The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2024 Part 2

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Welcome all new and old friends.

The journey continues.

I have just had four candles delivered. Not to be confused with fork handles (handles for forks)

I'll get my coat...

Love that RZW!

I’ve just made bubble and squeak from extra Nigel cabbage and potatoes. Used cheddar so probably NVN.

Good Lord but I love the Two Ronnies

@NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights I had pictured Elf on the Shelf type elves, yours look quite cosy there 😊

They're rather sweet aren't they? And I found this cute little lantern in the charity shop the other day...just the right thing for Scandi hygge!

The bay wreath is fab!

There's so much Nigelling going on I'm finding it tricky to keep up, but having so many lovely people making the most of the winter is nothing to complain about 🙂I will have to have a name change on the next thread as this one doesn't feel quite right anymore.

Thank you so much to @RainbowZebraWarrior - really lovely to meet you and dd today. I don't think I've ever met up with anyone "from the Internet" before and it will sound daft but it made me realise that you really are all out there with the lights and the candles... The honey looks amazing and RZW was extremely kind and added some extras. The tealights' fragrance is divine and I hope the photos show how beautiful the beeswax candle is. There's also a lovely looking soap and some chilli jam which I can't wait to try. Thank you again xx

Ah, you are too kind @Gettingannoyednow I do hope you enjoy our honey. We are very proud of it. It comes from our hives on farms local to us both. It's amazing that we are only 4 miles away from each other. We definitely need to make a date for a Christmas time coffee. You're right, it is lovely to see there are actually real people behind the posts and photographs of the lights and candles. Again, it's such a lovely corner of the Internet xx

Great post@Gettingannoyednow - I laughed out loud at the suggestion that you ought to change your name. @RainbowZebraWarrior really does sprinkle Christmas magic everywhere she goes. I am having a bit of a catch up and thought I would repost a photo a took of my favourite brush stall at a Berlin Christmas market last year. Every type of brush - as Nigel says - and as beautiful in their own way as the more obviously festive goods on offer elsewhere.

Im snuggled up in bed listening to the wind and the rain and hoping it eases off a little tomorrow morning. We are running our last antiques fair of the year and I don't fancy unloading stock in the pouring rain!
@BobBobBobbing I love that ring! I also love the nisser @NowLightOneThousandChristmasLights . By the way, the questionable mincemeat hasn't been made yet, I must get cracking on that 😋

I'm with the 'pile everything on the tree with loads of tinsel' brigade. You can never have too much! The year before last we made a Christmas village on the deep windowsill in our dining room. It had a dark blue cloth background and we sewed fairy lights on for the night sky. We used the Lemax models for the buildings and people. We even found a light up moon to hang above it. We knew lots of children stopped to look at it but hadn't realised how much they had loved it until we got a card through the door, obviously from a child, asking if we were doing it again. I was quite poorly last Christmas and so we didn't get round to doing it, but that card made us get out the models again! I'll post a photograph when we've finished.

Aww, how lovely!

Good morning, all. No entry again today.

How strange to wake up to it being 12 degrees after the snow, ice and minus temperatures of the past week.

We had howling winds and rain all day yesterday and have woken up to more of the same today. We’re meant to be going to one of those illuminated garden events later today. The venue cancelled it yesterday due to the wind so will have to see whether it goes ahead today. I think the wind is meant to be dropping but the rain is set to continue so if it does go ahead it will be very wet and muddy, not much fun really.

Oh that's such a shame @ChessieFL it looks like that awful band of rain is going to cover most of England and Wales today.

I've just had an email from Fortnums about their puddings, as it's stir up Sunday. This pud in a Spode basin does indeed look magnificent.

I did actually win £30 on the lotto. Not enough to buy a farm and a F&M hamper, but I might order some of my favourite teas.

That is a pretty bowl, but £60 for a pudding?!

It's Fortnum & Mason. They're going to charge a premium.

I love the sound of the Christmas village! We have bought my grandad Lemax for the last few years to accessorise his model railway. He says he has enough now, I disagree!

DS and I had a day out in London yesterday. We saw Wicked at the Leicester Square Odeon, went on the Uber boat, saw Big Ben and Hamleys, and wandered down Oxford St looking at the Christmas lights. DS had a bit of a panic about all the people as he's used to our little village, but he did enjoy himself and now wants to go back soon

Today the wind is howling so DS has made a den and we're camping in the living room. I have to prep for an interview this afternoon. It's been years since I have interviewed outside of the public sector body I work for, and in person so I am quite nervous.

All in all I will be glad when the week is over, not least because that's when our tree will go up!

I also love the sound of the Christmas Village. I'm just starting to see more and more glimpses of twinkly lights and trees in windows after dusk. The council have also put up the roundabout Christmas trees (which always seem to co-incide with high winds).

Who was it last year who made a Nativity scene in their hedge with a wooden pallet? That was also lovely. assuming I haven't dreamed this

@Confusedmeanderings that village sounds beautiful, would love to see a picture when it is done.

@Bearsinmotion good luck for the interview!

Today is living in denial day as I'm away all next week with a 5am start on Monday . So I am taking a leaf out of whoever was bringing some Julehygge to their living room and doing the same while pretending tomorrow isn't happening.

I have failed to keep up with thread but am keeping up with the book. I love all the Christmas market descriptions. We normally go to Winchester for a mooch (the stuff is too expensive to buy, not much tat) so we just go for an hour or so after dark when it’s quieter.

I went to Sostrene Grene yesterday and bought a few beautiful baubles and an advent calendar (trying to cut back on chocolate this year).

Today I am making Christmas Pudding and (shhh) Jamie Oliver Get Ahead Gravy. With a St Eval Winter Thyme candle lit in the kitchen.

I remember that too.

I am making my Lego Christmas village. I wrapped all the pieces carefully in bubble wrap last year to put in the loft (I have a new set for this year, which was last year’s christmas present). But I dropped the box and they all fell apart, so I have had to partially remale them, it is a totally different skill assembling partly constructed pieces. Hoping to finish the old ones today so I can start on the new set.

Just nipped out to the cheese shop to stock up for my brother’s visit and discovered a craft fair and brocante set up around the town hall. Picked up some 1950s vintage Parisian Christmas cards which some trader had obviously got as a job lot - I thought they were possibly Nigel Adjacent (though I imagine him going for more tractional designs - the real test will be whether they can be written in fountain pen!) Much warmer today, but parks and cemetery closed due to high winds warning (no winds yet so possibly just precautionary). Please set up your village and post a photo @Confusedmeanderings. I also remember the Nativity scene in the hedge @RainbowZebraWarrior - you did not dream it!

Happy Stir Up Sunday everyone. Unfortunately I think we will be buying ours this year (though from Booths so it will be lovely).
We went to a vvvvv posh restaurant yesterday, only 16 diners at a time and they cook the tasting menu in front of you. I thought of Nigel as they added a pound of butter to the searing of the venison.

I'm going to have to catch up on the thread properly later.

Stir up Sunday is running very late here after discovering a couple of unexpected guests. All NVN apart from the "come on in."
It's blowing an absolute hooley here and has been since last night. I went out at 4.00am to ensure all was ok after a very loud crashing noise, and was duly accompanied.

Someone forgot to tell the poor bee it's not supposed to be around in November! Literally blown into me, really hard. Was given syrup and is in the greenhouse hopefully recovering, not expiring.

I do now have a clue what the crashing sound across the back was.

Two other naked pre-plucked creatures turned up a couple of years ago in similar circumstances, in one of the sheds. Found shivering together in a box of sand covered apples, after a storm caused havoc.
They are supposedly non laying battery hens, now broilers, acquired for the pot.

I'm vegetarian, and can't watch anything shiver. A cut up duvet sealed a friendship and later a straw filled box built, and I got my apples back!

These days both have grown beautiful tan feathers and perky bright red combs. They help control the slug population and kindly provide a reasonable stream of eggs despite being supposedly past it.

I believe in fate. They are not mine, I don't own them, they own themselves. They are imo free range birds who choose to roost and eat here. It looks like they may have a friend staying...
Pudding may not happen.

@EphemeraleEudemonia I'm getting a Dr Doolittle vibe here. My Dad is like this. He seems to aquire animals. We used to have ducklings that followed him everywhere (tragically, someone broke into our allotment and stole them all on Christmas eve one year) we have also ended up with a pet crow and a pet Seagull over the years. Both were found injured, and ended up staying with us. The crow was imaginatively named Croaky and the gull was named Jonathan (Jonathan Livingston seagull)

I've done a candle stocktake today, and very little else tbh. The candle situation needed addressing as I was acquiring way too many. I've got a couple of small ones on the go, and an Anthropologie Quince and Spice one which is wonderful.

We have also been playing with a snow projector that DD got for her birthday. It will eventually go outside, but for now, it is happily projecting in the hallway. Mr Darcy is entranced by the falling 'indoor snowflakes'

Hope everyone is well this evening, and the worst of the weather has passed.