Well phew! I made it through Christmas and out the other side! This year was my first Christmas spent without either of my children (aged 33 and 31...yes, I know....) and my head went through a bit of a turmoil getting itself around the thought. But actually, it was okay. Dinner was cooked without the usual feeling of panic of having to get everything 'perfect', you know, like we are constantly told it has to be by the media. Andy and I spent the day pleasing only ourselves and it was a quiet and relaxed affair. I made a jigsaw puzzle, Andy got his new drone stuck up a tree. We had a game of Scrabble where at one point my letter selection consisted of six 'i's and a 'u'.
The evening TV was okay, too, although my favourite Christmas special was aired the previous day - Gareth Malone's concert organised at Watford General Hospital, starring the redoubtable, full-of-life and thoroughly delightful Betsie. She is little girl, just turned 6, who, despite half of her life being dominated by a brain tumour that robbed her of most of her sight, still flung herself at the art of living with humour and a joie de vivre that would put most of us to shame. She sang her way into many hearts. When I next feel sorry for myself, I shall think of Betsie and be humbled. What an inspirational star.
And that is it! Christmas done and dusted for another year and with less than half the fuss I am normally caught up in. I like Christmas being spread over just a week rather than the month long drag it seems to have become. All the hype caused by the media and advertising does is cause people stress and anxiety and make them spend too much money. Pare it down, people! Pare it down. It can be done.
On other matters, I planted some cat grass for Flora and Bambino a couple of weeks ago. It shot up way faster than I anticipated, mostly because I didn't anticipate any growth at all given it is mid-winter and there is a dearth of sun and warmth. Anyway, I have presented it to the aforesaid cats. Go on - ask me. Are they eating it instead of chewing at my house plants? Are they heck. So not only will I have a garden full of lawn to mow, I now have a pot of indoor cat grass to keep trimmed.
And when I went to let Nancy Hen out of the hen-house this morning - yes, the idiot bantams are still tree-roosting - I found two eggs! Nancy, aged almost 4, has started laying again after no sign of an egg for literally MONTHS AND MONTHS! And they were proper egg-looking eggs, and not the weird shaped, thin shelled types that older hens tend to pop out once they get passed their third laying cycle. To be fair, Nancy is looking darned good at the moment. And clearly feeling darned good, too.
I'm off to attempt the building of a loom now...happy days!
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