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!

Oh dear, now I simply cannot rest until I have a seaglass ring. I actually live quite near a lovely beach but don't do much beachcombing - I really must start.

@piscofrisco ooh your dog! How cuddleliciously gorgeous! I'm sorry you're feeling under the weather again though, you really have had more than your fair share of being poorly.

@RainbowZebraWarrior that jewellery looks beautiful! Having some bespoke made would be fab!

@petitpasta was that the new series of Call The Midwife? I had forgotten it was on. My lovely DH has sadly begun to decline cognitively. It's only very slightly at the moment but one of the ways it shows is that he watches the Sky Formula 1 channel endlessly. Repeat after repeat of races he's seen loads of times already. I keep forgetting to check if there is anything I want to watch and then record it. Thank goodness for catch up TV!

@martha79 it's grim and rainy here too, plus windy. And not a flake of snow!

I have spent this afternoon curled up with a book I got for Christmas. I might have mentioned it before. It's called The Book By Design, it's a series of articles by various members of staff from the British Library on everything from the page design of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the construction of paper. It's more a dip in and out of kind of book than a read it from cover to cover one. I thoroughly recommend it and the colour illustrations are fabulous! Way back in the sixties, before the British Library was opened, my Grandma used to take me to the Reading Room at the British Museum. She knew a curator there, and if I had been good, I would be allowed to turn the pages of the illuminated manuscripts. I have loved them ever since.

We had a fakeaway sweet and sour pork with rice for dinner tonight. It was delicious! DH cooked it, he took over cooking duties when I was having cancer treatment and never relinquished them. This is great because he is a good cook. The downside is that I feel I have to offer to clear up afterwards, and just let's say he is not a tidy cook!

Popping my head in after a marvellous weekend apart from the convoluted and multi-train- bus trip back (although well organised by the transport network). The opera (La Traviata) was one of the best performances I’ve ever attended and certainly the most outstanding of La Trav. The soprano seemed to be able to float the notes so quietly but powerfully on the music and her acting was brilliant.

my friend and I also went to the Marie Antoinette Style exhibit the v and a a beautiful but also so very moving, particularly as her last note is exhibited - alongside a guillotine blade from the time. The dress pictured is not hers but fairly contemporary to her and based on her wedding dress.

If people are in or are visiting London, do drop in to the National Gallery’s temporary Edwin Austin Abbey exhibition. The ceiling design I’ve put a photo of here is astounding.

Morning all.

Having terrible issues with MN so trying all things to see if it might be my phone.

Off to download the latest update to see of that works.

@Bimblesalong awesome pics. Especially the ceiling!

The waist on that dress is so tiny! Lovely pictures, glad you had a good weekend Bimblesalong.

Ah glad you enjoyed your day @Bimblesalong the exhibition looks fabulous.
Hope you get your mn sorted @RainbowZebraWarrior
and meant to Bob on to wish you a good first day back @martha79now im a bit late!
Would your dh have a recipe for his sweet and sour pork @Confusedmeanderings? My mum used to make it and I loved it! Sorry to hear of his decline. Cooking is a good thing for exercising the brain though so he is deffo doing the right thing there.
Ive got a banging headache and a sore throat, but luckily a less active co gamer today and we have spent most of the morning prepping for a lunchtime toastie banquet for everyone else. Good on two fronts: I love toasties and I’m feeling a bit energy-less so not up to much heavy work today.
Happy Monday all. At least it’s a touch warmer today

So sorry to hear about your DH's decline @Confusedmeanderings that must be very difficult. He sounds like a cracking cook, but given the choice, yes, I think I'd rather cook than clear up.

Well, after two hours of technical housekeeping, things are finally back to normal. I can post photos again.

This is the seaglass I've selected to take to the silversmith this weekend. I'm excited to see what she comes up with!

Beautiful photos and description of your trip @Bimblesalong

@Confusedmeanderings what lovely memories of the library - that must have been amazing.

@piscofrisco toastie banquet sounds incredible.

@RainbowZebraWarrior lovely choices for your jewellery, that pink bit is really unusual.

Thanks for the good wishes re work - it's been hard but ok. One of my biggest post-viral symptoms is a wobbly nervous system - so where I'd usually be a bit stressed/ apprehensive logging on after a few weeks, my body went on full-on fight or flight mode this morning (it's going "danger, tiger!" when it's really just "danger, emails!"). My colleagues are great though and I have at least got a package of coping strategies. I do feel like an embodiment of those memes though - "born to wander in the forest, forced to read emails"....

Made a sort of fritter thing for lunch with leftover mash from yesterday, a few bits of veg and chorizo.

Hope your body and mind settle down a bit soon, @martha79 my nervous system used to be in overdrive all the time too and it's a nightmare living at those sorts of levels of adrenaline and cortisol. I think eventually, your system realises it can't stay like that and adjusts to find a level you can cope with.

The pink seaglass is what's known as a 'multi' We used to have glassworks up here and at the end of each day, they would chuck all the leftover coloured molten glass together and it all got dumped in the sea. We have folk coming from all over the world to search for this sea glass as it's so unusual. The glassworks closed in 1921 so that seaglass is over 100 years old.

Oh I love that pink bit!
well done @martha79 you can be proud of yourself for getting through your day.

Glad to hear of a positive start @martha79 We are never quite the same again after serious illness -I like your meme. I think a few of us would fit with that.

I love your seaglass @RainbowZebraWarrior How will you have that made into a jewel? Can't wait to see it! I have hopes to come and search that beach one day - a friend lives nearby so I will combine the visit.

Toastie banquet @piscofrisco That is everything! yum!

I'm sorry too, to hear of your husband's decline, @Confusedmeanderings Pleased to hear that he is still able to cook - so good to draw on skills.

I can't quite believe the waist on that silver dress from the V &A exhibition - yet there were many others like it. It's astonishing what we put ourselves through, eh? It was good to see the later 20th century couture based on Marie Antoinette style with decent waists that I felt looked much more wearable.

I've been having MN issues too, @RainbowZebraWarrior so awol for a while. It seems to be behaving ok again today. I skimmed the thread, thought she can't possibly mean the Caroline Quentin then delighted to see that you actually did! Will look for her book.
It was my birthday this weekend - I secretly quite like that it is in early January so always very low key. Two lovely meals out and my silly children bought me a traitors cloak 😂 alongside some nice things. Today I met a friend I haven't seen for ages and again thank you January, horrible damp weather (fortunately not so cold this week) which meant no pressure to go in shops or the art gallery so we just sat in Zizzi for about 4 hours and gabbed. I like being a bit hibernatey.
I do not like the sound of sprouts with citrus thank you

Happy belated birthday @Celiathebanshee and I love the term 'hibernatey' so I shall be adopting that. Also, I think we might need to see a pic of you in your Traitors Cloak!

Also meant to add that the more I read of Caroline Quentin's book, the more I love it @Celiathebanshee

My seaglass jewellery should look like this @Bimblesalong It perhaps makes a bit more sense now I can post my pics side by side with some of the silversmiths previous work. If you do come up my way, btw, be sure to give me a shout! 😊

Gosh that is gorgeous @RainbowZebraWarrior and absolutely I’ll give you a shout if I’m up your way.

Evening all

Some lovely and some not quite as lovely catch posts to catch up on

The teenagers week back at school/college, they are in GCSE and Alevel years now so it’s straight back into things none of this ease back in gently - I did not miss the endless uniform/sports clothes laundry over Christmas

And everyone reading gorgeous books, off to opera and exhibitions. I need to learn Spanish by August, French I did I could update that, Spanish is all completely new words and rules and my brain needs revving I think in the language department. And I did a teen bicycle fix (via the medium of online instruction videos). So much less Nigelling going on here (as was expected).

Gosh, we are all rather kindred spirits, divided only by geography and the ability to tolerate a sprout and orange salad 😁

I too have a ‘danger, danger, tiger!’ setting. Though perhaps alternating with ‘lalala, that’s not a tiger, everything’s just fine and dandy, lalalala Nothing to see here’! I have dialled everything down so far, I don’t particularly get excited about tigers, or anything else.

However I did get cake at Bishop’s Manor- perk of the job- and snapped a couple of pretties… I love the nativity set.

I am close to sock completion. I’m decreasing the toes. In the process I came across a VN knit-a-long that I think people here will enjoy. It’s a Winter Haven sockalong. Apparently every January there’s a sock pattern released with instructions, and people share photos as they go to encourage each other through the January gloom. If anyone is interested I will link the page. I won’t start a second pair right now as I have a couple of other projects to complete, but I will plan to knit socks next January.

Oh dear, what a day! Every year I have a debate with DH about what to do with the Xmas tree. I say recycle it, it's the sensible, responsible thing to do. He says burn it in the log burner 😱 So today he decided to start the burning and the inevitable happened, he put too much on and the chimney caught fire! It sounds more dramatic than it was, the fire was in the flue rather than the chimney itself and to be honest when we were younger we would probably have dealt with it ourselves. However, whilst we are not very aged, we are definitely not in the prime of life, so the fire brigade was called. Every thing in the immediate vicinity was moved so that 5 or 6 burly firemen could stand around the inglenook and debate what to do. Then they had a cup of tea and debated some more. They also had some biscuits because our call had come through just as they were sitting down to lunch 🤣 Finally they came to the decision to not do anything because while all the debating had been going on, the fire had, in fact, burned itself out 🤣. They then fitted 2 new smoke alarms for us and departed, leaving the house looking like a tip with everything in the wrong place!

I have told 'D'H in no uncertain terms that next year's tree will be going out with the recycling!

Thank you for the sympathy regarding his decline. To be honest, at the moment it is very minor. If you didn't know him well you would never know, but I see the evidence of it all the time, in fact I wonder if today's disaster happened because he wasn't aware of how much tree he was putting in the log burner and I wasn't keeping an eye on him.

@piscofrisco I forgot to add the sweet and sour pork recipe.Here it is!

Happy belated birthday @Celiathebanshee.
im sure the firemen were glad of the distraction @Confusedmeanderingsthey sound very nice :) when we had our big house fire our fire men were very brusque and not at all comforting. I suppose they were being confronted by a hysterical woman (me), 3 dogs, a car going bananas and a hungover teen in her pyjamas to be fair to them :)
Thankyou for the recipe, that will be dinner tomorrow!
lovely pics @PrizedPickledPopcorn
i have also not missed the school run, @frozendaisy. I had 16 solid years of it with DD’s and now I’ve signed myself up for at least another 8 with DSS’s. Which amounts to alot of stressful getting out of the house and sitting in traffic worrying about being late. I’m very over it!
lots of rain forecast today so I will be in full wet weather gear which I loathe. I don’t like the rustling.
Happy Tuesday all

My youngest DD for various reasons has ended up at a private school, and the very best thing about it as far as I am concerned is the minibus that picks her up 100 yards from home - no more school runs for me @piscofrisco ! In fact the best thing I can do in the mornings, I have learnt, is to stay out of the way so I literally don’t leave my bed until she is out of the door. Happy days.
My dad was in the fire brigade and the tea and biscuits approach feels quite familiar. You have reminded me @Confusedmeanderings that we used to cut up and burn our Christmas trees. I’m not sure when or why we started recycling them instead because they burn brilliantly! As you discovered 🤦‍♀️ I did put the remnants of my wreath - pine needles and cones - in with the firelighters this year and they were excellent.

Morning all. Still no chapter for another couple of days.

Gosh that was a close shave @Confusedmeanderings but I agree with Pisco, at least the fire chaps sounded nice. Must have been a worry and an upset though.

Rain forecast here too, so the dry robe is going in the back of the car and I'm off beach combing after dropping DD off at school. I'm not very steady on the sand, but it's low tide and we have a flattish bit next to the lighthouse that I can access fairly easily with my sticks.

Wow, @Confusedmeanderings , that sounds hairy! Glad it didn't turn into disaster.

Heavy rain here so I'm sitting in my running gear waiting for it to stop, knowing perfectly well it won't. Lunch with work friends later, then mother-in-law's birthday gathering. My January is unexpectedly convivial.

Absolutely love your seaglass, @RainbowZebraWarrior , I am always admiring seaglass jewellery in our local crafty gifty shops.

'Morning all!

Gosh, that was a dramatic day @Confusedmeanderings but the firefighters sound lovely and I'm glad it didn't turn into anything serious. We had an open fire growing up and I remember once, my primary school teaching talking about the dangers of chimney fires, so I headed home to tell my mum all about it. My parents were pretty relaxed (often far too relaxed) when it came to that sort of thing and just told me that my teacher was overly dramatic and that the fires happen all the time with no consequence. It was still enough to put me on edge for the rest of my childhood though.

That seaglass is lovely. I collect seaglass and have a few bowls and jars on display in the bathroom. I'm coveting that pink piece and also realising how much I really need a seaglass ring now! I did buy a lovely pair of seaglass earrings from a local craft fair last summer and they have fast become my favourites. There's nothing I enjoy more than pottering around a beach, seeing what treasures I can find.

I'm still under the weather, coughing pretty much non-stop although most of the other symptoms have gone. Was supposed to go back to work today but have decided to stay at home for at least one more day to try to deal with this, and avoid coughing and spreading stuff to others. In general, I feel like I have lots of energy - the achiness and fuzziness has gone, but yesterday I tried to do my normal daily walk along the river (first time in 10 days) and was exhausted and out of breath by the halfway point. Not sure I can cope with the commute to work at the moment.

@Confusedmeanderings glad the flue fire burned itself out - do you have to reline it? Get a sweep out to have a look?

Saying this I do like a fireman I used to make our kids when they were small go and see the fire engine when we went to events with one there and enjoy swooning silently

Big fluffy crispy jacket potatoes here this evening
with a variety of crunchy salads, homemade garlic heavy houmous, tahini sauce, avocado, pickles, crumbled feta, mustard based salad dressing - think that’s it, a good way to get some quality olive oil down everyone

Youngster was in late because of my alarm this morning - not his fault but can’t happen again - sigh