Oh My Has it really been so long...

Well yes it has

Self imposed work deadlines - it is MANIC with us presently and has been since December - knowing full well we had a 2 week hiatus due to Christmas and New Year - and HMRC's Jan 31st deadline for all Tax Returns - we have worked like navvies

All is well - we are nearing the end

So much so - this weekend we are off for our wedding anniversary - to Switzerland!

Still much to do before we fly off on Sunday - but when I return I will have much to say too

Happy New Year - belated tho it is

Mead 2008

Last year I decided to use some of my honey in an attempt to make mead - my first attempt at either mead or homemade wine. Patience was the order of the day - this was going to take about a year. Kept in a cool pantry, it has been decanted several times to get rid of the silt. Just over a year later and excitedly, we begin to decant: Having sterilised bottles at the ready - we syphoned 4 large and 6 small bottles worth of mead

As you can see the final version is lovely and clear and quite pale. Meads I have seen and tried in the past have been quite dark, more like an amontillado. This had a very pleasing colour - but by far the most impressive characteristic was the aroma. When I made it - I decided to boil it to kill off wild yeasts - with the potential for losing some of the bouquet. However, the smell of honey and beeswax was wonderfully still in full force - absolutely startling to be quite honest - this has a seriously lovely fragrance.

And the most interesting development was that it was crisp and dry - rather than heavy and sweet - as I had imagined it would have to be.

This has to be one of my most successful endeavours - I had a teensy weensy sip (I don't drink) - and was shocked at its potency.

It certainly seems to have been worth the wait - and now will be labelled up and prepared as Christmas presents for friends and family.

Waistcoat & Hankies...

Here we are - one waistcoat and two hankies - I have the bells too.

Come December 7th - they will be worn in anger!!! Melton Victorian Fayre - here I come!!

Naked Ambition ..... the maternal kind

Christmas is a scant 6 weeks away if you didn't already know.

I know this because my eldest daughter was 21 at the weekend - I remember so well my very first Christmas as a Mum, with a 6 week old baby and family and friends desperate to see her - it was a hectic time.

20 Christmases on and it still remains a hectic time - but I wouldn't swap it for the world - I love Christmas, and I love my family - ahhh.

However, they have failed me miserably in the maternal ambition stakes - and time is running out for me.

I'm talking school plays.....I'm talking the pinnacle of success that all Mothers secretly aspire to - sitting, tearfully in the audience as your off spring shuffle forward with a swaddled Tiny Tears - as Mary and Joseph.

Eluned, managed a creditable singing flower and a very convincing sick elf - but that warm and fuzzy feeling was very much the chorus line and I had such high hopes.

Things were looking good, when, 3 years later, eldest son, Sioni was cast in his reception year as Arch Angel Gabriel - but, alas, he took a stubbornly self conscious acting sabbatical that lasted the next 16 years. Drat!!

But lo! I have been given a last gasp chance, a la Mama Rose-esque success - as the child of my twilight years has this year started primary school - ho could he be, could he possibly be...Joseph?

Knowing my luck - he's more likely to be cast as the donkey!

Gluten Free Mince Pie

Being between a rock and hard place!!!

I haven't been looking forward to this Christmas foodwise....last Christmas I had, stupidly I know, ignored any notion of following, or even giving lip service to gluten free eating
Last Christmas was what eventually decided me, I couldn't go on ignoring it any more.
But dear oh dear - No mince pie!!! No Stollen, christmas pud or cake - or at least as I have known and LURRRVED it in the past!
I had to get a grip - and try with some gusto - as many recipes I could find for gluten free equivalents or alternatives.
Cakes and bread I can do - all forms of pastry has always eluded me - disastrously ....my valiant attempt at buckwheat pastry didn't look or fare any better.

ABOVE: Buckwheat pastry - honest!!!!!

BELOW: My attempts at rolling it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As disgusting at it may look - below is the near finished pie - I decided to roll out very small pieces and hand pressed them into the tin - to save the attempt at a pie lid, which was bound to look awful - I twisted strips of the pastry into a lattice - which looked passable

The finished result - was eaten!! with cream - it was very brittle in a hard to cut/chew sort of way- but not inedible by any means - and was by all things measurable - a chrissmassy mince pie, but gluten free.

New St Georgies do Melton Cattle Market....

Well here is the A team doing a superb job of 'Beaux of London City' aka 'Shooting' - a fabulous first proper outing for Helen, second from the right

And the B lister interloper looking forlorn without her hankies - ah yes yours truly!!!

This was the public dance - for the briefest of moments there - I actually felt I knew what I was about!!

Lads a' Buncham and Black Joke...

Two new Morris Dances this week - still Adderbury tradition, but the first - Lads a' Buncham is a 'stick' dance - which whilst I falter a bit, forgetting when to turn with stick above my head - is honestly easier than with blasted hankerchiefs which I learned to my chagrin, after my first foray with the dreadful things last night.

'Black Joke' which is probably aptly named - & was the longest dance I've done to date - is an energetic one - with big circle waving anti clockwise whilst doing a set of 4 capers (jumping & kicking on the spot), then quickly into a hanky clockwise circle (the apple) with a quick flick up and down (the banana) whilst doing 2 double step ups down to a single step for 3 - and then back to capers!!!

Remember the rubbing stomach/patting head trick that is awful to coordinate?

Well those hankerchiefs - ended whirled around my hand and my foot work was useless - I forgot left from right! and I ended up completely knackered.

Honest - these old folk who lazily lope about with bells and hankies are lulling you into a false sense of how easy this is - because, take my word for it - it isn't!!