Xmas
And so my 72nd Christmas feast day arrived. Yesterday the diners assembled at Frances and Stewart's house. There was me and Shirley and Ian, Frances and Stewart, Phoebe and Margot, Stewart's parents - Peter and Cheryl and their other son Richard, his Australian wife Cindy and their little children - Alexander and Florence. They live in Perth, Western Australia. Stewart had volunteered to take care of the cooking and he did a good job of it. There was roasted turkey crown, beef, ham, roasted potatoes, parsnips and carrots, peas, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, cranberry sauce and various stuffings including chestnut stuffing made from the chestnuts that Shirley and I gathered for free from the floor of Sherwood Forest at the beginning of October. They were falling even as we picked them. Afterwards there was Shirley's excellent vegan Christmas pudding with brandy cream and scrumptious chocolate cake that Cheryl had made. Gifts...