Today’s picture shows a Christmas Tree (or possibly a church spire) creation in sugar and chocolate that my son Anthony has prepared for the festive season.
Yesterday was just a momentary break in the procession of miserable days that have lead up to Christmas. Today it was back to perpetual rain and grey skies. There was no opportunity for a little walk as yesterday’s effort had made my cold worse and rest was the order of the day. There was no real chance to while away the time by looking out of the window either.
I could count raindrops.
Or catch distant glimpses of birds in the gloom.
Luckily Alistair and Clare were able to entertain us so we didn’t get bored.
I made a leek and potato soup for lunch while Mrs Tootlepedal and Clare erected and decorated our Christmas Tree.
Sometimes I worry that we may overdo the festive spirit a bit.
…and then we went to Gretna to do some last minute shopping. I bought an umbrella for my Christmas present to myself. We had a brief look at the starlings as we left the shops but the weather was too gloomy for sandycam to make a good job of them.
When we got home Mrs Tootlepedal devoted herself to cooking a leek and ricotta roulade for tea. Clare is a vegetarian and this lets Mrs Tootlepedal venture down unusual culinary roads. The result was very pleasing for a first effort at the recipe.
It tasted as good as it looked.
Al and Clare are keen gamers (that is they enjoy board and role playing games of every sort) and after the roulade, they introduced us to a very gloomy board game called Pandemic where in a co-operative way four players try and save the world from pestilence and disease. We failed. As Mrs Tootlepedal observed, it didn’t make you feel that the WHO has at all an easy job because as as soon as one outbreak was solved another popped up…just like real life.
I just managed to catch a flying bird in the gloom. I haven’t used my photo editor to make it look brighter than it actually was this time.
I’m hoping that you have a dry, and very Merry Christmas!
Fingers crossed. Thank you for your kind thoughts.
Sorry you failed to save the world, but have a merry Christmas anyway!
We will.
that roulade does indeed look delicious! and great photo of the bird in flight. I think I have the same virus as you do and it sure is hanging on, been over a week now. I hope that both of us are back to normal soon. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Like the wet weather, the cold is a very slow moving affair and I am fed up with both. Your seasonal good wishes are fully reciprocated.
Maybe Santa will bring and end to the rain and your cold. Have a Merry Christmas.
Thank you. I hope you enjoy your festive season.
May your days be merry and bright! Or at least not too cold and wet. There is always room for optimism at Christmas.
Hope you and yours have a lovely day tomorrow.
Thank you very much. I hope that your Christmas went well.
Gloomy themed board games for gloomy weather. I like that it is a co-operative game.
That aspect of it was novel to me but it didn’t make it less interesting than a competitive one.
Sorry your cold has stood still and hope the day of partial rest did it some good. The raindrops made an interesting picture, i like that piece of ironwork when it appears in your photographs.
The roulade looks delicious – Happy Christmas to all.
Hope your cold cleared up and that soon the weather will too! What a very well decorated tree!
Wishing a happy Christmas to all.
A very merry Christmas to you and Mrs. Tootlepedal! Even under leaden skies and suffering from a cold, you make a very entertaining read. Best wishes to you and yours in 2013!
You are very polite. I hope that you and the Diesel enjoyed your Christmas and you didn’t put on too much weight as I seem to have done.
Happy Christmas to you and your family; thank you so much for entertaining me with your blog all year xx
Thank you very much. See you soon.