Countdown to Christmas with NORAD

I have added a link to the NORAD site at the bottom of the blog roll on the left of the page - we love to watch this on Christmas Eve to see where Santa is delivering all those parcels; he certainly moves fast! At the moment, the site is showing a very handy countdown to Christmas, although I do believe that it is probably set to US time, rather than GMT, so it is not even as long as that to Christmas.....

Again, I have been absent and I can only apologise - I just need about 28 hours in a day at the moment. This wood burner in the lounge is fabulous, but it means hoovering in there every day instead of a couple of times a week, and then there's the heap of logs to keep replenished. I do love it, though, and the warmth which it kicks out into the room is just toasty!

Sunday afternoon was the village's Christmas bazaar event - lots of stalls, school choir, village band, Father Christmas, refreshments (where you would have found me, making tea for everyone!) and it was a great afternoon. It seemed like the whole village turned out for it, so I am sure they must have made pots of money for the cause - we took £100 on the refreshments for them, so it was good.

This Friday we have a coffee morning at church, and we are having a few stalls there too, as well as the usual raffle and cakes......and the FH is also busy helping me in the book business this week. This morning, we have had to do some chicken-work in the garden. The mud in the chicken runs is several inches deep, foul-smelling and trecherous to walk on, and the poor chooks hate having wet feet. There is no way of draining it at all, so we have had to come up with a plan B: we have used some of the pallets he fetched last week to make a shelter along one side of the run, with floors, so that there is somewhere for the chickens to be during the day - it is covered, there is a perch for them to roost, and lots of straw for them to peck around in. We both got absolutely filthy making it, but I am pleased that we have made something like a small improvement for them - let's hope the chooks like it.

The FH put the new chicken house together yesterday - it went together quite well although there were a couple of little snags with the woodwork. They were nothing that he couldn't fix, but I wouldn't have had a clue on my own. Anyway, it is smart, and we are pleased with it overall, so I think that the Partridge/Black/Gold-laced Orpington crew might find themselves rehomed into it shortly as they are getting a bit big for their current accommodation.

Now, what to have for supper tonight? I should have made a longer plan, but I didn't. Add that to the "to-do" list!