Happy Christmas

Christmas greetings everyone.   I have eaten well, drank elegant glasses of kir royale and even had an outing.

I had thought of lying prone on the sofa in front of the fire reading my lovely Christams books (Just Vegetating by Joy Larkcom and the Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust); but even back pain is tedious and does not need to be indulged.

So instead I managed to drag lots of sticks into the chipping position. Gingerly does it. But I built up quite a pile. I have been looting fresh straight saplings from the chestnut trees down in the bottom of the duck pond area; and gnerally tidying all the branches I find lying around.

And embloldened with that tiny bit of exercise, it was off for a two hour walk.

Lovely.   We tried a new route from the house and found some and interesting new countryside; forests of course. You don’t go far in the Ardeche without finding a forest.   But this one had some wacky trees, and some beautifully neat chestnut ‘orchards’.   The neatness of this one put ours to shame.

We had slow roast pork belly for dinner with home grown vegetables and all the trimmings. Part of me just loves the cranberry sauce.   And that feeling of lying like a beached whale on the sofa unable to move. But then bouncing up and eating Christmas pudding for dessert. Bliss.