A rather late Christmas post
Never mind, it was Orthodox Christmas just a couple of days ago.
I was actually back in the motherland for Christmas, which I haven't been for a while, thanks to a familial summons. As usual it was nice. Christmas is the time to see friends and family whom we actually like, and eat and do the same things that we have been doing for the last four decades or so. I was glad to be able to come back, because the parental generation is ageing fast, and we do not know how many more of these gatherings there will be. One of our regulars has already has been diagnosed with dementia and could not come, and another was worryingly non-participatory. I came back a few days early to help with things like picking up smoked salmon, racks of lamb, sponge cake for the trifle etc etc.
I made the fruit cake this year with jaggery (toddy-palm sugar), as an experiment, and it came out quite nicely, but not like a regular fruit cake. Much lighter and fluffier, though that could also be down to the flour and not enough brandy. It has a definite flavour which goes rather well with things like ginger and tropical spices in general, as one would expect, but would not suit chocolate or temperate-climate fruits. Citrus might work, especially the strong tropical ones like calamondin or lemongrass. I shall continue experimentation.
Serious overeating seriously hurts my stomach now. It was a painful experience, but on the positive side at least hopefully shows that I have successfully shrunk my appetite (and stomach) to a level that suits my current size. 1 kg down from the last check-in, so I have missed the end of year target (laziness, basically), but should be able to meet it by April, which will be one year since this whole exercise began, and will be a satisfactory moment to end.
The garden wasn't doing too badly, thanks to heavy rain before I came back. In any case, it's definitely survival of the fittest there. Several dozen snails were killed (with a brick, I disapprove of salt or poison) the tiger orchid was successfully moved to a better location where it will get some nice dappled shade from the dwarf coconut (fruiting!) but not be strangled by the Valaris glabra, and the aloe vera bed was weeded and the little baby aloes replanted.
Best of all, I caught the Boxing Day annular solar eclipse, safely, using a colander as a pinhole camera. What was really interesting was not so much the drop in light, which was not that much (though still visible - day-time shadows with evening levels of light) but the very noticeable drop in temperature; the sunlight was actually cool. My friend came over, and we had leftover smoked salmon sandwiches and Korean strawberries for lunch, while watching the eclipse. All very nice.
And then we went to see Rise of Skywalker, so altogether it was a pretty good Christmas.
I was actually back in the motherland for Christmas, which I haven't been for a while, thanks to a familial summons. As usual it was nice. Christmas is the time to see friends and family whom we actually like, and eat and do the same things that we have been doing for the last four decades or so. I was glad to be able to come back, because the parental generation is ageing fast, and we do not know how many more of these gatherings there will be. One of our regulars has already has been diagnosed with dementia and could not come, and another was worryingly non-participatory. I came back a few days early to help with things like picking up smoked salmon, racks of lamb, sponge cake for the trifle etc etc.
I made the fruit cake this year with jaggery (toddy-palm sugar), as an experiment, and it came out quite nicely, but not like a regular fruit cake. Much lighter and fluffier, though that could also be down to the flour and not enough brandy. It has a definite flavour which goes rather well with things like ginger and tropical spices in general, as one would expect, but would not suit chocolate or temperate-climate fruits. Citrus might work, especially the strong tropical ones like calamondin or lemongrass. I shall continue experimentation.
Serious overeating seriously hurts my stomach now. It was a painful experience, but on the positive side at least hopefully shows that I have successfully shrunk my appetite (and stomach) to a level that suits my current size. 1 kg down from the last check-in, so I have missed the end of year target (laziness, basically), but should be able to meet it by April, which will be one year since this whole exercise began, and will be a satisfactory moment to end.
The garden wasn't doing too badly, thanks to heavy rain before I came back. In any case, it's definitely survival of the fittest there. Several dozen snails were killed (with a brick, I disapprove of salt or poison) the tiger orchid was successfully moved to a better location where it will get some nice dappled shade from the dwarf coconut (fruiting!) but not be strangled by the Valaris glabra, and the aloe vera bed was weeded and the little baby aloes replanted.
Best of all, I caught the Boxing Day annular solar eclipse, safely, using a colander as a pinhole camera. What was really interesting was not so much the drop in light, which was not that much (though still visible - day-time shadows with evening levels of light) but the very noticeable drop in temperature; the sunlight was actually cool. My friend came over, and we had leftover smoked salmon sandwiches and Korean strawberries for lunch, while watching the eclipse. All very nice.
And then we went to see Rise of Skywalker, so altogether it was a pretty good Christmas.