Today the family descended on us again, but this time in joint celebration of the grandsons’ birthdays – the Boy Wonder having achieved the grand old age of 5 a few days ago, and the Baby Brother turning 2 in just over a week. The event brought just the kind of overexcited mayhem you’d expect, but went off pretty well, I think – certainly everyone seemed content by the time they left, early this evening.
I’m still struggling with rib and now significant back pain, but I managed to hold myself together and produced a buffet meal that was kindly received by everyone. L made a two-tier, low-sugar, chocolate birthday cake, about which I confess to having my doubts before tasting it (low sugar??), but I have to say, it was pretty good. One of my favourite memories of the day is hearing B minor quietly singing Happy Birthday to You to himself late this afternoon, which brought back a vision of his big brother doing exactly the same thing after his own second birthday party.
When I hauled myself out of bed this morning, cursing furiously, I found that there had been a very hard frost overnight. I already had the day extensively scheduled in my head, and it didn’t include much time for photography, but as soon as I’d set a gammon joint simmering in apple juice (later finished off very successfully in the air fryer, with a glaze of maple syrup and Demerara sugar) I put on my heavy boots and went out – super-carefully – with the macro, to see if I could capture some images of icy leaves and berries in the garden. I didn’t spend long outside, and my ability to reach, twist, etc. is still limited, so this is really just a grab shot, but I like it as a record of the current freezing conditions. These are set to finish by the end of the week, and though I’m relieved that I won’t have to risk further injury by walking on ice for too much longer, in another way I’m disappointed, because for me cold, sunny conditions have always lifted the inevitable midwinter blues.
R: L2, C3, D17.
