Upon a Winters Night

It's Christmas Eve - Merry Christmas!

We've had a very busy month. It's been extremely wet, but luckily on a few important dates it didn't rain so it's been a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. We had our usual trip to Oxford and I had some delicious tofu Singapore noodles in the Gloucester Green street market.

Then bought a few pressies at the Christmas Market before having a cuppa in the Covered Market - visiting some of my favourite places in the City.

The beautiful Elisabeth Convent (Belarus) convent - I should have bought more there

Back in Hungerford we saw Will Young (local singer) switch on our lovely Christmas lights and enjoyed the Christmas Extravaganza, including being in the lantern parade - this year we made the HAHA lanterns in the shape of snails.

 

Somebody paid me £4 for mine at the end of the parade! I gave it to The Big Issue seller.

Kerry's is now residing on her plot - although it's a skeleton again because the rain removed all the paper.
We managed to avoid rain at the Newbury lantern parade - huge compared to the Hungerford one, but we're hoping ours will grow and more people join in in future years.

It's been a very wet Autumn/Winter so far.

 

That's not the allotment. It's the River Kennet in Hungerford which is very full and fast-flowing at the moment. We did actually visit the plot yesterday and it was very soggy, although it was a crisp clear blue sky day. We only visited to pull some carrots for our, now traditional, carrot lox which we'll have on Christmas Day. We have our big Christmas meal late this evening.

Here's the latest addition to our Christmas tree. Unfortunately we had to buy sprouts but we may get some from the plot for another meal this Christmas.

We had lovely visits to family and lots of shopping trips. And this is a photo from our window as the sun set at the end of the shortest day of 2019. Hooray, we're on the way back up now - but I wouldn't mind a bit of snow before Christmas holiday is over (or maybe just at the end of the holiday so I can't drive to work)!

Here's a lovely version of this song performed by Cara Dillon. Enjoy and Happy Christmas!

Spaceman

50 years on from the first man on the moon I figure space deserves a mention on my blog.

Of course, this isn't a spaceman, but he looks like one to me.

We had a trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford yesterday.

What an amazing place - so much to see!

Too much, on the hottest day of the year at 30°.

I loved all the masks and figurines - apologies for the quality of photos, the glass cases make it tricky.

The whole place was stacked full of interesting artifacts, though we missed the shrunken heads. Some were just plain freaky!

Bad photo - but you get the gist

The Museum of Natural History was interesting too. Not just the architecture.

I loved seeing all the skeletons, particularly the huge ones. But not keen on all the stuffed birds and animals.

We went up the Carfax Tower. Those 99 spiral staircase steps were hard work, but worthwhile.

So lovely to see the Dreaming Spires from that height.

And be above the crowds in that heat.

It was so hot that we actually didn't buy anything (apart from food). It was just too hot to be shopping!

Aah, such a lovely day. Back to my birthplace on my birthday.
And the song is by Babylon Zoo.

Always Something There to Remind Me

10 years ago this week I had my kidney transplant - I try not to go on about it too much, but I figure 10 years of a much-improved life is worth a highlight. My pills keep my kidney and the rest of my body working and working together.

There are a lot of pills, but they're just part of the daily routine so no problem - and if it keeps me away from dialysis for a few more years I'll be very happy to keep on taking them. To mark my 10th anniversary I'm saving up all my 10 pence pieces to give to the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association in a years time. And, since mentioning it on Facebook, I've had so many generous offers from friends and family that I think I'll need a bigger collection pot!

As a kidney patient under the Oxford Churchill Hospital I am extremely well looked after. I have a blood test every 3 months (more if I feel that I need something checked out) and can look up my own results within a couple of days using PatientView - it's brilliant. Then the following week I see my consultant to discuss my results, how I'm feeling, any issues and whether my pills need altering. It's a very smooth system, for me.

Thank goodness for our NHS! Where would we (I) be without it? Well I can guess, and it's not a happy place and I wouldn't have a lovely allotment to play about on!

Please support the NHS and sign up for organ donation if you can - thanks for reading.

Song title courtesy of various people but I couldn't find a good video, so here's a Sandie Shaw version...

Song for a Friend

I had such a lovely day with my friends yesterday - a day in Oxford and in particular the Botanic Garden.

The oldest botanic garden in Britain - founded in 1621!

It has 7 glass houses with different climates from the fernery to the arid cacti house. I particularly liked the insectovores house.

The laid out gardens and these amazing meadows are so beautiful!

And the walled border, which was planted up 10 years ago - wow!

The sun shone for much of the day, after a grey wet start which would have upset our open-top bus ride!

My lovely buddies - good luck in Switzerland Sarah!

 Thank goodness for the sunshine as it makes for much more colourful photos!

So, we had a great day with lunch at The Vaults and later a cream tea in the oldest coffee house in Britain, The Grand Hotel. 

Such a beautiful city

It was a fab send-off for Sarah who's moving to Switzerland. Today's title song is for her by her favourite, Roddy Frame.

One Week To Go...

It's been a very festive December so far, which is an excuse for not visiting the allotment and not blogging for 3 weeks.

We put the Christmas tree up at the beginning of the month - we're using our fake one this year, but it's pretty realistic, and we added some pine scent. All our favourite baubles and decorations are on there: Some recent additions... Some home-made....Others which we've had since our first Christmas together 28 years ago... And some that I've had since I was little...

We put our window lights up ahead of Hungerford's Victorian Extravanganza and enjoyed mulled wine, hot donuts and roasted chestnuts amongst the beautifully decorated town lights.

We had our annual ride on the big wheel before watching the excellent fireworks display.

We had a shopping trip to Oxford. It's so beautiful, even in the pouring rain, and has such interesting shops.

I love Oxford. I was born there and my original hospital and Renal Unit are there so I've had a long relationship with the city. I have so many memories of visiting the city with my mum and the whole family used to have Christmas shopping trips there.

We went to the Newbury lantern parade, which was a delight.

There must have been a thousand home-made lanterns following the excellent drummers. I wish Hungerford would copy the idea for our parade!

I've attended a couple of Christmas events at work and had a lovely lunchtime visit to Millets Farm Christmas shop in Oxfordshire - definitely worth a visit.
Also our annual HAHA committee Christmas meal at The Bear in Hungerford - unfortunately Jamie couldn't come because he's been the unlucky one with the cold this year :-(

That's what I call a veggie Christmas meal - Red Cabbage & Apple roulade instead of meat

Now I need to wrap more pressies, post the rest of our Christmas cards and enjoy 3 more days at work before Christmas really starts! And is there a possibility of snow? Oh, I really hope so!!