Back in the village

All went according to plan and on Tuesday, with a detour to the Orienteering Federation offices, we took the bus.  The detour was for two things: 1. to pick up our calendars that I have already paid for at the last O event of the season, but which only got printed at the beginning of December.  This is the one that is produced by our friends, Arpi and Zita, who are cycling round the world. This is the last one they are publishing as hopefully by October 2015 they should be home.  The pictures in this one are from New Zealand, the US, Mexico and a few from Central America. 2. The other reason was that the Federation had just got some new electronic timing chips in and I bought myself one, as the old one was nicked along with the other stuff in October. Unfortunately my record with my chips is not a very lucky one: this is the third one I had to buy, as the first one flew off my finger and got lost while competing in a sprint O event in the park of the Chateau of Betler in Slovakia many years ago and the second one got nicked just recently.

My new chip

Finally, we arrived back in the village in good time, surrounded by a pack of noisy school kids who were returning from an end of term outing.  Luckily, everything was fine in the house and garden, which is no longer taken for granted by us.  After all we had been away for three weeks and after the disaster nearly 3 years ago when we had a flooded library and hallway due to broken pipes, I always worry after such a long time.  But no disasters and within a short amount of time we were back in the groove. This place has a magic of its own and both of us feel relaxed, happy and totally at home in the place.

The last rose of the year

Due to rather mild weather, there was even a beautiful red rose in the courtyard in full blossom. A wicked little mole made a few more molehills, but Roy set about getting rid of him/her pretty sharpish.

The stove well lit

Although the sun shone brightly and for December it was mild, the songbirds were in clear evidence looking for food and it was cold enough to fire up the big stove.  Amazingly, it took no time to take and in spite of a total lack of wind outside, it pulled like it never did before on the first occasion. Within less than 24 hours it was heated through and giving warmth of the kind only a pottery stove can.

Lesser spotted woodpecker

I was happy to see that the woodpeckers were back and during the day we also saw blue tits, great tits, some finches and a nuthatch.  The latter is not a very common visitor in these parts, so hopefully we are in for a good winter of bird spotting round the feeders.

Most of the week was spent partially with putting together this year's tax return, while trying to feed ourselves out of the sparce amount of food we brought with ourselves on the bus and by raiding the freezer.  It is roughly at this time when we normally set about clearing the feezer, so that it can be freshly stocked again.  Roy put the car away before we left, as he is not very fond of the frozen, potholed roads in these parts and because the public transport is good enough to use for about 3 months until the weather cheers up again.

Robert King

On Sunday, 21st December I went into town, partly because I had a concert and partly because somebody had to do the Christmas food shopping. The concert was a sublime rendering of Handel's Messiah by The King's Consort of Robert King. I knew the Messiah, of course, but I realised early on that I have never seen/heard it on the concert podium in person before.  It was extremely good and very enjoyable indeed.

Then on Monday I did my shopping, preceded by a visit to the insurance company to submit the last document necessary for their settling the claim over the robbery, now nearly two months ago. Most of the Christmas shopping was done in my favourite market where I got a nice big chunk of fillet steak for Roy, a big bit of salmon for myself, all the ingredients for mince pies, fruit, nuts and vegetables and when the suitcase I took for a shopping trolley was full I departed. The bus trip was uneventful and now we are here for nearly a week before returning to town for New Year's Eve. The  plan for tomorrow is to make the mince pies, which should be fun!