I was going to do my usual pre-PUD post today and then thought that I'd rather be lazy and just do a photo dump brag. With a photo dump. We had a quiet day and, as I usually do, spent Christmas day getting ready for supper. We had two guests which forced me to pay attention. I'm grateful for that.
More than that, I am so proud and grateful for our garden bounty. All the salads that went with our supper were either entirely from our own earth, or included something from "our" earth.
I am particularly thrilled with the beetroot. The last crop was a disaster. We don't know why. Perhaps the garden's responding to our increasingly better frame of mind. And The Husband's new inclination to do moon planting. Which reminds me. I think it's lapsed which may be why some of the new plantings may not be thriving the way he'd like.
When we have guests who are camera and social media-shy, I don't snap photos when they're here. Consequently, I don't have photos of the salads. I'll try to replicate them in the coming weeks and share them then. Trish, my potter market pal was one of our guests and was thrilled to see "her" ceramics "in action".
This was the twenty fifth turkey that The Husband and I have done together on our Weber. This time because one of our guests had a genetic condition that means he can eat no glucose or lactose, for the first time - ever - the stuffing was an entirely meaty affair. In fact the meal saw no wheat flour or dairy. At. All.
Oh, and for the carnivorous curious, the stuffing was pork mince with onion, garlic, dried apricots and rosemary.
A necessary digression
What follows are part of my Christmas garden walk.
Plenty of plums still hanging around to ripen and for the picking (by the birds if we don't get to them soon enough...)
The basil is getting as prolific (not quite) as I had hoped. I'm looking forward to making pesto to stash for the winter. These leaves went with the tomatoes and beans and the parsley with the potato salad.
Our really festive felines - the boys, Rambo and Gandalf, lay-abouts while the Princess was "out".
Umm...actually, Rambo was really helpful...
While I teapotted flowers from the garden so their scent happied up the bathroom.
Back to Christmas - the table
Like the tree, it was simple
There was nothing new or disposable.
Flowers and almost seed heads from the garden with beach pebbles and sparkly fur cone gifts from a stall holder, a year ago.
A reason to use some of the crystal from my parents' wedding presents. We don't use it often because I don't trust Daisy the dishwasher with it.
My wish for you all is that if you celebrate, your Christmas day was one that was as you wished. And that it was peaceful and happy.
Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa
Photo: Selma
Post script
If this post might seem familiar, it's because I'm doing two things:
- re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine....?
- and "re-capturing" nearly two years' worth of posts.
- From Wordpress, I use the Exxp Wordpress plugin. If this rocks your socks, click here or on on the image below to sign up.
- Join Hive using this link and then join us in the Silver Bloggers' community.
Original artwork: @artywink
- lastly, graphics are created using partly my own photographs, images available freely available on @hive.blog and Canva.