:: Racking wine into clean demijohns, ready to store for the winter

:: Oiling the oak counters, as they’re looking a little battered after some rather hard use…

:: Hunting for the sod-bagging bloody Advent tree which I made last year, so far fruitlessly. Cursed thing must be in (insert music of doom here) the attic… (Echoey voice-over: ‘And they were never seen again…’)

:: Lusting after lots of things online and in person (went to the market at Totnes, which I always enjoy), as, for once, I have some money burning a hole in my pocket after my birthday, and Quercus’s mother being super-generous (as she always is)

:: Celebrating the arrival of a new (to us; it’s a 1970-odd Roberts radio, with woody bits and red leather) radio after ours died about a month ago

:: Eating far too much crystallised ginger

:: Marvelling at the number of people driving around the lanes hereabouts with Chrimbly trees on their cars, already…

:: Gloating about the boots we’re having made for the small girl – foxglove and violet leathers, with good solid soles and velcro fasteny bits, ready, we hope, on December 20

:: Wondering if our counters will ever be this clear again…

(Also, pondering the fact that things which last cost so much; I want to buy a waffle iron (the stove-top variety) with some of the money I was given for the ol’ annual event – a crap-looking electric one can be had for £20, but a cast-iron number? More like £60 from what I can see so far, and pretty hard to find outside Scandinavia. Bastard UK. Bastard prices. Bastard disposable electricky nonsense. Bah, er, waffle.)