Am extremely cosy.
The house is full of food and sleepy hounds and dozing cats. We have eaten way too much, and I'm still gently nibbling on a lump of chestnut and cranberry stuffing. Here are a few photos from the last week or so:
Rosie on a visit to the Koffi Lodge cafe. We were in Tier 1, least likelihood of plague, at that point, so everything was pretty much as normal (we're now in Tier 2, so slightly more serious). Rosies long legs poking out under her jumper and overcoat make me laugh.
There were some nasty floods on Christmas eve around here. One of the local pubs had water several inches deep running through the pub ffrom the back door to the front, poor sods. The water also carried things off. The most notable thing it carried off was a swan-pedalo. We happened to be down at Cotehele Quay for a walk a couple of days after it had gone adrift, and as we walked, we noticed something on the river... Was it a swan, or was it...
IT WAS THE PEDALO!
And it had a crew! Four people were furiously pedalling away on board the swan, but as the tide was quite definitely going out, and there was a bit of a breeze, they were making very little headway. Fortunately, a motorboat came by and offered them a tow. This was a superb and majestic sight as it charged upriver.
I took these pics with my phone purely for my own entertainment, but then later, I happened to notice plaintive posts in one of the Tavistock Facebook groups from the owners of the Swan, saying that it was still missing. I enquired who the people were pedalling it, and the person posting seemed to rather leap to the conclusion that these were Swanknappers (I am not sure why they posted in Tavistock about this, because Tavistock isn't on the Tamar, so there was no way that the Swan was likely to end up up there.)
Fortunately there was a happy outcome: a post in a Calstock group (which is on the Tamar) saying that the Swan had arrived at someone's dock there, and did anyone know who she belonged to. Soon the Swan and Swan-owner were reunited, and I stole this photo of her going home.
Christmas was quiet, as expected. I feel lucky that my Mum (who is in our bubble) was able to come over for lunch. In the evening, Pp and I had a wander around the village to admire the Christmas lights: people seem to have really made an effort with them this year. It makes a huge difference in a village with no street lighting at this time of year when the dusk comes so soon to have houses lit up with sparkling strings of lights all over the place.
So far the Christmas tree has survived, though Theo did pinch one of my hand-carved ornaments and chewed it, before Mum arrived with a large bag of Exciting Theo Toys. He now has a lot of fuzzy things with working squeakers. Another fuzzy thing with a working squeaker is Gothmog Kitty, who is sitting next to me on the sofa being snuggly as I type. It's the oddest change to her behaviour: she spent a couple of months absolutely refusing to come into the house this autumn further than the utility room. We gave her some time, hoping she'd get over it on her own, but she stuck with the idea, so we staged an intervention and brought her into the house a couple of times, to reassure her that she was welcome and also to show Theo that he wasn't allowed to bark. I had expected this to take much longer, but that was all it took for her to start dotting in and out of the livingroom again quite happily, even standing on her hind legs to bop at Things on the TV if it's on.
Much to my delight, I was given a great pile of Nice Warm Socks, which I am now middle-aged enough to truly appreciate, and also the excellent trousers shown below, which are super-comfortable and most elaborately patterned. I also have a Saluki Dogmas hoodie, which Rosie resolutely refuses to be photographed with. I have a Harehound shirt as well, and I suspect Theo will refuse to be in a photo with that too. He's not really a photo enthusiast, I need to work on bribery more there.
I hope you mostly managed a happy Christmas, if that's a thing for you, so far as possible at the moment.
Rosie on a visit to the Koffi Lodge cafe. We were in Tier 1, least likelihood of plague, at that point, so everything was pretty much as normal (we're now in Tier 2, so slightly more serious). Rosies long legs poking out under her jumper and overcoat make me laugh.
There were some nasty floods on Christmas eve around here. One of the local pubs had water several inches deep running through the pub ffrom the back door to the front, poor sods. The water also carried things off. The most notable thing it carried off was a swan-pedalo. We happened to be down at Cotehele Quay for a walk a couple of days after it had gone adrift, and as we walked, we noticed something on the river... Was it a swan, or was it...
IT WAS THE PEDALO!
And it had a crew! Four people were furiously pedalling away on board the swan, but as the tide was quite definitely going out, and there was a bit of a breeze, they were making very little headway. Fortunately, a motorboat came by and offered them a tow. This was a superb and majestic sight as it charged upriver.
I took these pics with my phone purely for my own entertainment, but then later, I happened to notice plaintive posts in one of the Tavistock Facebook groups from the owners of the Swan, saying that it was still missing. I enquired who the people were pedalling it, and the person posting seemed to rather leap to the conclusion that these were Swanknappers (I am not sure why they posted in Tavistock about this, because Tavistock isn't on the Tamar, so there was no way that the Swan was likely to end up up there.)
Fortunately there was a happy outcome: a post in a Calstock group (which is on the Tamar) saying that the Swan had arrived at someone's dock there, and did anyone know who she belonged to. Soon the Swan and Swan-owner were reunited, and I stole this photo of her going home.
Christmas was quiet, as expected. I feel lucky that my Mum (who is in our bubble) was able to come over for lunch. In the evening, Pp and I had a wander around the village to admire the Christmas lights: people seem to have really made an effort with them this year. It makes a huge difference in a village with no street lighting at this time of year when the dusk comes so soon to have houses lit up with sparkling strings of lights all over the place.
So far the Christmas tree has survived, though Theo did pinch one of my hand-carved ornaments and chewed it, before Mum arrived with a large bag of Exciting Theo Toys. He now has a lot of fuzzy things with working squeakers. Another fuzzy thing with a working squeaker is Gothmog Kitty, who is sitting next to me on the sofa being snuggly as I type. It's the oddest change to her behaviour: she spent a couple of months absolutely refusing to come into the house this autumn further than the utility room. We gave her some time, hoping she'd get over it on her own, but she stuck with the idea, so we staged an intervention and brought her into the house a couple of times, to reassure her that she was welcome and also to show Theo that he wasn't allowed to bark. I had expected this to take much longer, but that was all it took for her to start dotting in and out of the livingroom again quite happily, even standing on her hind legs to bop at Things on the TV if it's on.
Much to my delight, I was given a great pile of Nice Warm Socks, which I am now middle-aged enough to truly appreciate, and also the excellent trousers shown below, which are super-comfortable and most elaborately patterned. I also have a Saluki Dogmas hoodie, which Rosie resolutely refuses to be photographed with. I have a Harehound shirt as well, and I suspect Theo will refuse to be in a photo with that too. He's not really a photo enthusiast, I need to work on bribery more there.
I hope you mostly managed a happy Christmas, if that's a thing for you, so far as possible at the moment.