Frozen balls

A winter-wonderland greeted me this morning as I, bright-eyed, hurled back the shutters... (Or rather in reality, after an exhaustingly long dream about being back at College after a gap of many years and coping with having the kids in my room, despite the fact that all my College friends were still 20, I shambled to the kitchen for some restorative tea and shoved open one shutter.) Very cold all day. The conkers the kids thoughtfully piled (about a million of them) into my wheelbarrow in October are either under ten inches of ice, or covered in frost. Just shows how long it is since I did any proper gardening that I've not tipped them out yet.

Much to be done today - with the usual ferrying back and forward of kids along with a trip to return that coat that TallGirl loathed (she still doesn't have one) and buy a freezer. After a disappointing experience in the shop I felt sure would have the freezer of my dreams, I ended up buying one on-line on my phone from a supermarket carpark. But still, it wasn't a wasted trip as we found a perfect fish tank for TallGirl's fish on special offer.

Later, much booking of Christmas/New Year travel. And some stuff that's not so good and I'm just going to go "ladilah" with my fingers in my ears and pretend it didn't happen. And then go to bed with two duvets and two hot water bottles - since CarbBoy still has my radiator and it's another minus something ("ladilah") night.

And I'm soaking the fruit for my Christmas cake tonight, which is rather exciting. Tomorrow's tasks include finding suet to make mincemeat and finding vermiculite for a project TallGirl is doing at school. Given a french baker I talked to had no clue what I was talking about when I described suet, and I have been looking for vermiculite for two years now with no success... I foresee a challenging day.

But my fabulous book awaits me upstairs (The Luminaries). I have hoarded it for months waiting for a good long non-travelling spell of time to read it. Now I am slowly savouring every perfectly turned phrase. I didn't actually expect to like it. But it's mesmerising.