2nd Dec day 49 Christmas cake and new park

After Simon had left for work and I was ready for the day I had a catch up with Seb and Cheryl. They were in the process of putting up their Christmas tree, it was lovely to see the lounge with some very tasteful decorations already in place. Seb told me a special story about one of the sheep I knitted for the village sheep hunt. He was thrilled that one of mine has appeared in his school, she has been named Sharon the Sheep. 

Some of you will remember that on the 4th Dec last year one of my best friends Sharon died suddenly at the age of just 41. It was a terrible shock to those of us who loved her and especially her only son Kelvin, who is now 21. He is still very shell-shocked but he is in a steady relationship and I pray daily that in time life will begin to take off again for him. I know it's silly but it gave me pleasure to think of the children enjoying that sheep with her name.

I am delighted Marcus has been successful in passing the entrance exam to Denstone School. He was hoping to go a while ago but there weren't any places, one has recently become available from January. It will be a lot of work and will take some adjustment as they are in school more hours each day, there is also Sat morning school. But on the other hand the school holidays are longer, so it's swings and roundabouts. 

Today was the day to bake a Christmas cake. As you can see from the picture I have brought my treasured recipe with me. There is a story to this tatty piece of paper. 

When I was 17 I got engaged to Gordon Hampson who was a 21 yr old student at Hull University, he had a scholarship from Rolls Royce, so was a very motivated and focused young guy. Anyway with him being away I decided a good use of my time would be to get some cooking lessons. I enrolled on an Economic Cookery course. Most of the people were pensioners looking for ways to live more frugally, but they were such a delightful group of older women, I loved that course. I was away for some reason when they took down the Christmas cake recipe so one of the ladies copied it onto this tatty piece of paper for me and I have used it for all but one of the last 47 years! I have often thought about typing it up but there is something evocative about digging out this precious bit of paper. 

Philippa dropped Nicholas here after school and as he just wanted to watch TV i did various of jobs whilst he was viewing 'nonsense' programmes. I had dinner ready for when Simon got home and then we went to the newly opened park at the bottom of Sylvan Road. 

I realise the picture below looks ridiculous with Simon holding his 10 yr old son, but I had just asked a lady to take a photo of the 3 of us and they started larking around. It was a really happy time for us all.

As we were leaving the park we began the most ridiculous game of tag that we managed to continue in the car, right up to dropping Nicholas back with Philippa. Am still not sure which of us is 'on' it for next time?