Ready Steady...

It's raining in the Arse End of Nowhere. It's been raining pretty heavy for many days and thanks to the time of year every droplet carries that icy winter sting that feels like a freezing pin prick on contact.
None of this really matters of course because it's close to Christmas and also because as Billy Connolly once said "There's no such thing as bad weather...just the wrong clothes" Out here we all have the right clothes and these usually include some sort of neck and hand warming device, various hats (of which there will be a blog soon) and multi functional coats.

It's only a few days until Christmas now. I have one more day at work tomorrow and I am picking up my son on Christmas eve from his mum and I have him for the whole week :-D

Everything is ready here, the attic room which was storage has now been made into his room, all presents are either hidden or wrapped and there is about four days worth of dry logs stacked around the fire ready to add the colour, warmth, smell and atmosphere that only a log fire can bring.

 We managed to get a mix of the old and new which suits the cottage quite well. There was a search for holly, which would you believe is quite hard to find in the middle of the english countryside, do we have a national holly shortage or something? However in the end we managed to find some which went very nicely onto the fire held in place by the skulls and the coca cola santa clause's :-)

Those who used to read my old blog will remember that I don't like to cut tree's for Xmas so last year I sprayed a dead twig and hung things from it. I think that may be a Xmas tradition that keeps going with my wonderful new life. This year we went out with the dogs and found a piece of Hawthorn that sprayed up lovely and looks damn fine. It's a bit quirky, but as we keep getting told we are both 'just the right amount of strange', and for the second year running I can happily say that "no tree's were harmed in the making of this Xmas"
It's going to be a very good Christmas in Garrigill, family, warmth and the company of nice people from the village so in the end, who cares if it rains?

Meanwhile the local metropolis of Alston (population 1.800) brushed up the cobbles and set the lights atop the market cross which on dark nights ensures that no trucks drive into it. I'm not quite sure if it would be seen from Google maps though.

See how the road is wet in that picture.....raining.....!!!