Time for sunset walks & moon watching

One of our sunset walks

Over the last few days we’ve been heading outdoors as much as we can. We did do the conventional thing on Saturday and had a look in the sales, but within a few minutes we’d remembered what a waste of our lives it is, and all we bought was one glass tumbler for £3.50.

Every other day, we’ve headed out for a local walk, either in our village or very nearby. No long drives, no unfamiliar routes, just pure leisure! We’ve seen all sorts of birds including a male bullfinch, a flock of long-tailed tits and a little grebe diving on a frosty mill pond, and four graceful deer running across a field very close to us.

Long-tailed tit taking off from the hedgerow

Because our whole days have been pretty leisurely, we haven’t been heading out until the afternoon, so we’ve caught some spectacular sunsets. And then on the way home, we get to see people’s Christmas lights and trees in the dark! We’ve also been much more aware of the moon and how it changes from day to day.

Today we made an earlier start and had breakfast in the woods and enjoyed a full day’s sunshine and light through the trees. A friendly robin visited us to see what we were doing.

This is what the Christmas break means to us – time to appreciate everything around us.

Sunset walk with rooks and jackdaws

Taking the time to notice how the moon changes from day to day

Christmas 2014: cocktail sticks, first aid, and family festivities

We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! Here’s a little bit about ours.

On Christmas Eve, Lucy’s parents came round and we had some snacks. We kept it simple and didn’t try to make everything ourselves, but there were two homemade things. Brian and his son made some cocktail sticks out of poplar wood, which were perfect for sausages:

And for afters, we had cranberry slices – fantastic at any time of year but especially when the cranberries are available fresh. Click here for recipe.

Christmas Day: Well, you can of course plan your Christmas day – as most people do – but as all soap opera watchers know, it doesn’t always unfold to plan! Brian burnt his hand on the oven hob at breakfast time and spent an hour with it in water while we researched first aid online; and at the end of the day’s driving, Lucy did something with the accelerator which made a horrible and worrying noise and smell in the car (update: the car still works today!).

We couldn’t have been better looked after though, as we then had a fantastic family dinner and a warm and festive time with some very generous hosts, thank you to everyone (and thanks for the aloe vera gel which reduced the burn a lot!)

At the end of the day it was time for a fantastic single malt whisky (Penderyn: a small, independent Welsh distiller), lighting the fire, and some emotional Christmas specials on TV!

Today we’ve had as simple a day as possible: A lie-in, plenty of Christmas cake, and a long walk in the village where we saw four deer running through a field, and kept our extremities warm with sips of whisky from a flask!

It has been a Christmas full of warmth and care, and as we now look forward to the rest of our long break (which we’re very fortunate to have), we hope everyone who celebrates Christmas has felt as merry as us.

Cranberry Slices

Ingredients
250g butter
Combination of 50g dark brown sugar, 50g Demerara sugar, 200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
360g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon milk
250g fresh cranberries

For the icing: icing sugar and water

What to do

Preheat oven to 180 C, and line a large baking tray

Melt the butter in a large saucepan on a very low heat, and once melted, mix in the sugars

Remove from the heat, and add the eggs, combine gently

Add the flour and bicarb, and combine gently

Wash and add the cranberries, and mix them in evenly

Finally add a tablespoon of milk to loosen up the mixture

Then pour into the tin and spread out gently

Bake in the oven for around 35 minutes, the top should be golden brown and when you tap the surface, it should sound hard rather than a soft dull thud!

Leave to cool in the tin.

While they are cooling, make up a small amount of icing. The consistency should be that when you lift up a spoon of it, it pours off in a slow, controllable way – you’re going to be making patterns with it on the cakes.

Then slice them into squares and with a spoon, drizzle the icing onto the cakes. Then wait for the icing to set, and enjoy.

For a summer version, use blackcurrants instead of cranberries.

More of What Matters Spending Review: Month 9

So, here we are on the winter solstice, marking the shortest day of the year and coincidentally the last day of our money month number 9.

The good news is that despite the time of year, we really do have some money left over! Not much – just about 8% of our income – but that’s better than nothing. In fact, only about half our extra spending this month was for Christmas, the other half was on unexpected car repairs.

The Christmas spend includes gifts, materials with which to make some gifts, our contribution of drinks for the Christmas dinner this year, and postage of cards.

Our food spend averaged £15 per day, higher than usual but it did include more meals out and takeaways than usual. There were two birthdays this month as well as Christmas coming up.

Here’s what else we spent:

Transport: As well as the big car costs, there were more bus trips than usual due to rain, and Lucy then purchased a season ticket to make this more cost effective. Also 3 fills of petrol.
Luxuries: Printing our regular seasonal mix CDs, and Lucy purchasing a notebook to write down daily goals etc. (bought in nature reserve gift shop as a reward for driving there despite nerves!)
Domestic: An umbrella, batteries, washing up liquid, loo rolls, ink for pens, sellotape and giant laundry liquid which lasts for months
Coal: 7 bags of coal, to last us well into the new year
Toiletries & health: Deodorant, soap, usual items
Gifts: All done – of course we can’t say what they were!

Our home is now decorated for the festive season, including a wonderful gift of some mistletoe. We’ll be trying to get the berries to propagate onto one of the trees in the garden – you can find advice abut doing that here.

Although a lot of bloggers are now looking back on 2014, we are not reviewing the year in this way as our financial & blogging year started in March. This is purely coincidental, but it does fit beautifully with the natural year and seasons. So for us winter is the last quarter of our calendar, and in the coming months we’ll be continuing to channel our resources and time towards what matters most to us: living simply, safely, more lightly on the planet, and happily.

Happy winter solstice!

Our DIY Christmas tree 2014

Here is this year’s DIY Christmas tree, made from branches of one of the alders in our garden tied together with wire and packed into a plant pot. This works perfectly for us because, aside from being free and natural, it fits into our tiny living room and isn’t affected by being close to the fire.

The knobbly bits on the branches provide the perfect hooks for decorations.

Our lights belonged to Lucy’s grandparents in the 1980s so are truly vintage! They are much softer than modern lights and we will try to keep them going for another 30 years.

Our baubles and decorations have been collected over many years and we add one or two more each Christmas. The squirrel above was last year’s new addition.

The pot is disguised with tinsel for extra twinkle!

And because our angel is too heavy for the top of the tree we have a tiny glass fox – this year’s new decoration.

Making and decorating the tree took a wonderful afternoon with santa hats and festive music, we really took our time and enjoyed it, and now we have a very festive home!

 

Loving Winter Evenings

It may be getting dark long before we get home from work, but this year we’ve been making the most of winter evenings.

Our evenings usually begin by lighting the fire. Over the years the way we do this has changed and become more reliable and easy for us both to do. The various stages of the fire-lighting process are our journey into our evening: getting kindling, making the kindling base with bigger bits on top, lighting it, adding bigger wood and coal when the flames get fierce enough, waiting for a hot bed to set in, and then keeping it going frugally.

Then it’s nice to have some treats and telly in the warmth by the fire. This is Brian enjoying one of his favourite combinations: a coffee, some treats, and watching the latest team on the quiz Eggheads say their names and ages. This is entertaining because the studio lighting (we assume) often makes them look a lot older than they are, which can be very satisfying!

Guessing the age of the contestants on Eggheads

It’s easy to feel like you have to eat stodgy, heavy meals in the winter, but we’re trying to avoid this and make more use of our wok and vegetable-based light dinners. When a bigger meal is what we fancy, we go for one where there will definitely be enough for two nights, such as spaghetti Bolognese – this is our vegetarian version with mushrooms and carrots, and whole-wheat spaghetti, so even this isn’t too heavy.

Other things we enjoy like reading blogs and watching online videos, yoga, and just having a good conversation together are all extra cosy on winter evenings. And it’s definitely the best time of year for savouring the moment of getting into a lovely comfy bed!

Commuting in the dark is harder to love. For Lucy travelling by bicycle when the weather allows, safety and fun is increased massively by investing in some awesome lights. These fit on the wheel spokes and flash multi-coloured patterns as you go, and make you feel like you’re riding a Christmas tree on wheels!

It’s been mild this year so far and we haven’t had to deal with bitter cold, ice or snow. But, if we set out every day with the intention to love the season, whatever its weather and challenges, we can enjoy every winter day. Like this, in 2013:

Our longest icicle competition on the living room window!