Yesterday I was up, showered, stuff gathered and down at the shop buying mulled wine ingredients by 10am. I got into the kitchen, got the kettle on and the wine mulling and then set about getting We hhall set up before Fliss joined me. It all looked fab and by midday we had Christmas songs playing, the smell of mulled wine was wafting out of the doors and the table was groaning with our handmade stuff for sale.
We had eight entries for the mince pie competition and Ali brought along some jams to sell, Izzy brought some shortbreads but most of the stuff for sale was Fliss and I. We did really well – Davies sold a fivers worth of his cards (at 50p each), Scarlett sold one of her needle felted decorations, I sold various chocolates, decorations and a scarf but the biggest hit was the mulled wine and mince pies. We made over £100 altogether, £70 of it mine 🙂 So that was a good morning.
Mostly though it was just lovely to be doing something so festive. Sitting and chatting drinking mulled wine with friends I didn’t even know a year ago, having people exclaim over and buy some of the stuff I’d made, the moment when we realised it was snowing and the kids went dashing outside shrieking. It all felt very festive and community like. Doug the ghillie judged the mince pie competition which was a great finale of coming together from everyone with a big group of us gathered laughing and joking. It’s times like these that I know we have totally made the right move coming here, we are so at home 🙂
We packed up and I walked home with the kids and dog while Ady drove all the stuff back. Then I realised we’d not taken anything out for dinner from the freezer for Sunday so I walked back down to collect something. I did static to freezer (in the workshop right down in the village) and back up to static door again including feeding Tom and Barbara as I went past in under 30 minutes which I though was pretty darn good. I’ve just plotted it, it’s almost exactly a mile from our door to Sandy’s workshop so that’s two miles in 30 mins with a pretty steep uphill at the end :). When I had my peak flow measured by the doctor on Thursday he said mine was about the same as his which as he is a man and quite a bit taller than me is pretty good. None of that means much to me but I do feel pretty healthy and fit these days 🙂
I cooked pasta bake and we watched Outnumbered before early nights all round 🙂
Today we wanted to get various things done including collecting wood, getting the washing dried (we’d left it down at the castle in a queue for the washing machine yesterday but Rach had said she’d stick in in after hers), selecting our Christmas tree and juggling things around in the static to fit a tree in. We had pancakes for breakfast (we’re getting random duck and hen eggs every few days which is keeping us going more or less) and then I emptied a unit which houses the battery and invertor and internet stuff. We moved that into the hallway, we’re hoping to run the internet off the powerpacks rather than batteries for the next month or so as they are so much more portable to cart up and down the hill to charge up now the solar panel is not giving much charge to the battery. Bonnie’s crate has been moved into that space and we’re putting the tree infront of the door we usually block with the crate. I think it’s the best arrangement with our very limited space.
That done Ady and I headed down to the village to collect stuff from the freezer and sort out washing. Rach had kindly put it in the castle tumble drier for us (free!) so it only needed another ten minutes or so and we hung on for it. We came home and the kids came down to meet us and we went to select a Christmas tree.
It’s very lovely to choose your tree and chop it down within site of your house :). Ady and Davies took it up the hill while Scarlett and I carried on collecting firewood. Ady came back and the kids went off on a wander while Ady and I took down a dead tree I’d spotted right next to the river – perfect firewood, seasoned while still standing but dry because it’s not been on the ground rotting. We’ve already burnt most of it!
Ady took the wood up the hill while I took the car back the right side of the river (which is good because we almost didn’t bother and it’s rained for a good hour now so it would have been stuck!) I do love driving over a river and not worrying about whether the car will ever get through a MOT again! Today has been a real loving my life day 🙂
Back home to light the burner and get dinner on. I cooked, Ady sorted out the moving of the crate and tidied up. The kids washed and dried up. We ate watching Attenborough and then the kids watched something on youtube before bed. It;s been a real proper day off Sunday :).