This is the first Christmas for several years when it’s been cold enough for frost. Normally we have to resort to cool boxes and ice blocks at the beginning of Christmas, to contain the fridge overflow, so it’s odd that today, when it was so cold that we could simply have left the excess in the conservatory, there were only two of us here and therefore the fridge was entirely adequate to its load.
This morning we had an early four-way family Zoom call arranged between The Shire, Cardiff, Leeds, and South Oxfordshire, so R and I barely had time to eat an industrial quantity of panettone and then rush outside for half an hour – he to take exercise, and I to take photos – before we had to prettify ourselves and put on our glittery earrings for the virtual meet-up. After Zooming we spent a couple of hours making a “small” festive lunch (beef Wellington with five different kinds of vegetables – the leftovers of which are likely to keep us going till Easter), then scooted round the village at an extended trot so that we could say we had, before collapsing on the sofa in front of the television.
Having posted my frosty geranium, which appealed to my eye this morning for what I think is a slightly Art Nouveau vibe, I’m now away to debate with my Consort over a glass of something-or other, the motion being:
Should this family drag itself out of bed at You Cannot Be Serious O’clock tomorrow morning to go and walk round Charlecote, or not?