The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 2

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome all new and old friends.

The journey continues.

Festive Patridgepup today 😊❤️🐾

And another big snow memory. There were helicopters flying over our village on their way to drop feed for the livestock on the Quantocks and on Exmoor. A smallholding in the village kept Dexter cattle. They are a miniature breed so a perfectly normal depth of snow would look deep on them. A helicopter flew over, saw cattle standing nearly chest deep and assumed they were in difficulty and dropped some feed. The farmer was highly delighted with free feed being dropped from the sky!

Loving your snowy pics! Three inches of snow here in the West Mids this morning has mostly gone. DH gritted our path in the hope I won't descend it on my bum should I be called into work tomorrow.

I am thinking of the snowy winter described by Nigel in the early part of the introduction. I was born later than the year he mentions, but my mum told me that the snow was piled up in the windows of the maternity unit when I was born just before Christmas. That was the Kent side of London, so I guess well before the current climate made London snow a rare thing indeed.

I have just ordered a coffe scented candle from Yorkshire candle co , I’ve had them before and they are the next best thing to freshly brewed coffee wafting through the house
Vn or nvn ?
Some snow here in Merseyside last night , but just cold now ..
my
mum used to say nesh , took me back .
I love the book , but have to read in the quiet of the morning , I’m asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow

Ooh. Lovely pics!

Bleaching down with snow on the NE coast of England here right now. ❄️❄️❄️

On the subject of candles, I once bought one so potent that we had to abandon it half way home. So if anyone thinks that the Malvern Hills smell of maple and walnut, that is probably the reason.

Haaaa.

Like me and my mulled wine glade plug-in. That’s going straight into the school uniform shop this week. Yuck.

We’ve had a NVN evening. Ate steak & ale stew (quite Nigel) but whilst watching Days of Thunder (NVN). So wholesome 😂

I’ve got 2 more gruelling weeks of work before I can take my foot off the pedal a bit and maybe have some days off. I cannot WAIT.

I once had to double bag and throw out a rose noir Aldi reed diffuser as it gave me an asthma attack. It's sometimes hard to call. I've just cleaned the bathroom before bed with Method "cream custard" spray cleaner. How they can call that environmentally friendly is beyond me. That's going in the bin as well.

@RainbowZebraWarrior at the risk of sounding creepy, your life sounds fascinating! Between the cheffing, acting, massuesing and candle-making I think you may be the world's most interesting woman

@RainbowZebraWarrior Would something like these be any use for your DD’s gloves? Could be a stocking filler idea if so.

20 November (ish) Stir-up Sunday

A shining star. A pudding aflame.

The last Sunday before Advent, the day on which we traditionally make the Christmas pudding, is known as Stir-up Sunday. The name sound older, almost medieval, but like much of this festive lark, it is down to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Haha. Why thank you. I used to be a Special Constable, too. Seriously though, I used to fiercely adopt the 'feel the fear and do it anyway' approach and it helped get me out of the civil service after 17 years. I had an amazing gap year at the age of 35, studied both cooking and massage at college for 3 years at night classes. I'm utterly burned out and I probably helped physically break myself in the process of fixing other people as a Sports massage therapist plus cheffing into my late 40s. Wouldn't change a thing, though. Perhaps it's one of the reasons it was (eventuallh) easier to accept medical retirement at 50 as I've had an amazing life and taken every opportunity. Bearing in mind I was diagnosed Autistic at 51, I'm pretty bloody proud of what I achieved.

This is rather spooky, but we had those exact ones and I was scratting through the hallway drawer for them yesterday. Had to bin all bit two as they were past it. I'll order a new pack. Thank you ❤️ also no idea where the rechargeable ones have gone that I bought last year

Good morning all! Hope everyone is well. I must get up and deal with the snow situation. I'm secret praying the school heating has broken and we all get a snow day.

Morning all. Hopefully you have the amount of snow that you can manage. It sounds slushy here on the road, and if I have to go out, the steep path is gritted.

Talk of puddings made me remember Nan's pudding routine. She lived with us when I was a child, and used a big china bowl from a washstand to mix the puds. I remember that the dry ingredients stood for a week before the wet ones were added along with the shilling and charms...is the week of waiting a thing? Then the kitchen would be full of vapour all day while the puds had their first steam bath.

We still have that big pudding bowl on the top floor, now full of dried flowers and herbs.

I absolutely loved today's entry. It brought back so many memories of my grandmother's mixing bowl, and the pudding basin all wrapped up and the clouds of steam in the kitchen. This book is helping me so much get through the Autumn term - it calms me down.

Wonderful to have read it this morning with the turn of the weather and the first good frost (I'm in London, so no snow).

Hi everyone - I got a copy of Christmas Chronicles last year for Christmas after watching these threads from afar. Now reading along at the correct pace. Felt I had to comment because I had exactly the same feeling at the 'wellies are made to be filled with snow' comment. It is utterly bonkers! Loving it in general though, but haven't made any of the recipes yet.

We have very slippy pavements here and people are gingerly picking their way along outside. Go carefully all of you in similar situations.

I’d banked the fire up last night and parts were still glowing cherry red today, putting out gentle heat for the hound downstairs.

We have snow here on the north east coast this morning - we’re so near the sea we usually get sloppy sleet, but this morning it’s the proper stuff and it looks beautiful!

Lovely entry today. This coming weekend feels like the last peaceful one to me before the Christmas ensues.

No snow, and barely a frost for us this morning though it's very cold. Had a day of running various children to Drs appointments and in the end the walk in centre for dd1 who has a kidney infection and feels very rough. She is in bed with the poorly dog so at least they are together and keeping each other warm.

I have awful insomnia and last night was a particularly special one-awake from 1.30 am. So propping my eyelids open a bit today. In the spirit of your 'feel the fear and do it anyway' @RainbowZebraWarrior I'm going to try and complete my application for my masters this afternoon. The deadline is December 2nd and it's annoying me that it's not done, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it, as I'm nervous about the whole thing. I've given myself a talking to and I really must start!

I usually love Method sprays but the custard cream one is disgusting, I don't know what they were thinking. Even if it smelt nice (or indeed like custard creams) there is nothing about biscuits that says lovely clean surfaces. My cleaner described it as 'gopping' and she's usually very pro all the scents!

Cold here this morning - I have to take my kids to school on a Wednesday so they get in earlier than the bus would, and the 2" of snow that fell Monday night had frozen completely solid on the windscreen, I basically lifted it off intact! Somehow we also have a flood at the end of the road (village on a hill, 3 roads in that flood when there is heavy rain) so had to ford that - a real wacky mix of wintery weather.
I have pulled all the dried fruit out and am absolutely making that long-promised mincemeat today!

@piscofrisco oof poor DD1. Kidney infections are no fun. Hope she's better soon bless her. As you say, at least her and DDog have each other. Regarding the application for your Masters; you have 100% got this! Go for it.

I also feel that this is the time when it tips into manic busy Christmas panic everywhere. We've always said that after DDs birthday tomorrow, full on Christmas madness descends. As a result, we embrace it and will get the tree out on Friday.

I've also been Whamageddon-ed already. (Can we imagine Nigel playing Whamageddon? I think not)

I don't know. I think he might do it sneakily. Who can resist it? The imagery in that video has stuck with my for my whole life as the Christmas I want to have one day, which is vaguely Nigel esque I suppose, But given that everyone in it is young and gorgeous and I'm 44 and not, I think I might have missed the boat.

A dusting of snow here and 3 glorious days off work. A day of decompressing for today and then christmas prep starts. I can't remember who said upthread about their mother and the Christmas baton being passed, but that has happened here and she's handed over all her decorations and associated traditions. One of our more unusual traditions is The Twig. (Capital letters required) This is a branch that hangs in a window with fairy lights twisted through it. We have a collection of glass icicles built up over many years and they look beautiful hanging on The Twig. Even DH who was WTF when The Twig was explained to him now loves it. So my aim in the next few days is to get The Twig up.

And in what might be my peak Nigel experience of the season, me and DD have going to the Glass Centre soon to make our own glass decorations to go on The Twig.

We have a Twig (a not the) - ours lives in a glass vase on the sideboard and we have an advent calendar of very tasteful wooden ornaments that get hung on it day by day! It is literally my favourite thing about Christmas