Because we don’t ‘do’ Christmas as regards presents and rushing round to visit every single relative, this time of year is wonderfully relaxing and we get a bit of time just to be sociable.

a possible source of future milk
From the solstice to my birthday I do try to do some special cooking as I have a bit more time than usual and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, this year the plan was to have beef on the solstice. Events transpired against us, and we ended up going to the farm to collect the beef yesterday. However, it on the plus side this gave us plenty of opportunity to meet one of the dairy cows on the farm and have a long chat with Sam the farmer about their plans. There’s a possibility of some raw milk from them next year for cheese-making, but they don’t have spare capacity at the moment, but it was a good connection made and we’ve supported a local business.

a fruity thank-you
In the evening one of our neighbours called round, bearing a beautiful box of fruit. They order a lot of things online and we act as their drop-off point since they both work full time. By way of thanks, therefore, they gave us this lovely gift… I keep telling them it’s not necessary, but it’s good to receive graciously, which we did. I forecast Poire Belle Helene in the future, amongst other fruity things.
Today we went off to do some last minute shopping… two Danish pastries, a pot of cream, a newspaper, some T-pins for blocking Sophie and a pair of fair-trade rubber gloves (isn’t this the list everyone has just before Christmas?). Actually we mainly went out to wish various friends who have shops the joys of the season and to catch up on news of a very poorly friend (sadly no better). There was a great deal of chatting and little shopping… now that’s the spirit of the season for me.