Tis The Season To Be Jolly

I'm not feeling very seasonal today and finding it hard to believe that Christmas day is not far away. Hopefully I'll start to feel more festive over the next day or so, right now I'm just feeling cold despite having lit the wood burner early and the snow outside. it's hard to get motivated to do anything when you're cold so there's not much been done here although there are a few jobs that I should have done.

My winter garden is impossible to find and I hope the vegetables still in there are ok. I'm really looking forward to the growing season and hope to fill at least the main house garden with food stuff, and possibly some of the other plots with food for the animals. Planning ahead is key here, trying to buy hay at this time of year is almost impossible as we found out last year, and when you find it invariably the price is at least double what it was in summer.

Anyway, back to Christmas! Festivities here are a little more low key than back in the UK. There are decorations about but not to the extent as we used to see. One or two houses in the village have lights at the windows but there's not the whole "Let's drain the national grid" type that seems to be quite normal now in other places. I don't miss the competitiveness of our old neighbours with the christmas lights, every year they bought more lights to try and outdo each other and it drove me mad, but must have pleased the electricity companies!

The village church bells are ringing as I type this which means unfortunately another resident has passed away, which seems to be a daily occurrence in this type of weather, also in the heat of the summer. Living in a small village where at least 40 % of the occupants are elderly means that death is often the talk of the cafe, where they get together to commiserate and chat about all aspects of daily life. Our friends have been round this morning with 2 liters of fresh (straight from the cow) milk and to ask if I'll be making the normal friday morning trip to the cafe for a coffee! Just because it's Christmas day doesn't mean anyone here is going to change their weekly routine.....apart from me, because I'll be at home, warm and enjoying a festive break with my husband and children.