Christmas preparations!

Today has been much busier than yesterday - it certainly hasn't been a sleepy Sunday!

Mikey went off with his friends again this morning and before Sophie started work we had to call into Booker to get some essentials that were needed by Maureen. We dashed around, dropped the stuff and Sophie off at work and drove to Pitsford as we were going to do half of the nature reserve.

The foggy, drab morning had turned increasingly cloudy and as we neared the reservoir it started raining... However, by the time we'd parked the car it had stopped thank goodness. I didn't fancy walking for two hours in pouring rain!

The walk was pretty hard going as the ground was soft and muddy in places and piles of leaves covered the track. It was very quiet (and pretty eerie too!) and we didn't see much wildlife at all, although Keith said he did spot a deer in the distance and a squirrel ran across the path at one point. We saw a couple of panicky pheasants but no other walkers at all, not even when we got to the fields behind our house.

After getting home we drove back in my car to get the little Honda and then it was home for some lunch and time to prepare the dinner and the Christmas cake. It took me almost an hour to mix all the ingredients for the cake and when I had everything in the bowl it was very heavy to mix! I'd added some mixed nuts this time and when it was cooking the smells were delicious! I think we're going to find it hard to resist eating it until New Year's Eve but it has to be "fed" every week for six weeks with alcohol to make it all moist and even more delicious!

After I picked Sophie up from work we called into Costa Coffee and treated ourselves to a hot chocolate and three of the tiny little Christmas cakes (between us, I hasten to add!). It was lovely to relax for half an hour after my busy day!