Ho ho ho...here we go round again! Countdown to Christmas 2025, thread 1

[NoWordForFluffy]

365

Evening!

I'm tired after today, but the buffet was a success. Tomorrow it's dinner!

Everyone seems to love their gifts, which is always good. 😊 Bed soon as it's all go again from the morning!

Morning @70isaLimitNotaTarget , my washing is on the line and DS is going to mow the lawn this afternoon after his boxing class.

Afternoon. We are having a Get Stuff Done afternoon. We have people here cleaning the roof, guttering, facias and windows. DH has weeded the drive ahead of jet washing. I’ve finally got around to filling my last hanging baskets and planter.

The rest of the afternoon will be spent on random jobs (DH making pizza dough, putting together an arch:pergola thing he bought for the garden and putting his tools away, me finishing the washing, cleaning the bathroom and doing a deep clean of LOs bedroom).
Then we have ILs coming for tea which DH will prep and cook.

This will be followed by a rum and an early night! 😴

I am fully recovered and have spent a couple of days tackling my to do list, then it’s head down for the last hal term. The cinnamon rolls sound interesting- l love proper danish pastries, but often they are just lumps of greasy pastry. I had a recipe for cardamom rolls, but they were more bread like. I will need to delay trials of recipes until after the summer holiday!

207

<Pinch Punch>

I did some Bramble'n'Bindweed clearing , both plants are an utter pain in different ways .
I had to unwind the bindweed from my lovely climber ( I usually clip the stem so it dies but as I couldn;t risk cutting the climber I just had to unravel it )
The brambles are like painting the Forth Road Bridge <sigh>

Can't believe its June, what happened to May?

I cut back as many of the exposed bamboo rhizomes as possible and am busy cutting off new shoots at base as they appear which will kill it in about 2 years. The experts will have to dig out the main culprits.

I managed a trip to the garden centre and filled the 2 brick planters with lavender, salvia, fuschia and geraniums so they look really pretty.

I also ordered the Hairy Bikers book thanks Fluffy. And thanks 70 for the pastry tips. That might be June 25th festive activity - practicing cinnamon rolls.

Sorry to hear you've not been well Constantly but glad you're on the mend.

Happy Sunday all. We've got friends coming for a BBQ and I made this chocolate praline loaf thing that's setting in the fridge and it looks sooooooooooooo nice.

Afternoon!

It's rather windy up here, it has to be said. Bright for now, but 35mph gusts! Apparently we'll have rain later (there was some earlier).

Magnolia, 70's Ruldolph Day this month is taken over with her DD's (perfectly-timed!) birthday.

I need a couple of larger lavender plants to fill some gaps in my border. Lots of my plants died over winter (north facing garden, so maybe too exposed), so I want a couple to replace them. My lavender out the front is going from strength to strength, as it didn't bush out at the last place and was dead straggly. It's doing really well here, so I may get my wish for a big buzzing bush of lavender in the next few years!

Yes @NoWordForFluffy my DD is 25th June , she did ask for a Nigella Lawson Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing ( which is lush but peanut butter gives me heartburn )

She's now asked for Cinnamon Buns .....so that'll be my Rudolph Day endeavour too .

Ah, excellent!

I'm not sure if I'm going to make my two cakes this year yet. I'll see what they say they want. But Dobbies does really good value sponge cakes, so I may just get one of those!

Would it count as Christmas baking if I buy one of those pre-made cake or biscuit mixes, made and decorated them? I still can't bake to save my life but it always sounds like such a nice way to feel festive.

I could always get DH to make gingerbread and let me just do the rolling and cutting. That would work too

that’s a perfectly timed birthday your DD has 70. Means she gets presents every 6 months.

Fluffy lavender is weird. We have a south facing back garden and the lavender there is just about doing ok (not great, not dying) but the tiny plant we put out the north facing front garden when we moved in looks amazing 🙄

Not sure if it's your thing but my thyme is flowering at the minute and it's lovely. Pretty, smells nice and the bees love it.

Meeces, it absolutely counts (though my vote is for gingerbread!).

I have some thyme. Again, some died off over winter, so not as many as I should have. The one I brought with me from the old house is being smothered with my enormous curry plant at the moment. Again, all 4 herbs I brought with me have thrived in shit soil (typical new build filled with rubble!).

My lavender is south facing, but in very shallow, gritty, soil. Apparently lavender loves being neglected! 🤷‍♀️ My herbs are in the north facing back garden.

The two sage plants I have are flowering well.

I say that 25 June is the perfect birthday for that reason, Meeces. DD is 23 June, so close enough!

My DS is 24th June!!! We'll all be making cinnamon buns/gingerbread/birthday cakes at the same time!!😂

206

Morning (just)! I have all fingers and toes crossed for a dry day today as I have the last of the washing on the line and have to go out 🤞🏼

Fluffy thinking about the Christmas baking, I’m pretty sure I bought a pre-mix Christmas something last year and never made it. I’ll have to dig around the storage cupboard.

I’m a firm believer that herbs can’t cope with fuss. It’s the thing I’m best at growing (along with my awesome cactus) as once they’re established I ignore them 😂 We have a great rosemary, mint and thyme out the back and a small chive plant that I literally put on the side and forgot about until I spotted pretty purple flowers on it

Definitely agree about the June birthdays!

205

Morning!

I'm on a train, but not to the office. I'm having my first shoulder physio session of the new batch of treatment today, so I'm off to Broadgreen. I swapped my day off so I wouldn't have to worry about going back to the office afterwards.

Meeces, I forgot about my chives. They almost died, so I stuck them out the front and they're going great guns! Funny things, herbs. But useful that they like to be ignored, as that's my general gardening standard! 🤣

I might have some success with herbs then @NoWordForFluffy

204

Hope the physio went well Fluffy.

I'm on a half day today as I'm invigilating so going to attempt meatballs in slow cooker.

Looks like being a nice day so going to hang the washing out before I go to work.

Fluffy I hope the shoulder is feeling ok.
Also, about the chives. I didn’t know that they flower 🙄I spotted really pretty purple flowers in a random pot and only realised what they were because the pot label was still there.

Granny definitely try for some herbs. Once they’re established (and if they’re in a spot they like) you can basically forget about them.

My aim for the garden is to have a few low maintenance evergreens so there’s always some sort of colour, add some flowers here and there in the summer and grow things we can eat. I have a winter flowering jasmine that is growing like crazy so I’m hoping for yellow flowers at Christmas 🤞🏼

LO picked the first ripe strawberry today, and a snack cucumber off a plant I got on the cheapie ‘dying plant’ shelf in B&M. Walked around taking a bite out of each in turn so I assume they were nice.

Magnolia how were the meatballs?

I’m feeling very achy and sore today (hormones 🙄) and LO is struggling with the switch from half term back to normal routine so was very clingy again. Meant we spent the morning in playgroup but playing relatively quietly together before nursery.
I managed to tick a few things off the to do list then let myself watch crap and have a much needed chill out for an hour before picking LO up and starting again.
Then DH took pity on me, cooked tea and did LOs bath and bedtime routine.

203

Meeces your strawberries and cucumbers sound fab. I've got strawberries ripening and TONNES of cherries but my cucumbers are always rubbish.

The meatballs were OK. Dd wouldn't eat them but DS and DH wolfed them down, although they'll really eat anything do that's not a massive gauge of taste.

Morning!

Another damp morning here. The dog and I got wet again (he cares not!). It's also warm, so difficult clothing choices to be had, as raincoats are useful, but a bit sweaty!

The shoulder isn't too bad, but the rotator cuff isn't behaving as it should, so I have exercises to remind it of its function! Hopefully they work.

Our local woods are full of blackberries. Looks like there'll be a bumper harvest this year, judging by the number of buds and blossoms!

Picking blackberrys reminds me of my mother’s homemade pies when I was a child. We also used to have apple pie too but my only memory of that is being chased out of a field by bulls when trying to scrump apples!! 🤣

Anyone else have any scary fruit memories? 😁

I can confirm that the Paul Hollywood Cinnamon Buns recipe is utterly delicious , pillow-ey, rich dough that was light and fluffy .
I did a glace icing -not a cream cheese frosting fan- but next time I'll try a sugar glaze (caster sugar and lemon juice maybe) ?

It was Biblical Rain here today , at least I didn't have to water the plants .

I'm not a fan of blackberries (brambles ) they're a nightmare to cut back , nasty little thorns and I wouldn't eat the fruit anyway

202

Morning!

70, the biblical rain hit us at 3.30 this morning, preceded by a MASSIVE thunderclap! The thunder woke me, then I lay listening to the rain get heavier and heavier and heavier. It was crazy stuff!

It's rained itself out overnight though, and the forecast rain for this morning is no more. It's gorgeous, sunny and warm. We therefore have a load of washing on!

Its cheered up a bit here too after yesterdays all day long monsoon.

And my Hairy Bikers Christmas book came - really cheap secondhand from World of Books and it looks fantastic, so thanks for that shout Fluffy. Might even make some of the recipes BEFORE Christmas (rock and roll).

Hmmmm. Our no more rain forecast was wrong. It chucked it down / hailed at about 11! The washing doesn't seem to have suffered too much, thankfully.

I'm glad you like the book, Magnolia. It's a good one as the Christmas ones go.

Magnolia we can di a Hairy Bikers/Paul Holllywod Cinnamon Bun Bake Off, though I never actually watched Great British Bake-Off

My buttery cinnamon filling was too soft so next time I'll let it set a bit. And I fancy some walnuts or pecans , probably just in half of them as not everyone likes them.

201

Ohhhh getting near to the hundreds

We're off up to That Larndan today