What Kept Me From Blogging

On the day before Christma Eve Bert and I took the girls on separate outings. Martha and I went for a hunt around the charity shops and to find a present for Hannah. Bert and Evie went for a walk to the waterfall on Essathohan Burn. That turned out rather a damp expedition and they went home early to light roaring fires and watch telly.

But there was no stopping Martha and Granny. As always we had our traditional short-lived falling out which always clears the air and establishes that I just have to accept that we will be going into at least twenty different shops. And that Martha will dance. She does that – just starts dancing in the middle of a shop or on the pavement. Wherever there she sees a space she fills it with dancing. I don’t mind. She’s rather good at it.

Christmas Eve, I cooked, baked and wrapped the last of the presents. I had gifted Bert a promise that I would not get cranky with him on the three Christmas Days and found that I was able to share a kitchen with him as we each baked a cake. He was making a London Cheesecake, How To Be A Domestic Goddess, p152 and I was doing Sicilian Orange and Almond Cake, Penny Stephens Italian p234. They both turned out well. We had Bert’s on Christmas Day and mine on Boxing Day.

Christmas Day was all about the trimmings. Sad (not sad) that I forgot to cook the Brussels sprouts. We had Hannah and Fergus with us and afterwards, we played a rude and politically incorrect card game which was a lot of fun.

More cooking on Boxing Day. I did chicken and ham and made a couple of trifles, one alcoholic and one for kids and drivers. It was a family night and after eating we played charades, Truth or Dare and other silly games. Although Blind Man’s Buff was forbidden on Health and Safety grounds. 

Day after Boxing Day. We’d nothing planned and were looking forward to some peace and quiet. Then we weren’t as the Banjos were coming. More food! Jazzer brought her famous red pepper soup and a pavlova. After we’d eaten we enjoyed an entertainment we devised which involved taking turns choosing music on YouTube. This kept us entertained for nearly four hours and the music chosen ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous or, to put it another way, from Prince to Willie Drennan.

Marty Banjo introduced me to an amazing artist who goes by the name of LP. Somehow I’d never heard of her and, going by her androgynous and very fetching appearance, I actually had to go online to check her pronouns.

To finish, a good Christmas holiday but I’m awfully glad it’s over. We couldn't finish the pavlova though so Bert did something illegal and gave it to Rusty and Lily. Sorry DAERA but it was CHRISTMAS! The pigs loved it.

Christmas Eve

 Next year I'm going to buy the family Christmas presents early. In January I will buy Martha and Evie's papa a bottle of gin. In February I will again buy Martha and Evie's papa a bottle of gin. And in March...

Many, many hours later...

Holly de Cat, many Christmases ago.

Two Films and a Buck Idiot

Anything But Christmas

Funny how, when one is supposed to be preparing for the feast of the Nativity, that one will find so many other things to do. I thought I might go shopping for the last of the Christmas shopping today but I never went out the door - except to feed pigs and hens.

Instead of braving the shops I cleaned (a little) house and watched two films. The films were Four Hours at the Capital and The Power of the Dog. Both were intense. Better than Christmas.

I've just finished The Power of the Dog and it was an experience that I'm still processing.

Four Hours At The Capital

The documentary about the storming of the Capitol Building last January was a fierce watch too. One section that struck me was when people were evacuated from the  House of Representatives to their safe space there was phone footage of Marjorie Taylor Greene looking quite elated about the events that were taking place. I appear to have lost all the Trumpists who used to read my blog *so sad* so safe to say, Greene is a traitor to democracy.

Another thing that stood out was the person who helped the police officer Michael Fanone who was dragged into the mob, tasered and beaten. This man (and a few others) did what they could to get Fanone to safety. 

I suppose what I take out of it is that in that huge crowd there must have been many ordinary decent people, some who got swept up in the crazy excitement of the mob and a few, like the red-headed guy in the pic, who did the decent human thing. 

Watching the footage it was hard to believe that there weren't far more fatalities than had actually taken place although I hadn't realised that there were lives lost to suicide in the aftermath.

It was pointed out in the film that a considerable amount of people among the thousands in that crowd were believers of incredible and far-fetched conspiracy theories. 

But I've Done My Research

We all know them. Why only this evening one of Bert's acquaintances (one I usually avoid) was spouting nonsense about the dangers of Covid inoculations as it's a government plot to murder us. He hasn't been to a Chinese takeaway for two years because the Chinese are so very clever and have been developing diseases in their state-of-the-art labs for 1000 years. Scores of people in Limavady have already taken brain bleeds from the vaccine. He also came off with the shite that how come they can get a covid vaccination in a few months and they still haven't found a cure for cancer? Also, they give us cancer through the water supply.

Needless to say, I put him out of the house and told him not to come back until he's been double-vaxxed, boosted and wearing a mask. Don't expect to see him anytime soon. He'll be too busy getting his Ph.D. from the University of Facebook.

Ownsome Lonesome

 

It's been a very family-orientated few days. Ganching was here Friday-Monday and Leitrim Sister Sunday-Tuesday and last night we had Martha, Evie and their parents for supper. All good. 

This morning Leitrim Sister and I went out for breakfast. Not too far as Cully has two cafes. We chose Toast and as we went in I asked LS,

Shall we have the full relish?

She knew what I meant. An Ulster Fry with additional toast. How could we not?

The previous morning we had hoped to go to Middletown for a slightly more sophisticated breakfast but it seems they take Mondays off so the Leitrim one, the London one and myself went to Cameron's coffee shop for scones and coffee and a nice view of Slemish. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye to Ganching as her mini-break was coming to an end and she was off to the airport. 

Today it was Leitrim Sister's turn to head back and I found myself home alone as Bert was off doing Christmas farming with Clint. It felt very odd. Also good. Just me and the dogs and the cats and the pigs and the hens. Tomorrow I will get back to fretting about Christmas. Just 12 days to the best day of the year - the day after Christmas. Can't wait.

Visitors

 

This pheasant visits us every day. I don't always see him but I'm sure the spot under the seed feeder is part of his daily round. I call him Herbie. He is difficult to photograph as the slightest movement spooks him and even though he mostly walks, he is pretty nippy on his feet.

There were other visitors these past few days which is why I've not been blogging. Mick and Linda (co-grandparents) from Norwich were staying. There were some doubts if they'd be coming because of Covid but as we're all double-vaxxed and boosted and tests were taken prior to flying it all went ahead. I'm glad they came as Martha and Evie would have been very disappointed not to see them.

Anyway, all went well, the girls stayed too so we watched a lot of movies, Peter Rabbit 2 and another one called The Croods which I'd never heard of. Then, as if that wasn't enough screentime, Mick and Linda took them to the cinema yesterday to see the latest Ghostbusters.

The co-grandparents headed back to England this morning and overlapped with yet another visitor. Swisser had dropped Rex off as she's working in Bradford for a couple of days. I'd forgotten this arrangement and didn't see her. I came downstairs to find Rex in the sunroom and Mick fresh out of the shower. He said, 

There's another dog. I don't know where it came from.