A Winter walk

It seems to be a popular activity for many people to go out walking during the Christmas and New Year break. After all the extra food and drink we have consumed  and all the busyness of the weeks leading up to Christmas it's always good to go out, get some excercise, burn off those extra calories and blow the cobwebs away.  A good walk leaves you feeling refreshed, spiritually, mentally and physically.  Well that's how I feel about it anyway.

It seems to have done nothing but rain for the last few days, but today was dry and sunny so  R and I set off out for our first walk of the Christmas break. It was very cold, a sharp contrast to the mild weather of the past few days, but we were well wrapped up.

We are lucky in that whatever direction we set off from we can be in countryside within 5 or 10 minutes of our house. The walk we took today was along the course of an old railway line.  It's a walk we always seem to do after Christmas, I don't know why. And every year I say we must come along here in the summer when the trees are in leaf and there will be more colour.  But we never do.  It is a lovely place to walk with marvellous views across fields and the starkness of the bare leaved trees has a special beauty.  I do love trees without leaves.

We were back home in just over an hour, it was long enough to be out in that chill wind, but we both felt refreshed and full of enthusiasm to do some more walking another day.

Looking back, looking forward

I'm not a great fan of New Year's Eve celebrations. I prefer to slip quietly and gently into the new year.  I'm not sure why I feel that way, perhaps it's because I'm not a party person and can only tolerate being with large numbers of people for a small amount of time. But that's the way I'm made and I'm quite happy being like that.

I also get a bit tired by all the looking back that goes on just before the new year.  You open a newspaper and it's a review of the year.  You watch TV expecting your favourite programme and again it's a review of the year. But then I suppose we need to look back in order to be able to move forward. Looking back at how we've progressed in the past year is good for our self esteem. Looking back at mistakes we've made might help us to make improvements.

So as the fireworks go off around our house and we move into 2012 I will perhaps look back on the past year and think about all that I have achieved, enjoyed and loved.  I will think about my successes and failures and I will thank God for the many blessings he has given me. I will also look ahead and make some plans. And I might share those plans with you.

May you have a happy, peaceful and blessed new year.

Reflecting on December

I normally do an end of month reflection on the garden.  But really December in the garden hasn't been much different to November.  So I'm thinking here about what I've seen done and enjoyed generally in December.

In the garden a few more plants went brown and flopped, more leaves fell and covered everywhere and some flowers gave up trying to stay in bloom.  The weather  and  preparations for Christmas prevented me from going out doing much in the garden. I  swept up leaves from the paths and will probably continue to clear the borders of leaves during the winter months.  There is some colour around.  The yellow climbing rose at the front of the house which I normally cut back in the autumn to stop it being blown about by the wind is still flowering.  There are bright spots of orange from the calendula which I neglected to cut back, some lovely foliage colour from the grasses and hardy geraniums and  the winter jasmine is now in flower.

The house has been full of activity.  It's been a time for working through jobs lists, for shopping, for baking lovely food, making Christmas decorations and remembering people you only think about once a year when you send and receive Christmas cards.  There have been lovely times with family, carol concerts and nativities with the grandchildren who live nearby and visits from the ones who live far away, tinged with sadness because we don't see them often enough.  The house has been and still is full of colour, sparkle and twinkling lights.  In a few days times all that will be gone and we will move on and make plans for the new year.

Hoping you all enjoyed Christmas and wishing you a peaceful and happy 2012.

Christmas biscuits

A last minute recipe for some really yummy biscuits.  These are really easy to make and would be great for the festive period if you need to stock up on biscuits.

I tweaked the original recipe which used blueberries.  I also put edible glitter in with the caster sugar  to sprinkle on top of the biscuits and add extra sparkle.


Christmas biscuits

175g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
110g butter
110g caster sugar plus extra for sparkling
grated rind of 1 lemon
75gr dried cranberries
1 egg beaten

1. Sift the flour and spice into a large bowl.  Add butter and rub in with your fingertips. Stir in the sugar, lemon rind and cranberries, then add the egg  and mix to a firm dough.

2. Knead the dough briefly  on a lightly floured surface and shape into a sausage about 20cm long and 5cm wide. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for half an hour.

3.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (180c) and lightly grease a large baking tray. Unwrap the chilled dough and cut into 5mm thick slices.  Put them on the baking sheet, space a  little apart.

4. Bake the biscuits for 15-18 mins until they are pale golden in colour.  Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, sprinkle with a little caster sugar and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Too much to do

This is such a busy time, so much to do and so many  things I want to do. I start off with  plans, but never really achieve all of them.  Perhaps I set myself too many targets.

There were all the crafty things I was going to make for school and church Christmas fairs, well those didn't happen. Then it was  things for the home I  wanted to make.  I was watching Kirsty Allsopp's 'Handmade Christmas' on TV the other week and decided I would  make a vintage heart garland. I have all the fabric ready, but not enough time to make it.

This week I'm watching  all the Christmas cookery programmes on TV ( aren't there a lot of them?) and I'm wanting to make so many delicious looking things. A couple of days ago  I baked. I started with a plan--a list of things to bake,  but only managed  half of it. But I did make mince pies,  flapjacks, carrot cake and a deliciously, boozy, fruity chocolate made from the  left over fruit from the blackberry and raspberry gin which I bottled up last weekend. ( I think that recipe comes from Alys Fowler).  I watched Nigel Slater's 'Simple Christmas' and now I want to make those fruit and nut flapjacks. And I've just watched Kirsty Allsopp's 'Home for Christmas'  (that woman has a lot to answer for!)  Now I want to make a yule log!
 
But  there's still time yet to do more so who knows what I will create.

My Christmas door wreath

I love  making Christmas wreaths, it's one of those things I do each year which has become a family tradition.  There are different ways of making wreaths.  I use an oasis ring (available from large garden centres or flower shops). I set aside a day about two weeks before Christmas for making the wreath. I put the oasis ring to soak in water for a while, wrap myself up in several layers of clothes, then I take myself off to the shed with an insulated mug of tea or coffee and start work  A few days before then I  will have cut all the foliage and put it into buckets of water so that is all ready for me as I start to work.

We have quite a lot of foliage available for cutting in the garden so I like  to make  use of  this greenery at Christmas time. Sometimes I scrounge stuff from my daughter's garden or the allotment. This year I used conifer, Christmas tree trimmings, ivy, box and holly.  The holly tree has had an amazing amount of berries this year. Most years I've had to use artificial berries for colour, but this year it's been great to use real ones. I just cut sprigs of foliage and starting with a layer of conifer I  build up the layers of the different sorts of greenery.

When the wreath has had all the foliage arranged I then add extra touches such as pine cones, seed heads, dried orange or apple slices, cinnamon sticks.  Sometimes I spray lightly with a gold spray.  You could also add dried flower heads of hydrangeas, clematis, grasses. I finish off the wreath with some ribbon.

For other ideas on making Christmas wreaths visit Greensideup's blog on making a Christmas door wreath she's made a lovely natural wreath.

Home made Christmas

I like to have some home made goodies in the house at Christmas time. They're always useful as Christmas presents. This year I've potted up some Hyacinths, hopefully for flowering at Christmas.  These are going to some friends who I meet up with once a month.  We like to exchange little gifts at Christmas but don't spend a lot.  Then there's the blackberry or raspberry gin which I have yet to strain and bottle up. But I might keep that for the family who I think are looking forward to sampling it!

In the next two weeks  I shall be making fudge, chocolate truffles, and shortbread.  These are lovely packaged up into little boxes or bags and tied up with Christmas ribbon.  Lakeland do some good presentation bags and boxes.  You can make your own boxes or save little boxes to cover with pretty paper.

Last year I made some white chocolate and cranberry fudge.  I thought I'd lost the recipe, but searched on the Internet and found it. It's a Tesco recipe and looks really Christmassy in cellophane bags tied with ribbon. This is great to make for Christmas fairs and coffee mornings, as presents for teachers or friends or just to eat yourself and enjoy!

White chocolate and cranberry fudge

Ingredients

• 350g (12oz) granulated sugar
• 25g (1oz) unsalted butter
• 175ml (6fl oz) can evaporated milk
• 100g (3½oz) dried sweetened cranberries
• 300g (10oz) white chocolate, chopped

What to do

• Cut a piece of baking parchment large enough to line a shallow 25x20cm (10x8in) baking tin or a 1kg (2lb) loaf tin.
• Put the sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a large heavy-based pan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely.
• Bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. It is a good idea to set a timer for this.
• Immediately remove from the heat then add the cranberries and chocolate. Allow the chocolate to melt, then quickly stir the mixture and pour straight into the tin. It will thicken immediately.
• Spread into the tin and chill for an hour or so until firm. Cut into squares.
• Use a piece of card to make a festive box for the fudge. Line with baking parchment, decorate with ribbon, and attach a message.

• Cost per box: £2·16
• Makes: 500g (1lb)
• Takes: 20mins + 1hr chilling time