many Christmassy virtues but here goes anyway.Back now, warming up, crumpets and tea, the cat's arrived. I shall be venturing out again later to post the last cards, if the sun's still up I might do pictures.

Merry Fireplace says Merry Christmas!



Basement Cat is indifferent to your Christmas.





 I've tried it every which way but can't get anything to go under a cut, sorry about that. If the pictures are fannying with your LJ, let me know and I'll take em down. 

'Deed we are. An exciting quantity of Christmas comestibles has been purchased including several large slabs of fine cheese, potato cakes, oatcakes, gingerbread, mince pies, Very Nice bread, proper marzipan, goose eggs, a slab of toffee, various chocolatey things - oh, loads of stuff. *g* We set off at 8.30, were parked up by 8.45 when the car park was empty (and entirely full by 9pm) got our shopping all done while the shops and market were relatively empty and home scarfing buttered potato cakes by ten o'clock of th' morning. This is a Very Good Thing. ::is smug::

Chorley market was looking very festive, all tarty in lights and holly. I should've done some pictures, shouldn't I? I never think of these things till it's too late.

So, gotta get the last of the cards and parcels posted, clean the kitchen... I found out last night (after a full 30 minutes of alarmed rooting around in the loft) that most of the Christmas decs have been taken to be stored at Dad's and not by me, Mark being a little too eager with the stripping of the loft I suspect. So alas, we are on very short rations indeed. I have lots of baubles as I bought a ton reduced in B&Q last year but no drawing pins to hang them. We could go and get some new stuff but it wouldn't be the same without the same old tatty wonders around the place. But we have decked our humble halls nonetheless. There are  whole forests of evergreens dripping off every surface, lots of lights, many candles, a single strip of tinsel (heh, poor lonely thing) and it's all looking rather fine and - what more do you need, really?

I went up in the hills yesterday where it was frosty and delicious; gigantic moon hanging on the horizon - to get the holly and pine and stuff but lo! Not a berry to be had on anything, not even the ivy. The holly trees I've gone to for years were completely bare. I suspect the poor birds have had them all, maybe the harbinger of a tough winter ahead. And no snow in Moscow! Has their weather shifted our way I wonder?

Anyway I have more cards to write, a kitchen to clean, cards and parcels to post, drawing pins to buy, a novel to plot and a chapter of fic to write. I shall see you on the dark side - and it will be dark, too. Sun's dropping down behind the moors at just after 2pm now and I have much to fit in before it does.

Just taking a quick break with a mug of Earl grey and a KitKat...

We're home in Withnell for a couple of days. Yesterday we had (gasp!) a day off; had an appointment in Chorley at 11 so we drove over from Yorkshire early (hideous drive over the M62. Wall to wall HGVs, driving rain, impenetrable spray, thick fog) then went shopping. It's been months since we did that - I'm not a happy shopper as a rule but it was really nice to wander through the market with all the Christmas gubbins everywhere, despite the rain (the weather really was hideous yesterday). I got some Christmas toffee (with a hammer) for Dad and a mint copy of Mad Dogs and Englishmen by Paul Magrs for 99p so I was well chuffed.

I went to my favourite cheese stall and got into a lengthy conversation about Lincolnshire Poacher (which Mark adores and is always trying to source). Jane (who runs the stall) said she'd been pondering getting some to see how it sold. We had to describe Poacher's flavour in detail and she made us (made us - snort!) try numerous cheeses to se how they compared. Anyway, we ended up with a truly amazing true (made in Cheddar) cheddar, a chunk of Cornish blue, some smoked brie, a mature Lancashire and quince jelly. Yum.

Went to Chorley Health Foods for my favourite teas (they blend them themselves; I was going to say 'what I'll do when we move I don't know'  but I see they have a website and online store; it's a tiny, tiny little store! Man, I love teh internets!)  and finished up at Booths the best supermarket in all the known universes for numerous goodies, then went home, lit the stove and the fire and curled up with said goodies, my book and the Mighty Boosh and had a thoroughly spanking day.

Work goes on on our house; today we're clearing out the spare and bedroom. So far I've filled five boxes with files full of printed fanfic and I'm still coming across odd stories here and there - down the side of the bed, fallen behind the linen chest, tucked inside an old phone book - man! And I stopped printing fic back in 2004 when I bought my first Palm. I can't bring myself to get rid of any of it so it's all boxed and ready for a temporary home in Dad's garage.

And I just got my first Christmas Card, from the Mapins in Norfolk. They came a visiting one year, out of the blue - Marion's father was born in this house; he'd died when she was a child and she was in search of his life. They were sweet people and we still exchange cards every year.

It's so nice to be home (as Mark and I keep telling each other). I shall be sad to leave this little house.

In other news, I am about 5,000 words shy of finishing the Chasing Rainbows sequel, with just 2 more (albeit complicated) chapters to finish. I'd hoped to do some yesterday but after three hours of shopping in the rain, lighting stoves, cooking soups et al, once I'd got my feet up by the fire, eating cheese, drinking wine... It was never going to happen. Unless something major happens, though, it should be finished by the end of the coming weekend. I'll need to read it all through first, make sure it's coherent but if anyone feels like betaing this unwieldy beast, I'd really like to get it to Debbie (who won it for Moonridge 2006 ::blushes::) before Christmas.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a short break; best press on...

ETA: It's 17.00 and all is done. Yup, you heard me - the bedroom is devoid of piles of boxes/clothes/eiderdowns/general junk for the first time since Mark's Dad died 30 months ago. I've cleaned up, made the bed and lit the fairy lights (ah! pretty!) and it looks like an actual bedroom for the first time in (literally) years. man...! ::stands back in wonder and amazement to admire...:: (o:

Dinner's in the Aga, I have olives; I is drinking wine and feelin' fine. Happy Weekend, everybody. God bless us, every one.