birdy din dins

Christmas is upon us, as they say, like some kind of weight. I quite like christmas although I'm not really sure why. The novelty of "going home" for christmas wore off a very long time ago and I've had several spent on my own whilst doing lots of the overtime that was available when I worked at selfridges. This was actually quite nice. Last year we only saw Ralphs mum and dad which was nice too. We had to try and get Roger to buy a whole sea bass with it's head still on, which was funny, and in the end we bought it.

So this year, the first in out new house as a family with cats all around, will more than likely be a low key affair. This is nice. I've only really been thinking about it for about the last week. Ralph is not much into all the nonsense and I can't really find a reason for it all either.

I do like the tree, the feast and the present giving.

With this in mind I've been thinking a lot about wanting a festival for something I can actually find meaning in. They were debating all this on the moral maze last night and the way people talk is totally ridiculous. There was a nice lady on saying how we should have a little bit of thought for the impact of all our excess and she was pretty much made out to be a hater of fun. I had a little look at some history about pagans and such which is nearer the mark but nothing is going to make me feel the need to worship any kind of god or godess.

I like it when the leaves turn, when buds grow, when it stars to get light again. That is it. And I think that is a lot.

I like it when I suddenly see mushrooms everywhere.

At work I collected some windfall twigs and went looking for evergreen trees in the park. Ranger Alan and I went out to find some holly but our children's scissors were too weedy to actually get some, I'm going to go back. I had the thought that I would hake a nice winter wreath for our front door because that seemed like a nice thing to do with all the things that were around. And that seems to me more like a proper celebration of the time of year.

Seasons greetings!

So I've started planning the festive dinner. I like to get something new and a bit exciting and think of it as a good time to experiment with an exciting recipe. I was looking for some game to order on the interweb. I'm so scared of the actual butchers shops, they seem to leave no room to think and work out what you want. I need to get brave. I came across lots of places selling multi bird roasts at crazy prices so found this to tell me how to do it myself.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/dec/16/multi-bird-roast-videos

So when I went to sainsbury's I got this duck, it's half price, so it's in the freezer waiting.

Duck-chicken-other small wild bird.