Christmas Cake Making. Rain. Sun. Back to work.
Two sparrowhawks!! (But not Two Soups. Or swoops)
Tuesday afternoon’s excitement (other than ploughing my way though the 746 emails in my work inbox) was Phil spotting a sparrowhawk sat on the top bar of the gate. We watched it for a while, while it watched the pear tree birds, eyeing up some snacks…..
Luckily for those pear tree birds, a bigger sparrowhawk suddenly materialised and drove off the first one. I missed all that excitement as I’d gone back to work.
We had a lot of heavy rain and high winds Wednesday and Thursday. The ground is saturated, the waterbutts are full.
And yet we sat outside in glorious sunshine eating our lunch on Tuesday. A good day for washing the last of the Nepal stuff, including the kit bags….
I had a beautiful sunny walk on Friday morning: Camp Crossroads – Duffryn – Cockyard – Kerrys Gate.
Back to admin on Friday afternoon, after that lovely walk.
We treated ourselves to lunch out on Saturday, at The Gaff in Abergavenny. Excellent. We’ll go again.
Woke up feeling a bit blue on Sunday. Uncle M or 2 glasses of lunchtime red wine – who’s to know?
Spent the morning making this year’s Christmas Cake – Delia Smith’s Rich Fruit Cake recipe is always reliable. My cakes also reliably come out of the oven a little on the brown side but I’m sure this one will taste lovely all the same. They always do. And not just because of the brandy.
Joined Phil outside for an hour raking up the leaves and squashing them into the two black bin bags that had been my Nepal trip kit bag liners, following one of Monty Don’s November Tips.
I headed back outside for a spell after lunch – cut back all the dead foliage and giant nettles around the large pond, pulled up ivy by the small pond and weedkillered the drive, around the conservatory and along the drainage ditch on the west side of the house.
Then got the log stove going, read and solitaired listening to the History Extra podcast about the Mary Rose. Then some computing / admin.
Another beautiful morning Monday. Pottered in the greenhouse, trimming the tomato plants and repotting some of the smaller strawberry pots plus one of the indoors orchids.
Zoom with R. Lunch with T & L. At dusk, the sparrowhawk returned to the gate…. Before dinner, Wine Time Zoom with CH & H. A sociable day.
TV: Happy Valley (series 2), Snowfall (season 4 – after we’d watched the season 5 recap and realised we didn’t remember any of it….), Rev (series 3).
Podcasts: Books and Authors, Bookclub, History Extra, Lingthusiasm.
Photos: Herefordshire week 152 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2022-11-27.