Liz Williams's Blog, page 46

Christmas evening

A lovely day: lunch went smoothly and the resulting left-overs will come in handy if the British army runs out of food over the next few weeks. Presents have been exchanged (a lot of books). I have finished the Mary Russell and enjoyed it a lot, ditto the annual Christmas re-reading of the relevant bits of The Dark Is Rising.

We watched Dr Who and um, well, okay.

Sid is on my lap. Lily has strained a shoulder falling over on ice and is a bit less bouncy than usual. Cass is dreaming and making ...

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and a lovely day to all, whatever you are doing.

Here in Somerset it is a fine morning, but there are clouds building up. Turkey is in the oven, fires are lit, champagne has been cracked open, we have done the present thing and I am about to embark on the Christmas Book - this year, Laurie King's latest Mary Russell. Trevor is watching NFL.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dawned icy - we had a lot of sleet last night and now it has frozen. I am sitting in the shop, listening to Trevor playing King's College Choir carols on Glastonbury Radio. We'll be winding up in about an hour and joining friends in the pub, then home for the rest of the evening. We're pretty much set for Christmas, I think, and really ready for the following break: a lot of dog walking, reading and pottering about is in order, plus a visit to my family.

Our dear friend R has j...

Happy Solstice!

...have a good longest night, shortest day....

Apples and Solstice

The bags of windfalls were supposed to go up to the cider farm two weeks ago, but Tara's death, on the day we were going to do this, and T's subsequent hand injuries, put a hitch in things.

So it has had to wait until this morning - I got up at first light, then went out and started tying up the bags (with some hemp string we bought because it looked stout - it breaks at the drop of a hat and proved totally useless). Round two: locate aid of baling twine with aid of T, tie up bags again (T di...

Pupdate

Lily has now been with us for almost 8 months, and has grown from a tiny puppy to an enormous dog. She is still growing, and still convinced that she is a tiny puppy and can therefore sleep in the bed. Now that Tara has gone, Cass and Lily have been deciding who is top dog (our old Alsatian, Chance, will never be top dog: those who have met him will know why). Cass really can't be bothered: she just wants to eat, sleep and potter about. So I think Lily will be alpha in the dog pack, though no...

And on the 12th Day of Xmas...

With thanks to E:

An E&D Festive message;
(E&D being Equality & Diversity).

The Politically Correct 12 Days Of Christmas

On the 12th day of the Egocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,

ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even tho...

Fairy, Mayor, Town Crier

Fairy (Trixie), Mayor (Edward), and Town Crier (Graham).





Trixie in the Cat and Cauldron.

Frost Fayre - photos

Parsnip!



Burtle Silver Band









I have no idea who this is.





Dulcimers!





Santa, in Proper Job costume.





Reindeer!

Frost Fayre

This went very well. There were a few hitches - mainly the logistics of siting stalls which were larger than expected, and some trouble from the dropouts who cluster around the Market Cross (as usual). Apart from this, however, it all went smoothly and the committee are now pleased and relieved.

R and I did realise, halfway through the afternoon, that we had neglected to find Santa a costume. Thank God for Proper Job, where you can buy a Santa outfit for a fiver!

But the reindeer and sleigh w...