More Christmas Baking

This was going to be a rant about virtue signalling non Christmas card senders, but I thought better of it because I don't want to unwittingly offend anyone. That said, giving money to charity and sending Christmas cards are not mutually exclusive activities. Are they? No. 

And I'll leave that one there and turn to the topic of Christmas baking. Although if you  looked at the title and thought Great, that must be the Christmas wreath you are doomed to (temporary) disappointment.

Because what we actually made was our first ever Gingerbread House. It came as a kit from my Baking Subscription  people; not part of the monthly offering but an extra that they sell at Christmas time. And since we've never done one I thought it might be fun to have a go. 

I say we since it was a joint effort between the OH and myself. I baked the bits and he did the construction and the decoration. My icing piping skills being nothing to write home about, except in a mocking and derogatory manner, I designated the fiddly bits to him. Et voilà

Here it is under construction

and various views of the finished article. 

I was quite proud of the stained glass windows which are made with crushed boiled sweets. I have seen people do this on Bake Off and thought it must be ever so fiddly to do but actually it's easy peasy. I used some cookie cutters to make some extra bits and thought it was truly inspired of him to take the two candy cane pieces and make them into a sleigh for one of the snowmen. 

So OK its garish and full of sugar but isn't that what gingerbread houses are supposed to be like? 

I tried a bit today - one of the shooting stars from the roof - and regret to report that it was a bit soft and not very gingery. But I suspect it will get eaten for all that. And it was a fun, and new, thing to do. 

It's Christmas!

And in a startling contrast to last year I have been organised enough to bake and marzipan the cake in very good time. The OH once again stepped up to do the white icing/decorating and here it is

I'll be blogging again in a few days - meanwhile a Very Happy Christmas to Us All!

A Pre-Christmas Treat

Let's ignore the fact that I already have too much wool (a point reinforced yeterday when I decided to have a 'sort through' some of the oldest bits of my collection, some of it dating back to before we even moved to Orkney in 2005.) This tam kit was launched on Friday, to raise funds for the dig at the Ness of Brodgar. Proceeds from the pattern (downloadable sometime in the new year) will go to the  Dig. The pattern has been locally commissioned and designed, and the wool comes from sheep kept by the pattern commissioner here in Orkney and spun for her in Shetland. The designs are based on art work found on pottery and elsewhere at The Ness. It's a very lovely thing and I'd like to think I will find the time to knit it before winter is out. I am not holding my breath. Especially since it rather ominously begins 'the recommended cast on for this is the long tail German twisted cast on'. Yup right. I'm guessing that has less than nothing in common with my normal loop the wool twice round my thumb then ... I feel the call of a you tube tutorial - but not just yet.

If you popped by expecting a picture of a chocolate and hazelnut wreath - sorry. I felt so awful on Saturday that not only did I not make the wreath, I cancelled the friend's visit in favour of a series of two hour naps throughout the day. The wreath will get made, just not sure when. Rest assured, when the day arrives, there wll be a picture of it here. 

Baking Subscription er, April

Yes, I finally got around to doing the April baking box. It was a Bakewell tart, and it tastes OK. The pastry is not brilliant but it's edible. Rather than faff about piping rosettes of icing around the edge as per the box instructions I made enough to cover the whole top. I then decided to get  a bit fancy and feather it. However creative I tried to be with the camera angle there is no denying that the feathering is uneven because the pink lines were not evenly spaced. On the upside I bought 'writing icing' and I am absolutely amazed that I managed to 'write' straight lines with it. So that's a plus. 

I still have August's box to do - custard creams anyone? and December's which is a chocolate and hazelnut Christmas wreath. Since I have a friend coming for coffee tomorrow afternoon I am planning to do the wreath in the morning. It needs to prove twice and is also quite complicated in-between the provings so I'll need to be up early. It does say it's best served warm though, which is what R might be getting! 

In other news I finished my present shopping today and also gave out the local presents so, apart from some wrapping, and writing a shopping list for the OH so that he gets the right ingredients for the Christmas Day trifle, I'm done. And this year - no pre-Christmas melt down. That has to be progress!

The Nutcracker - and other adventures in motion pictures

So yesterday evening the OH and I went to see The Nutcracker at the cinema. It wasn't a simulcast, but a screening of a film made of the ROH's 2016 production. We've never been big ballet fans but we're slowly getting drawn in, and it being Christmas and The Nutcracker being a Christmassy sort of ballet off we went. 

We enjoyed it immensely. I assume the dancers were good otherwise they wouldn't have ben there but I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment further on that. They certainly looked very  poised and confident, and their footwork was very very fast. Amazing stuff. The costumes were gorgeous - not all to my taste, but amazing just the same. And it was very clear what was going on, which hasn't always been my experience at the ballet it has to be said. 

Son No 2, who came back with us to Orkney when we returned from EuroDisney, and the OH, are going back to the cinema this evening. They are going to see a Star Wars Triple Bill, with the third film being the newly released whatever it's called - The Rise of Skywalker? - starting at 00.01. I think we can safely say I will be in bed long before they get home, and possibly up long before either of them in the morning. It's not my sort of thing, but it is theirs, and I hope they enjoy it. 

A Tale of Two Trees

On our way to EuroDisney we had some time in Glasgow and we helped Son No 2 put up the tree we bought for the flat the first year we had it.

That's the OH and son no 2 busy putting stuff on it ...

... and this is the finished article. 

And yesterday now that we were well and truly back in Orkney , and the cards you may remember were all done, we put up our own tree. 

 Son no 2 giving a helping hand again. 

 And here's the finished tree

There's such a difference between them. I had longed for a tree decorated in one colour only for  many years ( probably through having seen them in shops and glossy magazines) so when we bought the flat tree we bought one box full of baubles to go on it; in black and gold only, with garlands of golden beads.It's not quite monochrome but  it's as near as makes no difference, and  I love it. 

The family tree is a whole other story. Every decoration on there has a story attached to it. We have one or two that the boys made at school; battered and bowed, but still usable. There are some I cross stitched many years ago; I did two for everyone with their names on and some generic un-named ones as well. Son No 1 has taken the ones with his name on to Canada of course, to become part of his own family's traditions, but that is how it should be. There are a few that we have bought on holidays or trips away, which is why somewhere on there, there are wooden ornaments sporting kangaroos and koalas. And a pohutakawa fairy rom New Zealand, and a string angel from Amish Country and all sorts. There are beautiful blown glass ornaments from eastern Europe which we bought here in the Christmas shop in Stromness, and artisan made ones from sea glass by local craft people,  and others from abroad, bought or hand made by friends made through pen palling or Ravelry. In one way it's an unco-ordinated mess, but in another way it's the story of our marriage and our family and all our Christmases and that makes it less aesthetic than the one in the flat but much more meaningful. Every year we say, we have too many tree decorations, we mustn't buy any more, we have no space,  and by and large we don't. But we did get a new one this year, a random  gift from my sister. Meet Maisie Mouse:

And if you look quite hard at the picture of the finished tree, you'll see she found a place on it! 

Bin Away - And Now We're Back.

We have just got back from a 3 day break in EuroDisney which necessitated gong away for a week. The blog got very neglected beforehand as I was determined to get all my Christmas cards, bar the Orkney ones, into the post. This made my card posting early, even for me, but I felt it would help me feel I had 'got somewhere' with Christmas and could therefore allow myself for a few days of enjoyment. (I know, ridiculous: but a Calvinist outlook deeply engendered in childhood  is difficult to throw off.)  

Since we returned to the UK on Thursday evening we didn't quite manage to miss all the punditry and horror around the unfolding election result, although I went to bed at 10.30 and refused to fall asleep to Radio 4 as is my wont, since it was given over to an Election Night special. I felt the bad news could wait until morning. It was certainly there, waiting for me the moment I woke up, but 10 minutes of a Tory fawning Today program was more than enough and the radio was suppressed for the rest of the day.

I can't be disappointed with the results in Scotland, except for noting in passing that the appalling Alistair Carmichael did in the end hang on to Orkney and Shetland for the Lib-Dems once again. Of course after his fall from grace (which in the end, the moral compasses of most political parties in Britain being where they are, actually wasn't all that far) he said he would not stand for election again, but that turned out to be just another of his lies. Hands up if that surprises you. 

The thing, or one of the things anyway, is that even if this does herald the end of the union, and Scotland finally becomes independent once more, that will leave a sad and sour taste if it's on the back of those in England who don't want, don't deserve and didn't vote for five more years of  Tory rule. Especially with the unspeakable Johnson in Downing Street and the even more loathsome Rees-Mogg allowed to slither out of the purdah into which Tory Central Office wisely confined him during the election campaign, to take up some high government office and make even more mountains of money. 

There is something deeply wrong with the world. 

Coming soon, I hope, a more cheerful and optimistic post, not to mention frame of mind.