FIRST EVER HOMEMADE XMAS PUDDING

Here it is, about to go into the steaming pot. I used the recipe from "Stephanie's Orange Bible". That is an Australian cookbook, which is probably my all time favourite. I halved the quantities to make this one, fairly, large pudding and I went to Tracy at the farm shop to get real suet to grate. Gosh! what a mess that is. It then got mixed and left to stand for a day and then taste-tested for spiciness and into the pot it went. It is cooking for six hours!!! and therefore still needs two and a half more. The sitting room has been painted and I had fancy bits done, like the gilding on the fireplace and the ceiling rose and four colours used for the walls, ceiling and woodwork. It all looks lovely and today Alison came to hang the curtains on the "road" window and a roman blind on the "garden" window.

This is one of those Living Flame gas fires so all I have to do is press a button and it leaps into life and looks for all the world like a real coal fire. I have been cleaning up the marble and D has had a serious go at the copper sheet in front of the grate.

You can see a bit of the blind reflected in the mirror. It's all greener than it looks and the carpet is too. The front yard is progressing. The edging blocks have been laid and lots of bits of brick-laying have been done with old bricks to match the rest. The blocked main grey water drain has been dug up and thrown away cos it was impossible to unblock it and a new one has been laid. Sadly the new bathroom soil pipe will have to go across the front of the house to the old one, but to compensate, lots of smaller pipes can be removed.

But this lunchtime the Staindrop Women's Institute Committee went for lunch at the Morritt Arms at Greta Bridge and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I have been doing the calendar of events for the next year and we had a look at my first drafts. Tomorrow I shall visit another committee member to pick her brains for transforming CLUEDO into a Staindrop version to be tried out at the AGM. If they can transpose Monopoly, why not Cluedo. Just put a map of the village on a board with nine sites, make up six names that sort of ring a bell, develop six methods of dying at the hands of another and play on.

I am well, I am happy, I am busy and the house is turning into a real beauty. Hope all is well with all of you.

Cheers Gillian