Blogging our Christmas Holiday (9)

Another jigsaw....a 300-piece map of the world with teeny-tiny pieces each no larger than a thumbnail, packed into an 8cm x 7.5cm x 3cm box without a picture, and which when assembled measures 25cm x 19cm. (A cup and saucer is included in the first photo to provide a sense of scale.) It took the two of us just over two hours to complete. Now to read some History Today magazine to recuperate!

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (8)

Third jigsaw finished -- what heroes we are!



Now to watch some St David of Attenborough, from our St David of Attenborough DVD collection....

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (7)

We've moved on to our third jigsaw, of one of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries woven at the end of the 15th century and now displayed in the Musee National du Moyen Age, Paris. As you might imagine if you follow the links and examine the tapestries for yourselves, there are hours of fun to be had just sorting the pieces into colours and shapes, never mind actually assembling the jigsaw....

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (6)

We're on to our second jigsaw of the holiday -- a scene from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, from the British Museum's collection.

Blogging our Christmas holiday (5)

We went out for a walk today: a loop up through Downhills Park, through Lordship Rec, around Tottenham Cemetery and back via Bruce Castle Park. It wasn't as cold as when we'd attempted the same route last year (when it was so cold that we had to abandon the route at the halfway point and return home), but there was more snow and ice than there had been last Christmas (contradictory though that may sound). I took some photographs, and here's a selection. In order, they show Lordship Rec in the early afternoon sun; the Wugster in Tottenham Cemetery; a squadron of ducks slithering towards us as we arrived at the lake at the Cemetery's furthest point (we hadn't even got the bread out of our bags, so they were presumably mobbing us in the expectation that any visitors would be carrying food for them); the Wugster scattering bread for the birds; and a very inquisitive goose.

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (4)

The jigsaw approaches completion (although we suspect that -- bought second-hand, as it was, from a charity shop -- some edge pieces are missing)....



....but then it was time to stop for dinner. (No idea what the Wugster is looking at there, but that may just be to avoid the actinic flash of the camera and the resulting red-eye.)

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (3)

We've decorated our cake with trees and rabbits from the garden of one of the Wugster's dolls-houses....



....stuffed the pheasant with a mixture of onions, chestnuts and juniper berries....



....and given it a couple of glasses of red wine to help it on its way.

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (2)

We iced our cake, only a day later than planned, and found that we didn't have quite enough icing (or marzipan) to cover the whole thing. Poot!

Blogging our Christmas Holiday (1)

The holiday begins....and so does work on the first jigsaw, of an antique dolls-house made by Sara Ploos van Amstel in 1743 and now in the Haags Gemeentemuseum (according to the box, although the museum's website denies all knowledge of it).

Lyme Regis, Winter 2010 (4)

Here's the final tranche of photographs from our walk along the River Lim in Lyme regis last Sunday, showing -- in order -- snowy houses and gardens; a stretch along the river known as Jericho, with the Wugster photographing something; another stretch showing where the flow of water has been divided between the higher mill leat, on the left, and the river itself, on the right; a stretch of the river known as Leper's Well, again with the Wugster photographing something; and, finally, the Town Mill a listed building parts of which date from the medieval period and which in the past few years has been brought back into working order, both generating its own hydro-electricity and grinding flour. Here we stopped for afternoon tea at the very nice cafe round the back and purchased some cheese from the cheesemonger whose shop is visible on the right of the photograph.

Lyme Regis, Winter 2010 (3)

Here's some more photographs of the walk we took on the Sunday, continuing from where I left off in the last post, showing Gore Lane Woods (where a couple of summers ago we saw several badger setts -- obviously, we didn't stop for a look in the woods on this occasion); the woods above Uplyme; a signpost on the path along the River Lim where it leave Uplyme and enters Lyme Regis; the Wugster striding along the road by the river; and some artistically snowy trees on the bank of the river.

Tomorrow I'll post some photographs from the remainder of the walk, which finished with afternoon tea and some cheese purchases at the Town Mill. (Cheese purchases? Why, yes, Gromit, lad....)

Lyme Regis, Winter 2010 (2)

Here's the second tranche of photographs from our weekend in snowy Lyme Regis, showing the first part of a walk we took on Sunday. The walk took us along Ware Lane, which starts from the junction with the road to Seaton just opposite my parents' house, to its second junction with the Seaton Road where it turns into Gore Lane and runs down into Uplyme, then into Lyme Regis and along the River Lim for afternoon tea (or more accurately, black coffee and hot chocolate) at the cafe at the Town Mill.

The five photographs below show, in order, a well rugged-up Wugster leading the way along Ware Lane; tobogganers on the hills inland from Ware Cliffs; a view of Ware Lane unsullied by human footprints (although we in fact met a number of people out for a walk on that cold, crisp day); Ware House, the former centre of a large farm estate which has been much sub-divided and sold off and after which the Lane and the Cliffs are named; and the Wugster leading the way along Gore Lane as we trundle down into Uplyme.

More snow pictures tomorrow!

Lyme Regis, Winter 2010 (1)

The Wugster and I spent the weekend visiting my parents in Lyme Regis, and were almost-but-not-quite cut off by the snow. It started snowing heavily in London just as we were leaving on Friday lunchtime, snowed overnight in the West Country on both Friday-Saturday and Saturday-Sunday, and again this morning. Train services back to London were heavily disrupted; our journey took twice as long as budgeted and required a break and a change of trains at Salisbury. Anyway, here's the first of what will be four or five (or even six) tranches of photographs from the weekend, showing -- in order -- my parents' garden on the morning of Saturday 18 December; a view over Coram Towers towards Charmouth as we walked down into town that morning; a view from almost the same vantage point of Golden Cap (the highest point on the Channel coast) and Thorncombe Beacon, the next summit to its east (i.e., the right); a view down through Langmoor Gardens to the, er, "beach"; and a view from Langmoor Gardens of the snowy Cobb (when even at midday the winter sun is so low in the sky that some glare seems unavoidable). Look at all that show and shiver, you wimpy Aussies you!