Rats

I was treated to a lovely Christmas lunch by my parents today at their local pub, the Royal Oak. We are having a scaled down, minimalist version on the day itself but we thought it'd be nice celebratory roast at some point...and we didn't have to do any washing up. My supermarket delivery yesterday contained the first batch of cocktail sausages ready for the day; I've got 90 so far. I bought my parents a mini Nordman fir tree for their house and gave them a few knitted decorations to embellish their own collection:

Cute huh? I am making another Christmas pud from the Mini Christmas Knits book and I think I prefer it to the crocheted one, although like Nicky I have incorporated the top into the base rather than made an icing top for it. I'll post a pic tomorrow as my camera is a bit rubbish in dark conditions. I do have lights in my house, obviously, but they are all low-energy bulbs which are pleasantly 'muted' but not very good for photography.

I went to listen to my brother, father and niece perform their Christmas Concert with their local community orchestra. It was great fun and reminded me how much I enjoy classical music. I dug out my old clarinet which I learnt to play at school when I was 8. Our school was very keen on music and I also played the violin, very badly, for a year or so too. I can remember all the pieces I used to play but have had to download an app to remind me of the fingering! :-D I am sure my music-reading skills are pretty rusty as well even though I tried to learn piano a little while ago. I'm hopefully going to give the orchestra a go myself when they start back in January.

I picked more crab apples on my way back from the pub as I'd like to make some Mulled Wine Jelly as seen in the December issue of HomeFarmer magazine.

It's basically crab apples with spices and a tot of red wine, but I bet it'll be delicious with the cheeses and home-made bread we'll have on Christmas Day, and the mini sausages, if there are any left after Tristan's taken his portion.

I have a rat back in the compost heap. It is so difficult: I bring all the poultry into one area to save my lawn and it becomes a rodent restaurant. I am going to invest in a treadle feeder for the big hens as in addition to the rat family, the dunnocks keep helping themselves to my expensive Garvo Layers mash. Henry doesn't help either as he tips the bowl over to spread the food far and wide in his desire to provide sufficient food for all his ladies, which the feeder will put a stop to. There is a tunnel into the duck runs too so I am having to keep the water bowls empty overnight and I am sluicing the run as well to remove any traces of rat piddle.

Anyway, it's now Countryfile and I need to make myself a cup of tea and pick up the knitting. Happy Sunday evening everyone.