HAPPY CHRISTMAS !

A Happy Christmas to all my Blog friends! I hope all goes well, that the meal is gorgeous, those round the table are gracious, happy and good-humoured, and that a good time is had by all!

We will be going to our daughter for Christmas Day, which will be lovely. She always puts on a beautiful meal, the decorations are fantastic, and the Christmas Tree touches the ceiling!

The picture above is one I took at her house a couple of years ago. I think it looks mysterious, candle-lit and Christmassy!

See you all again in a few days!

Have a great time!

CHRISTMAS MARKET

We nearly didn't go to the Town's Christmas market, as when we woke up it was snowing and looked very icy. However, the weather improved very slightly, so off we went. The market is held - where else? - in the Market place, and spills out to the side streets. They had kept the various types of stalls together, so the food was nearly all in one street, the crockery and china stalls together, etc.




The Christmas tree lights were on, but didn't show up on my photograph its a big dark because it WAS a bit dark out there!



All the food stalls looked lovely. This scone stall...........



.........offered little nibbles to test them! In fact, all the foodie stalls offered tasters, and we had good time sampling various sausages. I did buy some in the end, though. ~Free range Gloucester Old Spot Pigs, hand-made on the farm. Should be good!




There were some strange things there, though.




But if it was too cold for you, then you could warm up with mulled wine, or spiced cider, all gently steaming away in big tubs.

It was a very successful market, and I enjoyed it enormously.

SWANS

I'm really pleased to say that the swans who came to the lake in our Park have stayed now for well over a year, maybe longer. I find time flies rather quickly now!




Yesterday the were hanging around where the stream enters the lake. We have had torrential rain lately, and the stream has been at its height, obviously bringing down goodies for ducks and swans!




They are nearly always together, and we are hoping they might be a pair. Young swans do not breed for 3 or 4 years after they become adult, so perhaps these two are just waiting for their really adult years to appear!

We did have a very large numbers of Canada geese on the lake, but they have gone off somewhere else now, and gulls, mostly black headed gulls, sit waiting on the lake now until someone appears with food, and then fly around screeching, and trying to get the bread from under the ducks' beaks!

If it gets colder, with snow, then the geese will come back, the gulls will stay, and the number of mallard ducks increase. Then it will be everyone for themselves when food appears!

GREY DAY

December has turned very cold, and this was the scene that greeted me as I opened the gate from our garden into the Park. I rather hoped I could get the walk with our dog over before those grey clouds reached us.



The promise of a bright interval never materialised over our part of the town, and the wind was icy cold!




Even the ducks didn't look too impressed!




But some very late roses really cheered me up. The glowed against the grey wall, defying the wind and cold.

Hope this is not too boring a blog but I thought I ought to let you know I was still alive!!