A Christmas Eve walk

I had warned Sophie last night to perhaps leave going to the gym today, but she insisted she wanted to go. I got up with her as I needed to move the cars, and it was thoroughly miserable getting into my freezing vehicle to move it. Luckily, the rain had stopped but it was about 3c, so quite cold and frosty.

As I backed the car down the driveway, I heard an ominous scraping noise, and for one terrible moment, I thought I had another puncture. I stopped the car and got out to take a look but instead of a flat tyre, there was a sheet of plastic lying on the driveway. It had obviously fallen from underneath the car and was the shield protecting the underside from the elements. Driving through all the water yesterday must have dislodged it...

I backed the car out again, told Sophie to be really careful, and waved her off. Inside I had just made myself a coffee when the phone rang. It was Sophie to say that she was coming home - the water in Holcot was almost impassable, and with the problem with my car, she decided the fates were against her! I was relieved because I'd been reading on Facebook about all the floods in our area, and the police were warning people not to drive through floodwater on the roads.

With Sophie safely back home we had a very relaxed and lazy morning. Mike was off work as well as the golf club was underwater, and the bunkers resembled ponds. His manager had sent him some photos of the course, and had said that a man had gone fishing at the lake they have nearby, and had nearly drowned!

But what a contrast the weather was today! Clear blue skies, sunshine and a cold wind replaced the murk and mild temperatures of yesterday. It was lovely to relax and mooch about, and Keith and I had breakfast while watching a very interesting programme about wartime Christmases. Sophie was working until 12.30pm when we planned to go for a walk.

It was so cold I even wore gloves today! The wind was bitter but it was so refreshing to be out and having a walk. We went down to the village, and then along a single track road out towards the route that was flooded yesterday. Along the way, Sophie picked up some white felt-like material that had been discarded in the hedgerows, so we did our bit by disposing of it in the village hall bin!

We decided to walk along to the end of the road and called Keith to ask us to pick us up. We didn't fancy walking back on the main road into the village, and we didn't fancy retracing our steps either, as it was so cold.

It didn't take us long to reach the end of the road, and Keith appeared in Sophie's car. The water had gone from the road, and it was amazing to think it had been there yesterday! We went home, had a veggie sausage bap for lunch, and talked about our plans for New Year's Day. There will be no trip out to Oxfordshire or Cambridgeshire, or even the Cotswolds, with a pub lunch this year as our surrounding counties are mostly in Tier 4, and even in our Tier, the pubs and restaurants will be closed. We tentatively discussed going to Towcester to have a walk, and then maybe having a fish and chip lunch, eating it out of the paper as Sophie always wanted to do!

After lunch, Sophie and I made Tiramisu for dessert tomorrow, and I started on the preparations for some nutty, chocolatey cakes that I wanted to make as a treat. I managed to catch the last 45 minutes of It's A Wonderful Life and then jumped into the bath. Keith wanted to play cards tonight, so I finished off the cakes, and we called the children down to have a drink and gather in the conservatory.

Dinner tonight was our Tesco Finest meal, and it was lovely not to have to do loads of preparation - we just put it all in the oven! After we'd eaten we watched Elf, which was a lovely end to a wonderful day!