Cakes & looking forward

Good morning

Hope you are all well? and your festive preparations are going smoothly? Sort of slowly getting sorted - waiting for a parcel or two to arrive and then I need to plan a festive food shop nearer the time. There's the small matter of retrieving the tree from the attic - I've decided I want to put it up this weekend.

Apart from Christmas preparations and trying to catch up with jobs that are 3 months overdue! I've made sure I've found time to catch up with my Christmas mag reading & cake eating!

Yesterday was a baking day - the boys seem hungrier than ever at the moment and the cake tins needed refilling. As I was making pastry for a quiche for dinner it seemed a good idea to make extra for a batch of mince pies;

A good friend moved house last week so I thought I'd make her a card;

I've also continued with my December ritual of lighting a candle each day - I do this to bring light into the house during these darker days and use it as a point in my day to remember those that aren't with us anymore. It also reminds me that the dark days will soon be over and we've the lighter days to look forward to - the Solstice is the 22nd so after that the days will slowly start to lengthen.

The weather has continued to be pretty awful here - the wind has battered the garden. The cherry tree has almost lost all its leaves now - you can just see the start of buds that will burst into flower when the springtime comes;

 I spotted another sign of growth the other day. Last spring I bought several pots of hyacinths to brighten the house out - when they finished they were left in the conservatory to die back with a view to planting them in the autumn. This got forgotten about with everything else going on. However I noticed that the bulbs had started to sprout again - so I've bought them all into the warm and I'm hoping they'll be flowering sometime soon;

Finally for today - good news - I'm stick free :) Had a physio appointment first thing this morning and he's said that I really don't need them anymore. I've also been told that I should be back riding my bike by the middle of next month - now that is something to really look forward too.

Keep warm & safe and I'll see you soon.

xxx Vicki xxx