Sorry, the recipe will have to wait until the morning as I've hardly been in the house till 3 p.m. today and then it was clean up time and cook-a-meal-or-two time!
Yesterday my eldest daughter and I stole an hour away from the house and ventured out with secateurs and a large bag, to collect the greenery for the Christmas wreath. It is an annual ritual of several years' standing now, and we take it in turns to create the wreath. We're running a bit late this year, but better late than never.
The best hanging ropes of ivy were overhanging the river and we decided not to risk trying to gather them as the riverbank was under snow and we couldn't tell where the real edge was. We made do with some shorter pieces from the hedgerow and the ivy tree up by the bend. T couldn't sing as she had a sore throat, but I managed a few carols on my own - Good King Wenceslas, Away in a Manger, Once in Royal David's City . . . The cows across the valley had their hooves up to their ears, but hey-ho, I enjoyed myself!
We saw a Dipper bobbing on one of the snow-covered rocks - I would NOT like to be a Dipper in this weather! Upstream from the bridge, a frozen caul of ice stretched from one bank to the other. Not enough for a Frost Fair yet, but it shows how cold our valley has been these past few days.
The side roads (well, single track lanes really) are passable now, with care, but the stretch along by the river is just compacted snow into ice and has to be negotiated slowly.
