Wednesday 20th December 2023 - Coming Together Nicely

I’m up to date with Christmas preparations, plus all the cards have been delivered and friends visited.  The cake will have a covering of marzipan and decorated later today (no icing – we find it’s too sweet and it only gets thrown away).  Foliage for indoors will be cut and cheese delivery scheduled for tomorrow, final food shop on Friday and purchase of flowers for the table decoration, followed by organising the spare room ready for our family visitors.  Peter has strained the blackberries from the vodka and the sloes from the gin, providing us with two bottles of rosy coloured after dinner drinks.  Peter has made both of these for some years but this year he is a little concerned about the sloe gin which he says is a bit gloopy.  Sloes are related to the plum family, so I wonder if pectin has seeped into the gin; if it has, it’s definitely a first.  The vodka-soaked blackberries are in the fridge to be eaten with homemade ice-cream in the New Year.  However, the sloes have been consigned to the brown bin as they remain sour and in our opinion, inedible.

I’ll be back again blogging after Christmas.  In the meantime, if there’s any news or anything of interest, I will post this on Overstrand Life’s Facebook page . All that’s left now is for me to say….

Best Wishes to you all, from Peter and me, for a Happy Christmas.