Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 24 December 2017

Great photos again Clare. I took my Friends who were staying to Lunch in Aldeburgh today. I will have a look out for the snow buntings next time I am in.

Thank you, Clare - I hope I managed to catch a great crested grebe and a couple of swans this afternoon!  I always enjoy your pictures, and the comments.  Thank you for keeping us entertained.

Pat O said:

I hope I managed to catch a great crested grebe and a couple of swans this afternoon!

Oh dear, -2.5C and falling rapidly - courtesy of my weather station. When it disagrees with the Met Office forecast it is generally right due to our location. When it agrees OOPS!

A cold night ahead, ForestBoar.  But warmer weather to come, at the weekend. 

Our meal was fine, and it was almost in spite of the dual preparation: my OH likes to take charge of the roast meat and the roast potatoes, and leaves me to fuss over all of the accompaniments - we have carrots, sprouts, and sweetcorn, and roasted parsnips. Then there is apple sauce, bread sauce, gravy, and cranberry sauce. The most important, for me, is also the stuffing, which I cook separately from the bird.  In order to get it all ready together there is much jostling around the stove!

We just ate the last of the turkey tonight, cut up with chunks of the big ham we had cooked, and covered in white sauce. The other half of the bird is in the freezer.

Our Youngest says that they are now back home, after an eventful time at his in laws: they have all had bad colds and not eaten much. Rather a damp squib of a Christmas for them. We don't know when we will go and visit them with their presents, as they are all weary, and also we're not keen to catch their germs.

Pat, your holiday sounds very exciting. I hope you'll tell us all about it afterward.

Everyone in UK, keep warm tonight!

(EDIT -- enjoyed your pics, Clare!)

LINDY- It seems,as if you and your OH coped magnificently with your oven failure. Congratulations. I'm pretty sure that there would have been a major panication if it happened here. It did, many years ago, I'll tell you about it another time!

Thanks to all for your news. I'm in bed,pretty tired, have left the Danes downstairs, watching a James Bond film.

Lindy: It sounds like you handled the oven crisis with great aplomb. Well done.

PatO: That will be a very interesting trip for you. I hope you enjoy it. 

Clare: Your photos were wonderful! I loved the geese.

Heather: I hope you enjoy your time with your Danish friends. I just read an article about Danish culture and how different it is (in a good way) from American culture. 

Annette: My area is being warned to expect the coldest temperatures since the last polar vortex in 2014. The actual temp will be -15F or -26.1C by New Year's night. This cold snap will last at least a week. 4 inches of snow coming tomorrow, so I'm glad I stocked up on groceries.

I'd planned to go on a First Day Nature Hike at the local state park on New Year's Day, but I've cancelled that idea! I'm going to the library tomorrow morning and get a book to read, and I'm staying in for the foreseeable future.

Hope your community is returning to normal. I saw several news stories about folks cleaning up the ash. 

Good  Morning, All. Raining quite hard here -- it's sleet, really. Nearby areas have heavy snow so I guess we're lucky.

Thanks for the congrats on our dinner crisis which we averted:  once upon a time I would have shrieked, especially as we had guests. But with age comes a kind of sensibility - as I said to my son at the time, it was only a dinner - we had a house full of food so could have had cold meat & veg, or bacon & egg, even! I reminded everyone that when we sit down to our feast I'm always aware that others are not so fortunate.