christmases

that was the view i woke up to on christmas morning. no white christmases here, nuh-uh. went down south to spend the day with badly coloured boy's families. unlike my own family, which has turkey and ham and hot roast vegetables every year, there was seafood present at both the christmas meals we had (one christmas day, one boxing day). oysters featured prominently at both, which was a bit odd for me, as i haven't encountered them since i was about ten. here are some of the oysters naturale hanging about the in the fridge.


they were also served kilpatrick and rockefeller, and were accompanied by The Walrus and the Carpenter poem on Boxing Day. I still don't enjoy them very much, but I do like the way they smell of the sea. boxing day involved crayfish tails too, something else I haven't eaten in a decade or so. yum. I can kind of see why people do seafood for Christmas now.

christmas afternoon i went bareback riding at the beach, on one of badly coloured boy's mum's horses. actually, while i was technically on the horse's back, someone else held the bridle for me... i've only ridden a couple of times before in my life. i enjoyed the barebackness alot though. easier than balancing on a saddle, i think. there would have been photos of me and Psycho Bob (the horse. ironically named because he so reliable), but i forgot to take my camera to the beach. i managed to be the only person stung by a jellyfish, and given that i was in the water for a mere five minutes, and others spent hours down there, that didn't feel very fair.

oh, and just because I can, here is my fabulous weekender bag, and the book I took down for some light holiday reading. The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton. A most fascinating read, though the author isn't quite as skilled a writer as Antonia Fraser.


My only craft-related Christmas gift (and what a gift it was!) was a set of five fat quarters of Moda Fabric (thanks to Miss Meshell for identifying it!) Anyway, they're all complementary colours (luckily the store packages them up. Badly Coloured Boy is colourblind (hence his name), so picked out a package with a print I'd said I liked, assuming the rest of the bundle was nice too. Polka dots on green, the alphabet on green, two colourways of little ribbon flowers, and tape measure print (my favourite). Most will go towards a Glamourous Needle Roll, the scraps will go towards my chair cushion.