Colder.

Much chillier today, dry at first then raining quite heavily in the evening.

After a good night's sleep I was ready to carry on with Christmas preparations. I felt a sense of hygge as I ground cloves in a stone mortar and Christmassy smells filled the air from all the different spices. I've began halving the amounts in the recipe in my year cookery book since we no longer have a house full of people over Christmas. I used to have to buy a new washing up bowl each year to mix up the 4 lbs. of fruit along with nearly 3lbs. of other ingredients. This year I've made two smaller cakes for the boys. I'll 'feed' the cakes with whiskey before covering with marzipan and icing. I really enjoy all the Christmas preparations even if not a lot happens here on the day. The card list gets smaller each year and I fully understand why people don't send cards giving a donation to charity instead but cards and letters are a link to family and friends we rarely see. So soon I'll be digging out the sparkly cards bought in last January's sales.

The chair cover is finished - sort of. I really need to replace the 24" zip with a 30" zip as it was quite a struggle to squeeze the cushion into the cover and there's a little tidying up of the frame cover edges to do. Not visible but I like to do a job properly. However I think it's not a bad result.

This morning I rang the environmental officer at the local council offices about the mouldy bread. Actually the very nice lady that answers the phone covers all the departments and passes the details to the relevant person. She gave me their email so I could send them the photo of the offending bread. So far, apart from an automated reply last night I've heard nothing from Tesco.