The latest freeze didn’t allow me to go to the allotment – not only was it too cold to do anything sensible there but also there was a distinct possibility that I might fall. Interesting how we say about youngsters that they fall over but us oldies ‘have a fall’. So I didn’t  go. But I can’t just sit at home and do nothing. Instead of that I have searched the Internet and found a few nice biscuit recipes.

Also a recipe for a favourite from the past years – babovka. It is a Czech recipe that I was used to make very frequently when the boys lived at home. I’ll start again,  I’m sure it will make a nice present.

I have also found a recipe for panettone, again never made it before but why not? I had to wait for my shopping delivery for a few vital ingredients  and as soon as I got everything together I was ready to start.

Two days later I have a result. I’m sure a master baker would have a few words to say about the result but it smells divine and I have it from an expert on cake tasting – Frank – that it is delicious.

Beside all this I continue making blankets. To start with I made a number of baby shawls but everybody who had a new baby had one of these so I switched to large ones. It comes very handy nowadays, what with the weather on one hand and the cost of energy on the other.

I started making these at the start of the pandemic. There is a website of a wool company, they have a sale from time to time and when I see that I order a fair amount of random coloured balls of wool, that keeps me going during the winter months when it gets dark quite early. Right now I have just finished the latest one and will start another. But it is only eight days until we have the shortest day, from then on all will improve for me.