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I received a great book for Christmas. The Primrose Bakery Book of Cupcakes so I decided to give it a whirl yesterday and made some vanilla cupcakes with a white chocolate butter icing top!

They were delicious, though my dislike of anything chocolate did prevail. I thought white chocolate would be okay, and indeed I only had a slight taste, but it was quite evident that once again chocolate and I just were not meant to be.

Jon did have one which he enjoyed, so the rest are now in the freezer ready for his snack boxes in the New Year!

Talking of New Year I have made my resolution....
The only advice I am going to follow is advice I like or agree with!

Sound don't you think?

Winter in the Village

Winter has certainly arrived in the village! Today I had to deliver our christmas cards, so armed with my camera and trusty Freida we walked through the village in the cold snow.

Click on the collage for more detail.

Here is Freida afterwards....truly WORN out!
As we sat in the snug I became aware of the WILDLIFE in the garden.
I captured this robin and thrush from the comfort of the settee!

At this time of the year I love comfort food, my particular favourite is Welsh Rarebit!
Tasty and a great way to utilise the eggs the gals produve!

My ultimare recipe.......
Beat up one egg
Grate a good chunk of strong cheddar and work into beaten egg
Add Tabasco, Worcester Sauce to taste. + mustard powder + salt & pepper
Spread onto toast
Grill until golden brown

result........WOW!

Finally, last night I captured my hens in their shed, huddling together keeping warm!

Home Delivery!

Our House Yesterday

Back Garden

Pine Trees at very bottom of garden

Our Drive

It started to snow on Saturday night, about 5pm. It continued to snow throughout the day really on and off! No card passed just the council gritter, a couple of tractors and 4x4's. Jon went to the workshop in the pick-up but had to return for various solutions to deal with the frozen padlock to the compound.

I do not like driving in the snow and was home all day as I was expecting some shopping deliveries. The first phone call came early as we were at the breakfast table. This was from Asda. Apparantly the vans had encountered problems from 5pm Saturday and had not been able to get to some locations, the phone call was just allerting me to some problems that may affect us. He left me with his mobile number and I had a good think. If he could get to either nearby Guisborough or Redcar I had friends who could take delivery and we could go later in 4x4 and collect. Sorted.

The second call came from Tesco, who were delivering our lovely free range turkey for Christmas Dinner. I must admit I panicked when the caller announced they were from Tesco. However it was just to say the delivery would be slightly later, but would arrive within 30 minutes. Phew! 10 minutes later I had the turkey, now safely stored in the cold garage.

Back to Asda, after a couple of calls the delivery chap was on his last delivery in Redcar as he couldn't get any further, so he delivered our shopping to one of our neighbours from 22 years ago when we lived on Castle Road.

John arrived from work and we went to Redcar. The roads were trecherous and although we were Ok in the pick up and Jon is skilled with driving in such conditions, we managed to get to Redcar. There were quite a few cars on the roads, but taking things very carefully. We were greeted by Marjorie and we had a brief exchange of cards & greetings before we headed home.

When we unpacked we discovered several chilled items were missing so despite my best planning efforts and avoidance of having to go out and shop anymore, it would seem I have to and I have concerns about the size of the turkey! I do not think it is big enough to feed 8 hungry people!
Hmmmmmmmmm!
What is it about Christmas that sends us up such paths of doubt?

Watch this space!