A Little Domesticity and a Walk on the Moors

On Monday I had one of those pleasant domestic mornings doing all sorts of things from the "I really must" category. A large basket of apples from the garden has been waiting for attention so I peeled a panful of them to cook.


While I waited I finally got the buttons sewn onto the cardigan which I've knitted for Kaitlyn. This is the first of the winter ones in 6-12 month size.




Next on the list was to finish wrapping the parcels to be packed into a box ready to send to my friends in New Hampshire. We've been doing this for over 30 years now, originally there were 4 or 5 packages for each family member but with the emphasis on the children. Mine had all kinds of toys and games years before they were available in the UK. Now it's just the four adults but even so it's the most exciting part of the lead up to Christmas when 'the American parcel' arrives.



In the afternoon J and I took the dogs up onto the moors, it was very windy but otherwise a very pleasant day for walking. There may or may not be more photos of this but so far Blogger has been refusing to upload them. This is Bilbo Baggins (brown) and Martha (black and white) along with most of J.



On Monday evening I sat and watched the football(soccer to my US readers!)and picked over all the dried fruit for the Christmas cake. The packs all come marked washed and cleaned but the amount of stalks and pits that are still in there is considerable. Then I chopped the cherries and prunes, cut up the candied peel, then added the rind of an orange and a lemon. This all goes in the pan with the juice of the orange and lemon and 4 fluid oz of sherry. I heat it gently until it's steaming then it is covered and left to cool and absorb all the liquid. It can be left up to 4 or 5 days at this stage.

I'm going to post this now and try and add more photos later Blogger permitting. I've tried on Firefox too and still nothing. Oh,well:(