Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful........

That looks and sounds soooooo beautiful, hope your daughter has a safe journey back.

So do we, Sticki, - the roads are pretty much clear now, but we don't want her to delay her departure until too late, because mid afternoon the temperatures start to drop and the roads can get very icy, and the steep, narrow curvy country bits (about 90% of her journey) get incredibly treacherous. Add mad (and possibly still drunk) Italian drivers going home after the holidays to the equation and it gets very scary indeed. We shall be counting the minutes until the "I'm safely home" 'phone call.

Sounded a great day - we had the sun rather than snow - happy as I seen our white Christmas 2009 and 2010 here. I like Cluedo as a board game - do like trivial pursuit but I don't know anything about history , geography or sport lol . I wish your daughter a safe journey back too. On the subject of food , well I ate far too much, do not know what it is about Christmas day but I can eat more than a whale. I had squirty cream with everything , cheesecake, god knows how much turkey and a drop of whisky. Now I feel VERY sick :D I guess it is 2 months of exercise now. Glad you had a great day :))))))))))))))))))))))))))

How far away does she live in terms of time?

Well, when she's not driving every inch of the way in first gear, a normal journey would take a tad over an hour. We'll be holding our breath today, but we expect her to take at least twice as long. It'll probably be dark by the time she gets back to the city.
Paul, we were lucky, we had sun AND snow - not that we managed to get outside to see much of either. I do hope you feel better soon.

All the very best for your daughter, does she put chains on the wheels?

Thanks Gattina - will be okay. I have condition not supposed to eat much salt or I go spinny - Feel punch drunk today :D

No, Sticki, she just has, like everyone else here (because it's the law) , winter tyres on the car from October onwards. We have both, but then we live in the mountains, she doesn't.
Paul, you don't have to go anywhere, do you? Just curl up under the Christmas tree until the feeling fades!

Luckily not today - it will fade very soon :)))))))))))))))))))))

Enjoyed the blog & the photos & felt ever so envious! Yesterday (Christmas Day here in New Zealand) it was a blazing hot day & I had to be on duty at 2.30pm, so not a single drop of alcohol passed my lips for the entire day! The hospital gave us all a free Christmas dinner ..... turkey with couscous & some very shrivelled-up pototoes, plus a slab of christmas pudding which had cranberry sauce poured over it!!! The pudding was totally inedible ... it was supposed to have a mock brandy sauce on it, so I'm guessing that someone in the kitchen either made a horrible mistake, or had had a tipple before work! But we did have a box of chocolates in the nurses' station, kindly donated by a patient, & a bottle of nectarine juice & grape juice, so the duty wasn't a total dismal failure when it came to the christmas spirit. As always, the air conditioning system on the ward was inadequate, probably due to patients having their windows wide open & ward doors flung open also, so it was meltingly-hot, but pleasantly-balmly when I came off duty at 11pm & began my 40 minute drive back home ....... I expected to be greeted with a kiss & a glass of wine, but my stepson had just broken up with his girlfriend of two years via skype a few hours before, & was totally miserable .... the icing on the cake, one might say!

oh no dwyllis, that is not so good, especially the stepson and his girlfriend. very sorry to hear that, why do they do such things on christmas day?

Oh, Dear, Dwyllis - I'm so sorry . I am afraid these things happen. Some people rate Christmas time as one of the worst bits of the year, and there can be awful disappointments and stress within families. I do hope things soon improve for you.

We also had a wonderful day, ate ham,egg & chips for lunch is was soooo tasty!! We actually are eating our 'christmas dinner' today, Turkey, pud & all the trimmings so hopefully all will go well, six of us will be round the table. Loved your account Gat.

hope you have a lovely time grandmage.

i loved the account too gattina.

Thanks Sticki, have eaten too many chocolate covered nuts!! Hope you have had fun too.

oh i love those, gave some to OH but he hasnt opened them yet :-(

the best bit of my day was when sons rang up and sent photos.

Lovely photo's Gattina, sounds like you had a perfect time. I think putting a limit on the cost takes a lot of stress off in the first place and makes people more creative.
Love the snow on the steps.. had to look twice for Monty he blends in with the wall...

Sticki, its so clever isnt it when photos come through, either online or by mobile, I love it, our daughter put the children on facebook on christmas morn. it was so nice to see them.

i think its just great GM, i heard of one lady [reported on classic fm] she was 90 something and was already playing on her ipad present!! that made me smile, i thought good for her.
if i live that long i want to be doing things like that too.
think they sent the photos thru email from their phones if that makes sense, the photos on phones dont always travel from abroad!!!

Let's face it, Sticki, they don't always make it from the next room!

ah, that can also be true!!!

Your day sounded a lot like ours except we were at daughter/son-in-laws house, he did all the cooking and it was marvellous to be with the family, our grandchildren were very happy with their presents as were we all, we also played trivial pursuit amongst other games, as always some rules were broken and there was a lot of laughter along the way, also ate too much but then thats always the case at christmas, lol.
Pleased your daughter arrived ok, it sure sounds like a hairy drive to your home but looks so beautiful in your lovely photo`s and I bet your daughter thinks it was well worth it.
Enjoy the rest of your christmas Gattina. x

Hi Gattina What a lovely blog you sound as if you had the best time ever and the SNOW WOOOO!!! i wish we had some, but no we never do. enjoy the rest of your holidays . Love to monty he didnt look to happy in the photo at the snow :))))))))))))

Good for you Gattina - it sounds wonderful. What a beautiful view from your window. Had to smile at Monty - typical cat, finding the only dry bit to stand on! I hope yor daughter arrived home safely.

Loved the blog Gattina and I'm glad you all had a great day.We had ours at home with my daughter and her girls.We bought the youngest (7years)"The abba you can dance " for the wii and we all had a go (except for hubby ) whose excuse was, he had to take the photos!It was a good way to get over the big dinner and pud! We also had a sunny day.Best wishes for the New Year .x

Great blog Gattina,,pleased you had a lovely day..i hope your daughter has a safe journey home..:o)

The good news is, we've had 2 'phone calls from Daughter - the first to say she'd left a bag full of presents behind when she set out and could OH get in the car and bring it to her, and the second to say she was home safely, but the drive home was difficult and scary.
Monty isn't actually our cat - he used to live here and occasionally comes back to visit and make sure we are behaving ourselves. Our own cats usually send him on his way fairly sharpish, because he doesn't belong to the "clan" any more!
It has gone very quiet here since we were left alone mid-afternoon, just us and the cats and the left-overs! We are playing "Catch-up" with dozing in front of the stove/television, but this morning we went for the customary Boxing Day walk up the hill. There were beautiful blue skies and crisp, cold air, but I've just been outside to close up the greenhouse, and the clouds have come over, so we could be in for more snow.
We've still got a Christmas pudding in the cupboard and the cake hasn't been cut yet, there's far too much chocolate lying around, and fridge is full of pate and cheeses, but there are bowls full of fruit, which is all we really want to eat. I think we could definitely do with your Granddaughters' wii right now, Rose!

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Christmasses (?)

very glad your daughter is safe gattina; i dont blame monty for coming back, looks well worth coming back for ~ perhaps he is after that big turkey??
my christmas cake has one slice left!!!
very quiet here and i dont like it
been to the gym which was good.

Oh you make us all feel inadequate, Sticki!

WHAT???? i dont think so ~ i might have just been in the jacuzzi????

Just stirring yourself to get to the gym is pretty good in my book - I've just been slobbing about.

Wanted to get out! Felt as if I had been cooking for days!

Which, of course, you had!

Well that is true! But now we have someone visiting this morning who used to live in this house so I have got to go round cleaning and tidying and that is far worse than cooking!
Back to work tomorrow!

Oooh, Ouch!

Are you cooking today or walking in that wonderful winter landscape?

I'm defrosting stuff and doing as little as possible in the kitchen - parsnip soup and new bread for lunch, (left to rise while we're out) and possibly leek and cheese quiche with salad to night. Our little turkey's all gone now. Shouldn't take long. But mostly walking, I think. Maybe even a little light gardening. Most of the snow has gone now, and the day is glorious. Definitely big boots, sunglasses and woolly hat weather. Maybe we'll go down the valley via the road we call "The Wild Boar Run" (for obvious reasons) and look for juniper berries for the store cupboard.

sounds wonderful ~ you should write a book!!

i like parsnip soup but OH didnt seem to like the last lot i made ~ perhaps if i put some stilton in it?? or maybe even ginger??? he seems to like anything that has ginger in.
i really want to make bread properly, i use the bread maker, made some yesterday with pumpkin seeds in, its very nice but i would like to do it myself too.

Oh Go on, Sticki! Don't make life too much hard work. I use the breadmaker a lot when I'm busy. I often start things off in the breadmaker, and let it do the initial mixting and kneading, then take it out and add stuff, knock the dough back and shape it, then leave it to rise for the second time by the stove in a proper bread pan, then oven cook it. The problem is, it is really expensive using an oven out here, and it also means you can't use anything else electrical, like the dishwasher or washing machine while you are cooking. If you aren't cooking anything else at the same time, like a stew or a cake, heating up the oven specially isn't worth it. I do make gluten-free bread a lot of the time for Daughter, and although I can use the maker for that, it's much simpler to do it myself.
One of our favourite and simplest meals is fillet of pork beaten out, spread with tart apple puree and sprinkled with crushed juniper berries, rolled up and cooked very quickly with apple juice or cider in the bottom of the pan to make the gravy. Gorgeous cold, too!

ooooooooooooooh and i didnt think i was feeling hungry ~ till you mentioned the pork!!!

i havent tried doing the bread part way, i know you can but thats another experiment to try when i have a bit of time ~ have to wait till next week when OH back at work ~ its going to be a looooong week.

you should definitely write a book.

that pork sounds brilliant, i think fillet is a good cut, great for entertaining and quite reasonable, i cook it in cider sometimes and serve with apples etc.

How about we collaborate on that book, Sticki?

Would love to Yorkshire fancied doing something like that too. Rather think you would be very much better than me, also I think the Italian interest would be what sells it - something like a year in Provence??

I've got the "Six Years in the Appennines" part half written!
I think the book-buying public are a bit tired of the "I bought a house abroad among funny locals and their weird traditions" genre by now, though, so it isn't ever going to get finished.

Nothing wrong with good UK cooking Sticki...it just got lost after two very close world wars and severe food restriction....And nowhere in the world does puddings and deserts as well as us..So many of them anyway

well i would love to read it

you could always put a different slant on it for the publishers ~ an artist living in the land of the renaissance? or cooking by an english lady living in italy? etc.

couldnt agree more pimpernel ~ i love my puddings, especially sticky toffee pudding ~ no one else does that one.

Absolutely correct on the pudding front, Pimpernel - the Italians are pants at puds. SO predictable and uninventive, but they aren't afflicted with the sweet tooth that so many English have. Probably luckily for them, their waistlines and their arteries!

Gattina what a treasure of a blog so enjoyed reading.

Scotkat, how nice to hear from you! Thank you!

Glad you had a Christmassy Christmas Gattina. Daughter home safely afterwards too. The fillet of pork recipe sounds delicious. We had an unusual /Christmas. District nurses for dressings, carers for getting up,washing and dressing /Tesco to deliver food. Neighbours to shop, Occupational therapists moving furniture and friends putting it back again!!!!!Friends on Boxing Day, treating us to our dinner and kind enough to stay all day. My advice to one and all is.....Don't fall downstairs, your garden goes to pot in 2 gales.....your seed holders run out.....the peelings holder fills up and festers in your kitchen. Bonus is yesterday a beautiful fox, who I think was born under under the shed, posed for me with the monopod while i photographed him in all his glory. Waiting for the mating season..... gearing up for noisy fun.

Oh you poor Soul! I'm sure the least of your worries is that your seed holders run out! A speedy recovery!

Lovely blog, lovely views, lovely scenery and lovely Monty, Happy New Year:-)

Thank you so much Bornagain! We are very, very lucky. Happy New Year to you, too.

A bit late Gattina but I'm glad you had a good Xmas, the photos are lovely.

Thank you so much Annella: so nice to hear from you! A Happy New Year to you.