Christmas is here

Christmas has most definitely arrived in the Hawkins household we even watched a James bond film on the television yesterday. Having said that we will be eating out on Christmas day because of the whole thing about large roast dinners for just the two of us, we have the most enormous joint of pork in the oven with stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and the works and we are eating out on Christmas day so we have as normal gone into overdrive. But honestly it is so nice to potter about thinking only about food and television and the odd walk to stretch our legs that I won´t complain.

 I can always read about other peoples stress on the Internet, I know that for many Christmas is the overachievers nightmare. Somehow if magazine articles are to believed the reality never quite lives up to the fairy tale and for others the hype serves only to emphasise loneliness or loss, For me Christmas has always been good,  We never  went in for massive expensive present giving, We have the joy the joy of the birth of Jesus to give us meaning and hope and although we are away from family I know that we will talk and skype over the holiday.

I saw on there news that Yesterday was Panic Saturday in the UK with the shops full and expecting their biggest take of the year. I feel so far away from that and sure I miss Carol concerts and mulled wine but on the whole  I am glad of a quieter saner celebration.

The Garden,

We have developed a tradition of putting the garden to bed over the Christmas break. It started because the first year we were here our neighbours dumped a trailer load of cow manure on our drive. We has asked for it you understand it is just that it was Christmas eve before they got around to delivering it and so we were there on boxing day with our shovels. It became a tradition quickly and we actually look forward to it. Sadly this year our neighbours have sold their cows so we have have lost best source of manure. We covered the beds and then scraped off any of the un-composted manure into the compost heap and replaced it with homemade compost before planting. It sounds complicated but actually it is pretty simple as the top layer of manure forms a crust no weeds grow and the straw under the crust composts down.

 We still plan to cover the beds with straw and and chicken/ rabbit poo but this time come spring we will just move the straw aside and plant into little compost filled holes. Well that`s the theory.

The straw covered beds are the the tidiest that the beds ever are although I do weed at intervals the beds are still productive even if they sometimes look a bit chaotic.

 We have beetroot still growing amongst the (chickweed which we also eat). However, with the exception of cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli, we are at the end of this years garden. I have vague intentions of growing more year round stuff but am proving to be a bit of a fair weather gardener and am glad of the winter break. Maybe next year who knows.