How to....start christmas too early

I know there is a rumour that if you start Christmas too early Elves strangle baby reindeers or angels wing drop off but hopefully that's all rubbish as sadly I think that Christmas may have just about started and it's only halfway through November!!! I am trying to get into the festive spirit and believe me I'm doing better then Dr Fred!!!

Today the glorious scent of Christmas filled the house as having soaked the dried fruit for a week in a lethal cocktail of rum, brandy, port and more... I made my Christmas cakes using the time tested and honoured Delia Creole cake recipe. I've tried various different fruit cake recipes over the years but nothing comes close to the Creole one. Its only drawback is as Delia states, is it's too rich to be iced and requires a glazed fruit and nut topping which personally I prefer but Dr Fred misses the marzipan and icing so I'll prob do Delias simpler ordinary cake as well.

But, what really made it feel like Christmas was imminent - as well as baking crimble cakes - was the annual Christmas lantern parade in Amble and as we have a friend visiting us from Australia what better entertainment could we offer!!!! (we really know how to look after our guests).

Wrapping up well we headed downtown - I have never seen so many people in Amble before - and stood amongst the crowds as the parade meandered down Queen Street. I thought it was fab. Four years ago we attended a similar event somewhere deep in the middle of nowhere in the Murray Valley, South Australia and it was a weird experience, snowmen, santa clauses, elves and reindeer against a backdrop of palm trees, blue skies and 35 degree heat! This year was very similar, except the palm trees, blue skies and temperature were not as evident - and somehow it felt a bit more real... the giant Puffin added a touch of surrealism and if it was anywhere but Amble it might have looked ridiculous (ha ha ) -

the christmas theme was Alice in Wonderland and the stilt walkers were dressed accordingly. I love the effort everyone had put into the different floats and costumes and there was a definite party atmosphere so I reckon like it or not Christmas is on us!

I really liked the lanterns, the big Alice ones were really good but I also liked the various little ones and will defo look at how to make one for my window this year.

Oh and we got our first lovely sparkly christmas card yesterday as well so that kinda seals the deal!

I don't usually start christmas until the week before the actual day as it does seem to be a tad over done. I'm not sure I can sustain a festive momentum for five weeks, but in these days of Brexit, Trumpton and controversial X factor contestants we need to enjoy comfort, solace, entertainment where we can so I may dig out the tinsel a little earlier than normal - although the cake still needs a month to mature!

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

verdant lushness

Its a never ending island hop... today we hopped of the boat at Kingstown, on the island St. Vincents and Grenadine. Once through the usual port duty free - cheap booze and diamonds to go milarkey we were straight into the town... crazy noisy smelly chaos... refreshingly no tat shops for tourists, just local markets and street traders all vying for local sales. Music blasting from everywhere, cars (very battered and often very pimped) all over the roads - parked in the middle of the street, loading, unloading, chatting seemingly oblivious to the total traffic jam caused behind them... We walked through this mayhem - the temperatures were rising probably about 30 degrees - tourists evident by trying to walk on the shady side of the street - even when we turned off the main drag and there were less people it was still like carnival time with music blasting everywhere. Its very atmospheric and mostly promotes a good vibe although I have heard '3 little birds' everywhich way a...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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