Countdown to Christmas: Day 23

It's my penultimate post! Wow... did not expect it to take so long to publish these! But here's what I got up to on Christmas Eve Eve!

Advent Tea

My penultimate advent calendar tea from Bird and Blend Tea was Mascarpone and Sour Cherry!

Ninja Book Box Week 4

My final Ninja Book Box advent parcels brought Syd Moore's The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas, a little book charm/decoration and a recipe for Gingerbread Latte Fudge!

‘Misrule’

The penultimate Christmas chapter in Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun was 'Misrule'.

Bailey’s Wood Winter Solstice Walk

To celebrate the season, I led a Winter Solstice walk for Friends of Bailey's Wood today. It was raining quite heavily, but we still got chance to enjoy some holly, ivy and silver birches, plus some midwinter folklore and stories.

Countdown to Christmas: Day 16

Another belated Christmas post from me!

Advent Tea

Day 16 of my Bird and Blend Tea advent calendar was Great British Cuppa!

Ninja Book Box Week 3

Advent Week 3 from my Ninja Book Box advent calendar brought Tony & Susan by Austin Wright, plus some gorgeous looking chocolate orange chai!

Christmas Earrings

Today's earrings were little reindeer and Christmas puddings.

‘The Twelve Days’

Today's Christmas chapter of Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun was 'The Twelve Days'.

Polar Horrors

A lovely thing that happened today... Rob surprised me with a pre-Christmas present, the British Library Polar Horrors short story anthology!

Rare Exports

Tonight's Christmas film was the wonderful Rare Exports.

Murder on the Christmas Express

I also read Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict today.

Countdown to Christmas: Day 9

Another belated Countdown to Christmas post from me. I'm wondering if I'll get all of these up before the big day. I can but try!

Advent Tea

Today's advent tea from my Bird and Blend Tea calendar was Irish Cream!

Ninja Book Box Week 2

This week's Ninja Book Box advent parcels included A Bespoke Murder by Edward Marston and a lovely homemade paper decoration!

Castleton Literary and Scientific Society Talk

I gave a talk tonight to the Castleton Literary and Scientific Society (that's Castleton, Rochdale, not Castleton, Derbyshire) on one of the my favourite subjects: the Medieval Blackley Deer Park. Eagles! Boar! Unauthorized deer leaps! Bankrupt barons! It's got it all! And although it wasn't strictly speaking a festive talk, the drive there was amazingly Christmassy with all of Middleton and Castleton lit up and sparkling through the wintery mists. Just beautiful.

Countdown to Christmas: Day 2

Another belated Christmas blog post from me! It feels like the first part of December was a bit of a blur, but (not to jump ahead too much) we discovered later on the in the month why these seasonal blog posts are important to us, so I'm going to keep trying to catch up with them, even if it's posted a little after the fact.

Advent Tea

Catching up on my Bird and Blend Tea advent calendar... Day 2 was Chocolate Digestives!

Ninja Book Box Week 1

I opened the first lot of parcels from my Ninja Book Box advent calendar today. Advent Week 1 gave me Insignificance by James Clammer and a lovely little gift edition of 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry!

Charlestown Age Friendly Benches Launch

Very much a 'work, but make it festive' thing today... I was at the launch of the Charlestown Age Friendly Benches this morning. I wasn't able to stay for all of it, but I did enjoy the Whitemoss Youth Club's hospitality (including soup and karate!).

Countdown to Christmas: Day 1

Our Year of Celebrating the Seasons has reached the big finale! It's time for the Countdown to Christmas! We have a lot of festive things planned for December, but also a lot of work things to do so I've not been able to keep on top of these blog posts in the same way as I have done for the other seasons. I think I'm probably going to have to splurge about 20 of them at the same time. Ah well!

Advent Calendars

 We take advent calendars very seriously in this house. Not least the cat, who has been staring at the cupboard door for 11 months now, waiting for the wonderful day when his advent calendar will appear. I make Rob's calendar each year - little letters in each of the drawers that are usually a story, but this year a puzzle. Rob got me a Bird and Blend Tea Co. calendar this year, and I also got a Ninja Book Box calendar for myself as well (with weekly, rather than daily, festive gifts).

Advent Tea

After all the work we put into getting the perfect advent calendars, I nearly ran out of time to open mine! Day 1 of my lovely Bird and Blend Tea calendar was Gingerbread Chai!

Christmas Earrings

It's the 1st December, so I got my Christmas earrings out today. My first pair were my white Christmas tree/reindeer combo.

Library Visit

We did our monthly visit to the Avenue Library today. Although that's not festive in itself, the library was decorated for Christmas, and I tried to get some vaguely seasonal books out (or, at least, books I'd like to read over the festive season).

Christmas Crisps

Since it's December, me and my brother decided to try something festive on our weekly game night. We had some of Tesco's festive crisps: Pigs in Blankets and... Christmas Pudding flavour??