BLEAK MIDWINTER

It was a dark and stormy night..... no it wasn't....it was a bitterly cold afternoon.
We had no commitments and little enthusiasm for leisurely pursuits.



So we went out in to the cold and....

found this beautiful Chinese shelter.





Our attempts to bring it home failed and so we meandered into a glass house and spotted a...
lot of nice orchids...Aaaah! And then we had a coffee and went home wagging our tails behind us. (If you have a 2 year old in your house they may appreciate this entry even if you dont! They feel the cold too you know.)

MAKING BREAD

The edible kind, not money.

Barbara moved over and let me use our joint present from Si this weekend. Piece of cake - so to speak. Load up the ingredients, yeast first, and then masculine skills come to the fore with selection of options by various button presses, wait four hours, and then hey presto it is ready.

Oh dear, in flipping between pages started loading up the ingredients for a Basic white instead of a Banana and muesli loaf. Don't panic, consult the oracle and she says there is a way round it so it gets raisins and hazelnuts instead of banana chips and muesli. Then the technical bit and take a breather while the machine does it stuff.

Meanwhile our oracle visits the kitchen and notes that, owing to a clumsy layout of the instructions, a Bake option has been selected instead of Bake raisin. More consultation. She decides to listen out for a pause in the kneading phase and tip in the nuts and raisins at a, probably, sub optimal moment. The opportunity arises, nuts etc go in and a lovely baking smells come out of the kitchen a few hours later.

Now dear reader, do I detect some scepticism about the result?? Disaster in your mind? Shame on you!





Just look at it. It has a nice crust, slightly sweet taste, dense texture. Just right for breakfast. Can you smell it?

Piece of cake...er ... bread.

STRANGE WEEKEND

It started on Friday when I had the remains of a tooth gouged out. No in truth earlier, when this monstrosity loomed into view from the kitchen window. Allegedly it is shrouded, allegedly for a first floor extension but it is actually covering the third floor of a nearby old peoples' home. We have got in touch with the Planning authority by email with photo evidence, and they say they will take a look it and let us know. My betting is that the owner has a skyscraper in mind.









Anyway, Saturday has been a grey and wet one, but it was enlivened on a country walk when we spied an even more apparent planning contravention. A small house with a long wall is being built in a very bold position in a field near the quaint viallge of Shere. Then we spotted the sign:

and this curious wall:


It is probably made of plastic and painted over.

Anyway we had a chat with a chap on the site who appeared to be a close friend of Gwynneth Paltrow despite his casual attire - a navy blue woolly hat, flourescent waist coat, boots etc. Apparently she will be in a film that will be partly shot there at the end of February. The whole area will then be covered with artificial snow which apparently will be made of bio-degradeable paper. Filming will take place at the end of February and, for the sum of only £50, our new friend said he would introduce us to a certain well-known star providing we wear T shirts with the slogan COLDPLOY on them. This is so he can easily spot us when we arrive.

This is what the plastic and chipboard film house looks like at present:

We will report back in February, probably from Cannes, Mustique LA or whatever, perhaps by mobile phone in the back of a stretch limo.

WOKING LIGHTS UP

For some reason Woking celebrated Christmas more brightly than ever this year.

Diana thought they might be due to expatriate Americans. Maybe so. The ones above and to the left were on two of four houses in a small cul-de-sac that probably belong to Italians.







But the best display was a homemade one by a local chap who has been doing it for some years. Here is this year's effort

















He did it largely by creating a display based largely on coloured cards and then illuminating them, rather than by using coloured lights only. i.e. organic rather than processed.

Have you seen any better?