CATCHING UP !

Well, Christmas and New Year is now behind us, and thanks to the lack of internet connection, I am running well behind schedule! See the last post for the reasons! We now have yet another new modem, which, touch wood, has worked for two days running!

I was going to do a post after Christmas day, but due to technology, I have not had the necessary facilities.  We had a very quiet day on the 25th, with just the two of us, and Nigel was not feeling well, with a sore throat.   He did manage to get through Christmas lunch and after that he steadily went downhill. We started the day with almost a white Christmas, as we had quite a heavy frost.

Our Christmas lunch menu changed right at the last minute, as we found a supermarket duck on special offer! All menu plans that had been partially in my mind changed  decisively after this lucky acquisition.   We also managed to find some reasonably priced smoked salmon, so that was starters organised. 

You can barely see the small slices of circular bread under the salmon, but this bread is specially made for the purpose, and has a lovely lemon flavour to it.  We only discovered this bread in the supermarket recently when I was looking for snacks for friends coming for a drink.  It was a great find.

I forgot to take a photo before I started slicing, so you are now viewing part two!!  The duck was not quite as pink as I would have liked, but it did taste delicious.  I served it with roast potatoes, the latter from our summer garden, and beans that I had bottled - also from the garden. There was an amazing amount of meat on quite a small duck; we had two cooked meals each and then two final portions cold for lunch.  The carcass went in the pot with some vegetables and we thoroughly enjoyed the resulting soup.

We followed this with cheese, which the camera did not capture, and then Christmas pudding with rum sauce. 

This was accompanied by Roche Mazet Syrah.  A favourite of ours, it is a good value Rosé  wine from South West France

The Christmas cake I made remained unsampled for several days, as Nigel was quite simply not very hungry. He's making up for it now!

On Boxing Day morning we had been invited to drinks, and Nigel decided that if he stoked himself up with medicine, he just may make it.  It was a gorgeous day, blue sky and the sun shining down.  The car was reading temperatures of 10ºC (approx 48F).  I could not believe this was Christmas; it was a very abnormal weather pattern. Hopefully this was not to be the lull before the storm!!

A few photos I took while driving through the wooded lanes to our friends.

I have never noticed this painting on the barn wall before and it is a road that I use quite often. I suspect it may be quite new.

On guard !

and what the dog is guarding.

Just a view of the road and countryside with a blue sky.

A few stone houses seen en route.

I do not think I have ever seen a horse's mane quite this long. These horses also appeared to be enjoying the weather.

and last but not least, a wintry sunset on Boxing day at home.