New Year yumminess!

I made a puff pastry tart with caramelised onions, spinach, roasted tomatoes, courgettes and goat's cheese for the non-meat component of our New Year's Eve dinner. It was gorgeous!

A winter wedding...

My friends Gareth and Karen got married and we all had a lovely day - it was a bit of a shame that the snow had all gone by their big day, but on the other hand I think it was probably for the best! It definitely made things easier in terms of outfit decisions!

Yet more lovely food!

My Somerset friends and I try to go out for a bit of a Christmas celebration, and this year the venue was the Mount Somerset Hotel. They were nice enough to give us a room all to ourselves, and as you can see we all enjoyed the food!

Merry Christmas!

A beautiful white one! I was lucky enough to get up just in time to see a gorgeous sunrise, and then I took a photo of the amazing sunny and snowy view on the way to our friends' house. And then there's my pile of presents - I was thoroughly spoilt!

Our Finnish Christmas Feast!

Having a Finn staying over Christmas means you get two Christmases! Yay! In Finland the big celebration is on Christmas Eve, and as we wanted to make my sister's chap feel at home we made sure we had lots of traditional fare. Smoked salmon, herring, Rosolli salad, baked ham, boiled potatoes and two special casseroles made from swede and carrot. It was amazing!

Ah, it's Christmas...

...crisps and wine? Yes please!

And just when we thought there was enough snow...

...yet more turned up and we were snowed in! Our house is on a hill, and we couldn't get the cars down the driveway, let alone tackling the snowy country lanes!

This week's Weekword will be chosen by...

...Sally at Diario! Have a look at her blog to see what she chooses!

Snow, snow and more snow!

I have no idea how we all made it down to Somerset for Christmas. My sister and her boyfriend arrived just before the snow hit on the 17th, my dad's flight back from Germany was delayed and he ended up being on one of the last flights to actually get to Heathrow on the 18th and thankfully the trains were OK for me to get home on the 19th! And I arrived to a snowy winter wonderland, which was very festive indeed!

Weekword: Christmas!

I was in charge of choosing this week's Weekword, and I chose Christmas! I love Christmas - I love all the decorations and festivities and especially the food and drink! This year is a bit different in my family - we'll have a Finn with us, and they celebrate on Christmas Eve, so we'll have a Finnish Christmas on the 24th and an English Christmas on the 25th!

So here are a few photos of my favourite things about Christmas...

The decorations on my little tree:



Christmas snow-capped biscuits:



The lovely sparkly Christmas lights near my house:



And finally, our dearly departed dog Basil, who loved Christmas (especially opening presents!)



Have a look at the following blogs to see who else is playing!

Silver Linings 4 Me
Sow and Sew
carola bARTz
Domestic Scribbles
La Vie Quotidienne
Simply Cool Stuff
Musings in Mayhem
TEXTILSPANIELN
Mandyland

Weekword: CHRISTMAS!

Joye asked me to think up this week's Weekword, and I just couldn't resist choosing Christmas as it's rapidly approaching!

If you'd like to participate, just leave a comment on this post. Then on Friday, post your Weekword contribution on your own blog. I'll post a list of all the participants so that we can all see what everyone comes up with!

Oh. My. God.

That would be a bourbon chocolate pot with crème fraiche. I went to the Duke of Cambridge in Islington for lunch with a few friends - it's the UK's only fully organic gastropub, and while it is Yummy Mummy heaven and therefore packed with small children and enormous pushchairs, the food is incredible. I had half a baked camembert with bread and chutney, beetroot goulash with rice, a root vegetable coleslaw and garlic yogurt, and that amazing chocolate pot. I can't remember the last time I ate that much!

Weekword: Synaesthesia

Joye suggested this week's word - synaesthesia. If you're thinking 'you what??' (which is quite understandable!) it's a sort of condition where people see different words or numbers as different colours or shapes. A sort of mixing of the senses. Someone might hear the word 'happy' and see yellow, for example.

I didn't think I had it, until I happened to mention to someone that, for me, words have personalities. Anything beginning with 'st' is frowning and stern. Anything beginning with 'sm' is nasty and slimy and creepy. But words beginning with 'ch' are quite relaxed and happy. And apparently that counts as synaesthesia!

I'm hosting Weekword next week, so come back on Monday to see which word I'll choose!

Frozen photos...

...from our Sunday walk around Emsworth. The pond was frozen!

Invasion of the Father Christmas hats...

A group of us try to get away for a weekend once a year around Christmas, and this year the festivities started slightly early! Those Father Christmas hats left fluff everywhere...!

Freezing...

...I think we had a top temperature of -2 today. We didn't really have any more snow, but the snow we've had over the last couple of days is still around, all iced over.

Footprints in the snow...

We finally had a half-decent covering of snow in west London overnight...before this we'd just had a pathetic sprinkling! We still haven't got anything like the snow other parts of the country have had, but at least ours is just about deep enough to leave footprints in now!

Joulukalenteri...

That's a Finnish advent calendar! I can't believe it's December already - although the weather's doing a pretty good job of reminding me!