Merry Christmas

Take a look at what I got for Christmas! My babies are positively huge! Actually they belong to the very hard working Mr and Mrs Blackbird (Johnny said he saw a pair of thrushes feeding them, but unless they are an interspecies family, he got it wrong). There were four eggs and, to this point, there are four impressively sized baby birds. They are the strong, silent type, and hunker down peering back at me with their beady little eyes when I take a peek into their nest. I think they've got used to it now because they never look panicked when I'm nearby, and their parents have given up on the raucous alarm cries too. My raspberry patch is taking a hammering to feed the greedy hoard before the fruit is even ripe. I threw some bird netting over the top, but I'm sure that won't give them any trouble whatsoever.

Johnny scrambled up into the attic space to hunt out my Christmas tree. I had lots of fun putting it up while Johnny and The Crafty Neighbour reclined on the couches making "helpful" suggestions about where I needed to fill gaps. My tree is multi-coloured, mainly because I'm not keen on spending heaps to purchase the latest fashion in decorations each year. Plus I meant to buy clear fairy lights, but accidentally got colourful ones. They are very pretty. I especially love bird decorations, and buy them when I see particularly lovely ones.

I got two small strips of interesting Christmas fabric from the remnant bin at Cottonfields a couple of months ago. I was trying to decide what to make when I was suddenly inspired to make a Christmas cushion for the living room to go one of the new chairs. The colours in the lounge are traditional red Christmas colours, but red doesn't go with the softer colours in the living room, and this matches perfectly. I like the little reindeer.

I had three strips leftover, and I've been wanting to make tiny bunting flags for ages so got out the pinking shears and a long strip of ribbon. The bunting is over two metres long, and I have no idea where to hang it as I don't want to stick it to the wall and mark the paint. The bunting is so sweet, and I would definitely make it again, even though it was rather fiddly.

Today I planted carrot, pea and pak choy seeds, plus clipped the box hedging and did some serious tidying up in the garden. The poppies are getting scruffy and leggy, so I decided to pull out the worst offenders and cleaned up the dried out bulb foliage. As I was scruffling around in some daffodil leaves a mouse popped out and raced across the lawn, right between Miss Dog's legs and into the undergrowth. She didn't even notice. I hope the dear wee creature doesn't enter the "man vs mouse" war zone, that is our house. It wouldn't stand a chance against Johnny's arsenal of lethal poison pellets and traps.

We've got the end of year production tomorrow and Tuesday. I'm going to need all of the patience, calmness and organisational skills I can summon up. Grim. I hope the children have fun and don't get too bored, stressed, hot or otherwise bothered, or there will be trouble. I'm very excited about the upcoming holidays as I'm in a highly creative phase at the moment. I've got one more show jumping judging session. I did about half of the judging last week. It was great fun. I hope to do some horsey stuff in the holidays too.

Have a great week. Eat a candy cane, purchase or make a new decoration for the Christmas tree, and don't forget your sunblock (read "thermal underwear" if in the Northern Hemisphere). XXX