Tue
28-Dec-2004

christmas comforts

I'm back at my weblog, after a long absence, to report on our adventures over the holiday season. Francis is over from Zimbabwe now for a two-year working holiday, and me and Alex took him down to the new house in Devon for Christmas. The new house is lovely - well designed and comfortable. There are two main rooms, both well heated and a pleasing shape, and since it is a bungalow, the rest of the house is on the same floor! This is such an innovation, and we've all got used to being free from the tyranny of stairs very rapidly. The alpacas are now all around the house, instead of being at a separate farm, and there is an office outbuilding where Rachel and Chas can walk up to work every morning. The farm cat that lives in one of the barns had five cute little kittens just before Christmas, all nestled between two bales of straw.

We ate a lot, the usual roast meat extravaganza where Rachel prepared goose on Christmas Eve, a turkey on Christmas Day and a ham on Boxing Day. We enjoyed being comfortable in the new house, watching lots of films - including the entire extended Lord of the Rings trilogy - and quaffing lots of booze. Matt came to visit from Boxing Day onwards. On Monday we had our scary neighbours round for tea - the Old Couple from down the road and the Goat Man and his Goat Wife, who make lovely goat's cheese next door and look rather like kindly trolls.