A little bit of Christmas

We are beginning to get into the spirit of Christmas here at number 6 with some lovely Christmassy smells, outings and decorations.
It all started at the weekend with the Christmas fair at the school I used to teach at - nothing like children to get you in the mood for Christmas, and going back to school is always a pleasure as I just love seeing all the children and parents. My stall was down in one of the dinning rooms and it did seem a little quiet down there compared with being in the main hall but I did get lots of time to talk with people

Sunday saw Becky, myself and Jonathan's girlfriend, Fran on our way to Harrogate to the Country Living Christmas Event and it was everything I hoped it would be! We had been sent some free tickets from Cheryl-ann of Cheryl-ann Taylor Made who we had met at Yarndale, where we discussed wedding head dresses. Armed with some very old ostrich feathers we went straight to find her to continue our discussions (very successfully) with her. Her stand was gorgeous

From there we went for a coffee before looking round. There was so much loveliness everywhere, incredibly creative people. Flossie Teacake was just a couple of stands down from Cheryl, if you remember I went out to her workshop at Eyam in Derbyshire for a free-hand embroidery afternoon, so we stopped to chat with her. It was busy which meant talking photographs was difficult and also some stands don't like pictures being taken. However as we walked in there were a couple of room sets 

I must just mentions a couple of books we looked at on one stand which really delighted us

and

OMG they are so cleverly done, especially if you know the original stories, and who doesn't.

and I'll just add this one in as well which Becky recommends. It's more Y3/4/5 humour but made us laugh.

Since my busy weekend I have found just enough time to fill the house with the smell of chutney and baking. I had aquired several tubs of cranberries from Becky last Christmas which were left over from when they made cranberry vodka, and not liking anything going to waste I had put them in the freezer. I decided that I would make Delia's spiced cranberry chutney

It smelt lovely, lets hope it tastes as good when we can use it in a few weeks time! That's the trouble with chutney you have to leave it to 'mature' so have no idea if it's any good, which is fine if you are keeping it all but I like to give jars of preserves away as presents.

My second nice smell this week is the shortbread Christmas trees that I have made to take down to Cornwall tomorrow (more about that shortly) I bought a set of 3 cutters from 'The Works' for only £2 and have been keen to use them

Success!! last time I made shortbread I rolled it too thin and then let it get too brown but these were 'just right' and tasted good too.

We're not ones to trim up on the 1st December like so many people around (sure more people do it earlier and earlier) but I do have to have the advent calendar that was bought when Charlotte was little up, plus an advent candle and this year I have treated myself to a new Christmas mug

 I'll show you a close up of my mug

I just had to have it as it reminded me of one of our very favourite Christmas stories - 'Christmas in Exeter Street'

Don't the houses look the same? It's a story of how many people come to the house in Exeter Street to be taken in on Christmas Eve by Mrs Maggie Mistletoe, here are just a couple of pages from it

this is how some of them slept, unfortunately you can't see Lily-Loo who was in the kitchen sink

Here is a wonderful review of it that I have just found it with a picture of Lily-Loo in the sink.

You'll realise that I love Christmas story books and when the children were small Father Christmas used to bring them each a new Christmas story each year so we now have a VERY large collection which even now comes out for them to read and take great delight in.

But I digress and back briefly to my baking. I mentioned that I had made them to take to Cornwall for Charlotte as Hurray!! we are off there tomorrow to go down for the Padstow Christmas Festival .We have been for the past 2 years and is a wonderful event, with lots of food (as you might imagine being in Padstow) drink and gifts. There are cookery demonstrations throughout the four days, and I am especially proud as my godson is part of one happening tomorrow - unfortunately we won't be down in time to see him. Last year I watched Tom Kerridge, Phil Vickery, Brian Turner and Paul Ainsworth to name just a few, so am looking forward to Nathan Outlaw and Jack Stein this time. I am also hoping to finish my Christmas shopping by buying some of the lovely goodies on sale. But for now I must bid you goodbye and start my packing. 

Lisbon - Part 2

I had every intention of completing my Lisbon posts last week - where does the time go these days? and I'm sure it'll only go faster over the next few weeks. However having had a restless night I'm up, wrapped up in a thick dressing gown with a coffee and Chris Evans on the radio to complete part 2
Thursday saw us exploring Lisbon, wandering down through the cobbled streets

and stopping for a coffee here at Cafe Brasileira. It's one of the oldest coffee houses in Lisbon, and with the sun shining and street artists performing it was certainly a place I could have spent a couple of hours at.

A bronze statue of Fernando Pessoa, the Portugese poet sits outside, many tourists joined him at his table to have their picture taken whilst we were there.

But onwards and downwards in our case as we made our way to Praça do Comércio, passing a florists with flowers overflowing onto the pavement

and beautiful shop fronts

until we finally reached our destination - you can read about it's history here

After a wander round the square which is now surrounded with restaurants we carried as we were on our way to find a haberdashers mentioned in one of the guide books in our apartment. After leaving the square and walking for a few minutes we found not one but several shops in a row, all selling a huge selections of ribbons, buttons, cottons etc.

The shops had very small frontages but went back and back and back. As with often happens with me I get overwhelmed with all the goods inside and walk out without buying anything, but it was so nice to see shops like this as certainly round where I live there is a real lack of them. By now it was lunch time and we found a small cafe in a back street to sit outside and eat until the rain came!

After lunch we split up and whilst David and Angus went to explore the bars, Charlotte and I went to explore the shops. Re-grouping later we had an hour relaxing before hitting Barrio Alto's night life for food and drink. We started off in a bar called the Old Pharmacy

another wine bar with a huge amount of choice along with rather gorgeous 'nibbles'. 

At night it comes to life with the shelves being lit up with constantly changing colours

From there we wandered into a very small restaurant no bigger than a front room to have another meal of traditional Portuguese food.

We took the car up the west coast on Friday to check the beaches out for their suitability for surfing. We came across some pretty places with fabulous views.

It was warm enough to have lunch outside

 and afterwards a wander round Ericeira, a lovely place seaside town.

 Our final destination for the day was Sintra. It was quite late when we arrived and only had time for a short walk in the old town before we needed to get back to Lisbon, but here is a little flavour. Unfortunately the light was going and we didn't take many photos.

For us it was our final night so we chose to go back to the Old Pharmacy for pre-dinner drinks before we ate.

Although we were leaving the next day it wasn't till the evening so our plan was to go to the big 'flea market' know as Feira da Ladra - 'Thieves market' then have a late lunch before going to the airport early evening. We had intended to get the tram there but they were so busy we walked, a good move as it happened as we would have missed some of these sights.

The market was rather like a car boot sale and it's size meant you had to be very logical about how you walked round it to see it all.

being TinTin fans we just loved this suitcase

The following images are not ours as we were so busy looking at everything we forgot to take photographs.

 

You could get anything for the home somewhere there! On leaving we retraced our steps back to find somewhere to eat. 

We were very lucky as we had just finished when the heavens opened 

and we were forced to take shelter under the door canopy to finish the wine!

 We did get the tram back, a great experience - loved it!!

Unfortunately the rain didn't stop and this was the view from one of the shops we had to take shelter in after we had got off the tram.

 So thus ended our trip to Lisbon and although we didn't get inside the wedding venue (Charlotte and Angus did after we'd left and loved it and it is now provisionally booked for next September) we had a lovely few days and would certainly recommend it for a city break.

Till the next time xx