The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2025 - Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, and welcome to Part 3. We Continue our CC journey.

For anyone who has not already had the pleasure, the annual Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles read along is a real time annual MN tradition.

The Christmas Chronicles (Notes, stories and 100 essential recipes for midwinter) book began on 1st November.
We continue to read along and comment with the book which is set out in diary form. I will make a post each day (or let you know if there is no entry on a particular day)

For anyone new, it's a challenge to see of you can pick up the book as a bargain. Vinted has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is always a bonus. Don't forget, you can also listen along to Nigel's dulcet tones via Audible.

So, welcome to old friends and new, and don't forget that reading by candle light is particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nige's candles of choice, but it's somewhat pricey. We don't discriminate against other less expensive brands - even if they are NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair, light a candle, grab a cosy blanket and join in!

A snowy walk down the lane this morning.

'Grow Your Own Tomato Ketchup' sounds fun! :D Great haul there, almost makes me want to live near a town. :)

No need for snow when this pops up on the afternoon walk.

Lucky you! Our Sainsbury's has only got the grudging OK, it's now past NY and we still haven't sold it 30-50% off! Still, it has stopped me buying tons of cheese and then scoffing the lot.

I did get some little bulb planter kits in M&S yesterday for 75% off, so I will have grape hyacinths, crocuses, tiny daffs, etc.

Here for the bargains and the lovely pictures. My word RZW you’ve done well!

Lovely snow pics all. Been to Derbyshire. No snow at all 😡

That's an amazing view / photo!

@LillianGish I've spent many an Epiphany on the continent. When I was married, my husband and I used to spend this time of year mostly in Spain. His birthday was on Epiphany so it always felt rather special and like a second celebration.

@Hesse yes, the snow covers a multitude of sins garden-wise. My garden has been left somewhat bereft after the recent building work, and will need some TLC this coming Spring.

Hope you enjoyed your friend's visit today@martha79

The plan here, today, was to get the potted Christmas tree outside and move the one from the hallway into the lounge. It hasn't happened, so we will have it one more day. I also don't think my wassailing will happen on Monday night given the current deep snow and plunging temps, so I'm reckoning Auld Twelfth Night will be better timing.

The taking down of decorations 'to be helpful' by DH's reminds me a little bit of my said Ex Husband when he decided to be helpful by covering a 20 metre long border alongside our driveway with a thick covering of gravel to 'tidy it up'. I had just planted thousands of wildflower seeds in that very border.

A clear and starry night here so far with a beautiful full moon. Would be lovely to see a show from lady Aurora, but as our friends in Scandinavia often tell us, Aurora and potential snow laden skies don't really mix, and certainly not with a full moon.

It hasn't really stopped snowing at all today! We're hopefully going home tomorrow, but my work and child's school have been warned we're likely to be stuck here a bit longer.

I made a lovely Nigel-esque sausage pasta tonight, and then we had a NVN microwave chocolate cake after.

Been catching up with everyone's posts. Loving the pictures.

Blimey yes! I am in the US and we do have a fairly large Japantown district in our city so I may have to go and have a mooch about and see what I can find.

4 January

Pear and pickled radish

A ripe pear is a lovely thing, and they are still with us. Tubby as a cherub, their flesh butter-soft, especially if you watch over them as carefully as you might a sick child, and have the patience to wait for the day they reach perfection. It is a fleeting moment, more so than even an avocado

@RainbowZebraWarrior great timing on the roof replacement. Glad you can enjoy the space now.

Any tips on helping potted Christmas trees make the transitions? We have one this year, more by accident than design as we were so late buying one.

I love today's opening paragraph and it reminds me exactly why I adore Nigel's writing.

@HannahDefoesChristmasHamper I've just plonked them out in previous years. The tjny one I planted out in 2012 is now almost 20ft tall. I think I might hang fire for a few days with the current potted one though. It might be rather a shock to its system going from toasty warm lounge to -4 outside. I'll also probably keep it in it's pot and close to the house walls for a few weeks to afford it some protection from the elements

Good morning all! Still very snowed in. I caught a photo of the moon going down over the hill just now and it's so pretty I thought I would share.

Oh that's beautiful @DarkEyedSailor

Today's chapter is indeed lovely @RainbowZebraWarrior - another recipe bookmarked. I do have pears but only tinned ones at the moment.

Had a nice visit from friend yesterday - we had a small trip to the local city farm and communed with the goats, then home for tea and scones.

No plans in particular today, mainly keeping warm!

Mine has weeded a border I had been nurturing wildflowers in, and dumped sacks full of bark on top of plants while I’ve been working my way carefully around with a trowel, spooning it around the plants first to avoid squashing them. It’s been decades of work to train him to understand that if I’m doing something that seems pointless to him, it is because he’s missed the point not because it is pointless.

We appear to have grown out of his tendency to pour pots of liquid away, that I’ve just spent hours brewing into stock, or have saved for soup.

Gorgeous pic! Hope you manage to get moving soon. The moon rises again just after 5pm today so I may head down to the beach if its clearish as I love to see a full / almost full moon rise above the sea.

Lord I love a pear. I often do Nigel’s pickled pears and pork in miso from November. One of my favourite meals.
I would not have been happy with the Gravel over wildflowers at all @RainbowZebraWarriorand that’s the sort of thing mine would do.After months of total disinterest in anything house or garden he will occasionally have a day of ‘getting things done’ which is great 50 per cent of the time but the other 50 per cent frequently ends in disaster. Whilst I was away once he decided a HUGE orange blossom bush in the garden was dead and proceeded to hack it down to a stump, then dig the stump out. He failed to dig most of the stump out, as being massive it was huge, so it sat like an eye sore in the middle of my border, leaving a 6 foot wide, 12 foot high gap of dry stumpy soil where nothing could be planted that would grow quick enough to cover it. Of course the next year the ‘dead’ stump started to sprout new shoots. It took me a long time to get over that one.

beautiful snow and moon @DarkEyedSailorim so envious. Just cold here. Fed up.

I’m going to Morrisons later to get some wonky veg for work tomorrow as the forecast says it won’t go above 0 all day on the farm so I’m planning a mammoth soup making session with the co farmers, in the absence of any drive for craft things to do indoors (bit too early for Easter things yet). We have some veg in the poly tunnels but most of what we grow goes into the veg box scheme boxes at this time of year without much surplice. I plan to make a chicken and lime curry, rewrap all my delicate ornaments (stares at Dh) so they are safe for storage, and then later I’ve an idea to go and try and find some murmurations to watch. They are apparently quite frequently seen at Rutland Water near us, so hoping to persuade the DD’s to wrap up warm and come with.
And that will be about it for the day I think. DH back to work tomorrow after all his time off sick pre Christmas, though DD’s still around -they go away with their dad for a week on Thursday then dd1 will start her new job and dd2 will go back to uni and we will start to settle back into normalcy, for better or worse.

I love goats @martha79we are very lucky to have three types at work, creamy coloured Boer ones, tall long eared Nubians (my favourite) and the cute Pygmy ones that we are allowed to walk like dogs. If I ever get my care farm it will be very goat heavy!

@PrizedPickledPopcornDH’s missing the point rather than the thing being pointless is a great way to put it!

Oh Noooo! That's devastating. My point with ExH was 'Just bloody communicate man!' I mean why would you take it upon yourself when your wife is a gardener and you don't even venture out there at all (seriously, he wouldn't spend time in the garden 'cos wasps') to just do something so random and sit there like a puppy waiting for a pat on the head? I'm talking about someone at Director level in the Civil Service here. It's amazing how he was apparently so brilliant at work, yet utterly useless at home. I have no tolerance for stuff like that, and I say that as someone diagnosed with ADHD! I do have common sense and awareness though which i feel is often the difference. I'm afraid I've never been able to deal with the male brain. Mars v Venus and all...

I have goat envy of you working with them! I love the pygmy ones especially when they have little punk hairstyles 😄

Meant to add some photos - there was some Christmas tree recycling going on, and much posing from this big chap who's having a very nice time with the lady goats at the moment!

They love a Christmas tree nibble :)

You've just reminded me that a local farm is always after old Christmas trees to feed their goats - I'll try and arrange a pick-up later.

DD1 is a big pear fan, she has made a decent poires belle helene in the past.

Hurrah for goats! Goats are great. Very handsome pics @martha79 and a great idea for 'recycling' trees.

Today is the sort of day that screams out for curry, so I'm off to get the slow cooker to don its thing. Thanks for the inspiration @piscofrisco Also, I had a similar issue with DDs dad and a lovely shrub that formed part of my mixed hedge. I came home one day and he said "come and look at my little beer barrell!" I was like "You what, now?" Turned out hf'd had a sudden urge to make something look like a 'little barrel' so randomly chose a shrub and cut it down from about 15ft to about 1ft. It looked ridiculous, served no purpose and also left a gaping hole in the hedge. He was never allowed near MY hedge trimmers again. Thankfully, 14 years later it's grown back.

I feel sorry for all of you with amateur "gardeners". Luckily, my late DH was a professional for many years, so he knew exactly what he was doing. However, this meant that when I lost him I had to teach myself what to do. My contributions until then being "hold this, put this in that hole, sow these here"!