Wrapped

Having done preparations for a Teams meeting I was chairing later in the morning, I grabbed an hour's walk along the river to make the most of the unexpected frost. It was utterly beautiful, with a light mist swirling over the river, and each of the many seed-heads draped with the webs of a myriad of unseen spiders. The melting frost, which had formed droplets on the hawthorn and rose bushes, twinkled like a million fairly lights. 

The meeting went successfully, apart from one or two minor technical glitches, and I was then free to spend the afternoon preparing for our Thanksgiving meal. We don't normally celebrate this (having absolutely no American connections) but this winter we're taking the opportunity to celebrate everything, and felt it was appropriate to give thanks to the people of the United States for comprehensively voting Trump out of office. 

It was a lovely family evening - five of us sat down to a small turkey crown, with garlic and herb mashed potato, cranberry sauce, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts and lots of gravy, accompanied by some really buttery cornbread made by Ben and Sarah. We finished the meal with an excellent pumpkin pie (though we actually used butternut squash) that Ben and I made - it almost looked good enough for Bake Off! The tasty food was accompanied by Cajun music, followed by a selection of our favourite classical pieces. Great fun and a wonderful start to the festive season...