Once was December...
...and I've been wanting to post all through, and taking photos and starting posts and somehow it's just not happened - ack! So even though I have something that I really really really have to do today, I'm going to post here as well! Cos this definitely feels like left-overs!
I managed to visit one NT Christmas house too - Barrington Court, which was looking rather lovely...
I also went back east for a couple of days for some appointments (mostly my silly nearly-non-existent-thyroid), and stopped at one of the worst YHAs in England - Milton Keynes - honestly, I'm not sorry that I never have to go back to that place, I'm really not. It lives up to all the awful things that are said about it!) But then, in between appointments, I popped in to visit my favourite Anglesey Abbey Winter Walk, and although I missed the big Christmas Lights walk, it was pretty as ever.
Snowdrops! In December! To quote our Doyle from Larton - get back, you fools! *g*
My favourite copper beech...
...that is apparently not a copper beech after all, but a Tibetan cherry. I still covet it. *g*
So - it's been Christmas... *g*
...and this is what Christmas Eve looked like in my new place!
I've not been nearly as Christmas-y feeling as I'd planned to be, and I've only read one and a bit Christmas-y books instead of all the ones I wanted to, and I've not even kept up with the ci5hq advent calendar properly - and I've got two Dialj stories to catch up on, but I do have a reasonably tidy home, with most things put away at last, been discharged from my two Cambridge hospital thingies (just keep taking the pills, comrade *g*), have been to my first book group-that-was-the-Christmas-meal-and-book-exchange, a mulled wine postcode party, and... blimey, what else? Just about kept up with work, done a bit of writing, which I'm quite pleased about, and am planning to do much more over Christmas (well I'd better, my Dialj day is Boxing Day... eeep!) (See - I wrote that bit of the post the other day, and did it get here? No!). I even managed to find a Christmas tree that fit in my empty space, and decorate! And Riverford sent mistletoe! In fact I've never seen so much mistletoe around that people actually do use it to decorate - I really have never actually come across that in real life, but it's all over the place down here - properly Christmas-y. You can see my wee bunch just to the left of the door in the first picture... *g*I even found red berries on a holly bush a few weeks ago - properly Christmas-y (I left them where they were, cos it was a National Trust place, and they wouldn't have been happy!) And the nice Christmas-tree-man let me have extra off-cuts to take away, so I've hung more greenery around too (you can just see some to the right of the first pic...) *g*
I haven't got everything put away properly yet, but I do have things mostly on shelves or in cupboards or pretending to be put away, so it's tidy for Christmas and all, which is good. I have many shelves (though still not enough for all my dvds - I think I need to build up and over the telly when I've saved up some money again!)
So... Christmas yesterday was a bit odd, on my own for the first time in years, but it was nice to be on my own in my own place, so that worked! It was less nice that Santa brought me face-ache that got progressively worse over the day (and is back again now that I've had breakfast - waaah!) and mucked up my plans for much writing, but otherwise I had surprise-emails and happy-emails and my sister sent me a present that in the old days would have been a book token, but is now an Amazon token. So effectively still a book token... *g* And I made nut roast and roast veg for dinner, with carmelised onion gravy, and that was yum, although face-achey, cos it's tooth-jaw driven. Just bloody ow!
I did start the day with what is never quite a long leisurely bath (I'm too impatient for them to be very long, even reading... *g*), but was a fab bath just the same. It was the first one in my new bathroom, which has a funny shaped tub but also instant hot water from my boiler, which meant that I could have a properly (dangerously *g*) deep and hot bath! I also used my Christmas-treat Lush Shooting Star bath bomb, and I don't think I've ever seen prettier bathwater! I couldn't stop taking photos - look! It started off innocent-looking enough...
...dropped it in, it went fizzing off...
And then!
Fizz fizz...
Bath art!
With sparkles!
The water was deep purple, the white bubbles made it look like another planet, you can't see them very well, but there was glitter and sparkles, and it was just the prettiest bath! *g* Plus, Lush, so it smelled good... *vbg*
So, you know, that kept me amused for a bit... *g*
I watched Doctor Who and Miranda and the first Jonathan Creek ep, cos I've never seen the series except in a few bits and pieces, so I thought I'd start from the beginning. *g* I quite liked Doctor Who (The One With Santa), it was very cleverly done, though I feel like I need to watch it again just for the fun of detangling it again! Though the ending went on a little bit - and yes, I'm one of the people who're disappointed that Clara isn't leaving, partly cos I still don't believe in her and Danny, no matter how much it's rammed home (and not again in this ep - that wasn't necessary! Just let us be sad and done with it!), and I'm not entirely sure I believe in her and the Doctor - though I believe in the Doctor very much... *g* I got bored halfway through Miranda though, which was disappointing, cos I usually like it. But really - will-they/won't-they? That just seemed like lazy writing to be honest... I'll watch the second part, but mostly for Patricia Hodge if it's going to be like that again!
Aaand... dunno. I'm clearly just typing for the sake of not-writing-that-big-thing-I-have-to-finish-today-cos-it's-my-Dialj-day. Eeeeep! No - don't panic, I'm going to do it now. I will have something to post this year, I will... *wanders off to write Pros...*
I managed to visit one NT Christmas house too - Barrington Court, which was looking rather lovely...
I also went back east for a couple of days for some appointments (mostly my silly nearly-non-existent-thyroid), and stopped at one of the worst YHAs in England - Milton Keynes - honestly, I'm not sorry that I never have to go back to that place, I'm really not. It lives up to all the awful things that are said about it!) But then, in between appointments, I popped in to visit my favourite Anglesey Abbey Winter Walk, and although I missed the big Christmas Lights walk, it was pretty as ever.
Snowdrops! In December! To quote our Doyle from Larton - get back, you fools! *g*
My favourite copper beech...
...that is apparently not a copper beech after all, but a Tibetan cherry. I still covet it. *g*
So - it's been Christmas... *g*
...and this is what Christmas Eve looked like in my new place!
I've not been nearly as Christmas-y feeling as I'd planned to be, and I've only read one and a bit Christmas-y books instead of all the ones I wanted to, and I've not even kept up with the ci5hq advent calendar properly - and I've got two Dialj stories to catch up on, but I do have a reasonably tidy home, with most things put away at last, been discharged from my two Cambridge hospital thingies (just keep taking the pills, comrade *g*), have been to my first book group-that-was-the-Christmas-meal-and-book-exchange, a mulled wine postcode party, and... blimey, what else? Just about kept up with work, done a bit of writing, which I'm quite pleased about, and am planning to do much more over Christmas (well I'd better, my Dialj day is Boxing Day... eeep!) (See - I wrote that bit of the post the other day, and did it get here? No!). I even managed to find a Christmas tree that fit in my empty space, and decorate! And Riverford sent mistletoe! In fact I've never seen so much mistletoe around that people actually do use it to decorate - I really have never actually come across that in real life, but it's all over the place down here - properly Christmas-y. You can see my wee bunch just to the left of the door in the first picture... *g*I even found red berries on a holly bush a few weeks ago - properly Christmas-y (I left them where they were, cos it was a National Trust place, and they wouldn't have been happy!) And the nice Christmas-tree-man let me have extra off-cuts to take away, so I've hung more greenery around too (you can just see some to the right of the first pic...) *g*
I haven't got everything put away properly yet, but I do have things mostly on shelves or in cupboards or pretending to be put away, so it's tidy for Christmas and all, which is good. I have many shelves (though still not enough for all my dvds - I think I need to build up and over the telly when I've saved up some money again!)
So... Christmas yesterday was a bit odd, on my own for the first time in years, but it was nice to be on my own in my own place, so that worked! It was less nice that Santa brought me face-ache that got progressively worse over the day (and is back again now that I've had breakfast - waaah!) and mucked up my plans for much writing, but otherwise I had surprise-emails and happy-emails and my sister sent me a present that in the old days would have been a book token, but is now an Amazon token. So effectively still a book token... *g* And I made nut roast and roast veg for dinner, with carmelised onion gravy, and that was yum, although face-achey, cos it's tooth-jaw driven. Just bloody ow!
I did start the day with what is never quite a long leisurely bath (I'm too impatient for them to be very long, even reading... *g*), but was a fab bath just the same. It was the first one in my new bathroom, which has a funny shaped tub but also instant hot water from my boiler, which meant that I could have a properly (dangerously *g*) deep and hot bath! I also used my Christmas-treat Lush Shooting Star bath bomb, and I don't think I've ever seen prettier bathwater! I couldn't stop taking photos - look! It started off innocent-looking enough...
...dropped it in, it went fizzing off...
And then!
Fizz fizz...
Bath art!
With sparkles!
The water was deep purple, the white bubbles made it look like another planet, you can't see them very well, but there was glitter and sparkles, and it was just the prettiest bath! *g* Plus, Lush, so it smelled good... *vbg*
So, you know, that kept me amused for a bit... *g*
I watched Doctor Who and Miranda and the first Jonathan Creek ep, cos I've never seen the series except in a few bits and pieces, so I thought I'd start from the beginning. *g* I quite liked Doctor Who (The One With Santa), it was very cleverly done, though I feel like I need to watch it again just for the fun of detangling it again! Though the ending went on a little bit - and yes, I'm one of the people who're disappointed that Clara isn't leaving, partly cos I still don't believe in her and Danny, no matter how much it's rammed home (and not again in this ep - that wasn't necessary! Just let us be sad and done with it!), and I'm not entirely sure I believe in her and the Doctor - though I believe in the Doctor very much... *g* I got bored halfway through Miranda though, which was disappointing, cos I usually like it. But really - will-they/won't-they? That just seemed like lazy writing to be honest... I'll watch the second part, but mostly for Patricia Hodge if it's going to be like that again!
Aaand... dunno. I'm clearly just typing for the sake of not-writing-that-big-thing-I-have-to-finish-today-cos-it's-my-Dialj-day. Eeeeep! No - don't panic, I'm going to do it now. I will have something to post this year, I will... *wanders off to write Pros...*