A taste of Germany

We awoke to clear skies and a frosty morning, with beautiful patterns etched in ice on the conservatory roof again. We have been putting the heating on all day at the moment, and I dread to think what our gas bill will be! The house is horrible when it's cold, though! Keith ventured out to get a newspaper, and we settled down to watch a little of Saturday Morning Kitchen.

Sophie and I spent the rest of the morning packing and sorting out things for Normandy. The weather is going to turn milder with rain forecast, so it won't be bitterly cold.

Sophie also bustled about peeling vegetables for tonight's supper of German soup - we decided to go the whole hog and have frikadellen and dark rye bread to start as well! It was lovely to stay at home and keep warm and not go anywhere. I caught up with a lot of jobs and by mid-afternoon, we had time to indulge in a face pack while watching television. First thing this morning, I started watching The Roses starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, so I finished watching the film this afternoon. It was enjoyable, and I didn't realise it was a remake of The War of the Roses starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas from 1989.

Before dinner, I sat and watched a couple of episodes of Ever Decreasing Circles, and Sophie finished her latest book. She then prepared our starter of Frikadellen and bread, served with mustard and cornichons. In the background, on the computer, she played a YouTube video of a walk in Berlin in the snow, filmed shortly after we were there. It was wonderful to see, and the walk went from Alexanderplatz to halfway down Unter Den Linden. It was fantastic to see the Nikolai Quarter in the snow and Museum Island, which we haven't really explored much. It was like being back there!

The starter was so filling that we decided to postpone the soup until tomorrow, and we continued watching Berlin videos all evening!