Year round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello, all and welcome to this lovely space for our continued chats.

A bit of background for anyone not familiar with this topic:
The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles readalong usually takes place here between November and February each year (the Christmas Chronicles being a book written by Nigel Slater full of winter recipes and anecdotes) It's been running for a few years, and the contributors have collectively decided it would be nice to have it running all year round.

So here it is. It is a place to appreciate all things Nigel-esque. Think seasonal food and recipes, enjoyment of nature, gardening, appreciation of the weather, and sharing of news and small moments of joy. It's a calm, cosy space for gentle chat and merriment so pull up a chair to the fireplace, grab a drink and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

@EphemeraleEudemonia thank you, they did come out nicely. One or two of them were a bit tall for the box I keep them in so we had to cut the bottoms off and taste them, a nice treat.

Miserable and wet here this morning, I’m off to work in a bit. the out at a meeting this evening, life is very non-stop busy at the moment, mainly parent-related. So it’s nice to check in here every few days ❤️

Just thought I'd wish you a good morning @ExquisiteDresses Life is non stop here too, adding to the importance of carving out spaces in it.🙂
Love the tragedy of having to trim and thus sample the cakes.

Those cakes look amazing! ❤️

@ExquisiteDresses what a lovely photo to see to start the week with.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I love the imagery of the casually nibbling mouse, and your father's surprise.
Surprised that most of the apples that where left here, are now full size and ripe. It's been a very odd year for all sorts.
Also loving the casual "Owt you want to tell me?"

@CrushingOnRubies If it comes up again, I would treat the concept of being asked to swap Christmas trees with MIL with the same 'is she alright? disbelief' as if she'd suggested an underwear swap. There have to be some things that sacred.

@Bimblesalong Hopefully some fun to be had in exploring remotely... sans spiders.
'Interesting times' in that context, reminded me of receiving separate postcards from a disastrous honeymoon with a British and Australian couple, one of whom had some phobias. A several day train journey through Mexico, and whether love can truly conquer all, came to head when both got food poisoning...

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense I wouldn't mind the odd silver runner bean pod, (but not sure silver spray would be the best method) as part of other things, but having had a nose around as a result of your comment, I definitely draw the line at 'threading them on wire to stretch across the room as an alternative to paper chains' although I now have an image of exactly that and mice gaily hanging off them nibbling away! 😂
Thank you for "I’m not lifting mine. They can stay in the wet frozen ground and think about what they’ve done" I'm borrowing that to apply that to a few things that disappointment me!

@noodlezoodle Ignorant off me, but I'd assumed San Fransisco to have more wintry conditions. There really is something about Puffins that make them rather hard to not like, especially pufflings.

I have to stop pretending I can hide in this lovely thread, and go and face up to the finishing touches of a first matinee performance that may or may not go well, depending on too many factors beyond control. First world problems though!

@EphemeraleEudemoniathat is an excellent suggestion, which I will keep in mind should the occasion arise

You made me smile at 'No such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.'
That has definately been true here the last few days. We have been hitting minus 20 at midday! I wore the wrong gloves and suffered! It's a balmy minus 4 this morning.

Yes! Now I remember I am birthday twins! I hope DD had a wonderful day @RainbowZebraWarrior

We are having huge snowfalls at the moment, but yesterday the sky was very clear. A little tip for anyone wishing to chase the aurora in scandinavia, don't waste your money between november and february. The readings are high, but so is the cloud coverage and snowfall, so you will nothing. Early September and March though are excellent.

I was stood on the bridge walking to the train yesterday. And was able to get a lovely picture. The white mountain in the background is the one i live on.

The kommune i work for has also tied these to every pole on the bridge. They are very traditional and birds love them!

St Eval have just done a 'final restock' if anyone missed out on their earlier Black Friday sale.

https://www.st-eval.com/collections/black-friday-2025?utm_source=ST.+EVAL+-+B2C&utm_campaign=1c9bad8153-NovC010&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-7103c79be5-434329818&goal=0_281309aff0-1c9bad8153-434329818&mc_cid=1c9bad8153&mc_eid=5f2fd17731

Spent the evening helping my dm raise over £1000 for charity. By selling mulled wine & mince pies at local Christmas light switch on. Feel more in the mood for the incoming festivities now

H wow, that's amazing! Well done, and yes, that definitely sounds very festive. We had a similarly festive evening at our local town's Christmas shopping evening. All the Christmas lights were on, and the church was all lit up. It was beautiful. We spent a small fortune in the independent gift shops and bookshops, and I picked up a signed copy of Rick Stein's new Christmas book. Shame I missed the actual book signing.

I was also parked behind our local butcher's van and DD was extremely tickled by the sign on the back stating 'no sausages are left in the van overnight'

My Christmas cactus has gone off a bit early but looking beautiful

Hello everyone
Not posted in the thread for a while- Life is so busy. Hope everyone is okay. I’ve been listening to CC in the car on the way to work in the morning. It’s been a lovely gentle start to the days. So it’s 1st December and I’ve opened day of my St Eval calendar. It’s sea moss & driftwood this morning. I’ll look forward to lighting that later. Xx

Hawthorn and berries today. It has to stay in the calendar though as yesterday’s offering is still going strong. St Eval might be a pricey offering but you get your burn time!

Some lovely sounding St Eval fragrances that I've never tried before @dazzlingdeborahrose so thanks for the heads up. Maybe I should treat myself next year to their advent. I have a habit of sticking to the same old tried and tested St Eval candles.

Those sound lovely @dazzlingdeborahrose I enjoyed the calendar but didn’t purchase this year. I wonder if they vary the contents each year.

I am delighted to have cleared a little cupboard on my dresser for a fancy candle store. It gives me a lot of Nigel zen to look at it!

first decoration is properly up. Brought it from Norway earlier this year … way back in February . Brought so many bits there and finally get to put them up

@IngenTing -20 and the wrong gloves!😮
Thank you for the aurora information, I dream, but you never know...
I love the grain bundles, are they early Julneks?
(Traditionally we do something vaguely similar with 'seed angels' to supply the birds, but these days though we still make them, time constraints mean they get made on high days but we mainly supplement the birds with fat balls and handfuls of straw inbetween)
@CrushingOnRubies Well done! Should add to the spirits. Candle powered Christmas decorations, a joyful combination.
@RainbowZebraWarrior it's nice to hear people's festivities coming together, can see why that amused DD. From the other thread, (that I may well never catch up at this rate) hoping you've recovered well. @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense It clearly just cant wait any more.😄
I have a very ancient pink one that's beginning to get enthusiastic early too.
(It's been invaded by a vigorous money plant, and I must add re-potting it to the list of 1001 things needing doing.) @Bimblesalong Enjoy your candle cupboard, it's the little things... @dazzlingdeborahrose Sea moss and driftwood sounds interesting.

Catch up in pictures. can't get an earlier set of pics to download, but we now have far too many apples, the last lemons, and some interesting late strawberries, half red and half pink, marinating away. Also only a couple of weeks away from cheap shallots and red cabbage week as it's known here, so more jars are going to be needed.
Can't quite believe this weeks weather, it's felt more like October here, but we suddenly got a -1 last night after an amazingly sunny blue skies day. Many trees are skeletal but we also still have lot of dropping leaves, and reds and yellows around.
Tonight's full moon is welcomed for a sense of where we should be, and is already rising.
The Cold Moon's the last supermoon this year and if it doesn't cloud over and you've got binoculars or a telescope, should be possible to see it pass in front of the Pleiades open star cluster a bit after after midnight tonight.

I'm supposed to be trying to get lots done in time for a slightly mad one day trip to Belgium and back on Monday, so I'd better get on, It's going to be a bit full on, and not going to be accomplished in VN style, but really looking forward to it.

St E bay and rosemary (my favourite to date) was out of stock so I ordered inspiritus but it hardly seems to have any fragrance at all. Is that typical or have I got a rogue one?

That’s a lovely one @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense (bay and rosemary). I wonder if they have any of those in the little shop next to the Turkish cafe on the rows - or in the garden shop in Notting Hoole? I’ve just lit a tranquility tea light in a mercury glass jar. Very pretty.

i popped into the city today and quickly thought better of it. I haven’t seen so many people out there for years. Glad it’s good for business but I’ll stick to first thing on a weekday until the festivities are over.

Yeah this is definitely a thing. I had a conversation with another poster about it recetly on the 2025 CC thread and conducted an experiment. I burned 3 inspiritus candles in my kitchen at the same time and could smell barely nothing. On paper, it's a beautiful scent, bit it just doesn't seem to have any throw whatsoever. So disappointing.

Do you mean Okells in Hoole? That’s a very good thought if so, they definitely stocked St E last time I was in, although that was maybe a year ago 🤦‍♀️
I was in the centre on Thursday, early (930), at the Jaunty Goat, and the streets were heaving then. As you say - good for the shopkeepers but pretty awful as an experience. I haven’t ventured anywhere near the Christmas market. On the other hand I had to collect a parcel from the big Marks at Cheshire Oaks so I went with trepidation at 10 on Saturday
morning and it was perfectly pleasant - no problem parking, no queues. So that was a nice surprise
edit to say sorry that was all aimed at @Bimblesalong , my fellow Cestrian

Very disappointing but good to know mine isn’t a dud, I suppose

Yes, @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense and also Harriet & Dee on the rows. They have a small stock of st eval and seem to be open to suggestions for fragrances. They also have lots of other lovely stuff and some gorgeous cards.

Oh! All of the mentions of Chester and Cheshire Oaks suddenly makes me a little homesick! I grew up about 40 minutes away. Me and DH used to have many Friday nights at a chinese buffet at Cheshire Oaks followed by a cinema visit. I bought my wedding invitations from Borders there back in 2003.

I was given a beautiful branch by someone who has been visiting my walk and talk. I've wanted one of these for ages, they are very delicate.

This weekend I've hung it and decorated it. The photographs don't really do it justice.

It's been the Røros christmas markets here the last few days. We actually haven't been this year. A colleague visited Thursday and reported back that this year it was mostly food stalls, foid to eat there and then, hardly any gifts or even food gifts. Which is really disappointing.

This coming weekend there is a very small local christmas market with local sellers, so we'll give that a try. A free glass of gløgg and horse riding for DD has also tempted us!

How gorgeous your branch is! I was telling my Dad all about you the other day and he wants to send you some of our honey. Sending glass jars long distance can be problematic, so we were thinking of cut comb (we'll wrapped in a plastic tub) instead. Would this be something you would use? Just checking before we parcel anything up that you may not like 😊