I woke up this morning with a well-earned headache.
We thought that we would have a quiet day without rushing about, and started as we meant to go on by hanging about in bed having a cuddle.
This was not improved when the dogs noticed and thought they might join in. After a few minutes of dog-snuffling and snorting and furry faces being pressed enthusiastically up against ours we gave up and thought we would get up instead. I do not know of any affectionate gesture which is improved by having a wet nose shoved in your ear, no matter how loving its owner’s intentions are.
We were considerably surprised when we opened the curtains to discover an awful lot of last night’s snow still on the ground, if not exactly a white world it was certainly a bit less colourful than usual. We emptied the dogs and dashed back inside quickly to fling some more logs into the stove and light candles and lamps around the kitchen.
Mark was mending the washing machine which has been making a funny noise. He said that this was because something had cracked, and he had to mend it by putting a steel plate on it. I pottered happily about the kitchen whilst he grubbed about underneath the washing machine, getting spiders and dust in his hair and humming tunelessly.
I sliced up some oranges and sprinkled them with cinnamon, and stuck cloves in them and put them to dry in the oven. I think Christmas will be much nicer if it smells of dried oranges and cinnamon, and so am planning to manufacture some decorations. I don’t really need to do it for ages yet but have been so excited about it that I couldn’t wait any longer.
I put a chicken in the other oven whilst I was doing it, so after a while the house smelled ace, rich and spicy. Whilst everything was cooking I made some phone calls. I had to make some alterations to the Christmas pantomime booking, and to my surprise the phone at the ticket agency was answered by my friend Diane, who has started working there, and who is in fact coming to see the pantomime with us. She enquired after my hangover, and laughed.
After that I phoned the Chinese restaurant where we go for dinner on pantomime night, and the owner recognised my voice and burbled with courteous excitement at the prospect of seeing us again.
I came off the phone feeling very happy at the loveliness of other people, and at that very moment had a sudden epiphany when it dawned on me exactly which teapot I would like.
I have been agonising over this for days now. There have in fact been several overpriced teapots that I liked very much but was unable to choose a favourite.
Mark usually resolves this sort of dilemma by suggesting that I buy them all, but obviously this time that was not a practicable solution. Instead he has been making interested noises, which he is good at, but I have a suspicion that he isn’t really all that interested in teapots.
I rushed downstairs and rang the teapot lady and offered to pay a deposit. She said that this would be fine, so we are going to have an instalment teapot, and I am going to salve my teapot-related guilt by paying for it a bit at a time, which is hardly like paying for it at all.
Mark laughed and reminded me that what I actually needed was not really a teapot, but some new boots, because mine leak. I know this would have been a more sensible idea than a teapot, but it is such a very beautiful teapot that I don’t regret it in the least. It is beautifully shaped and delicate and gorgeously coloured, and it makes me feel warm inside just thinking about it. This is a good job, because the leaky boots make me feel a bit chilly on the outside.
When we had finished we bundled ourselves up in vests and extra jumpers and went up to the farm to do some things to the dear camper van, which is still sitting patiently in the shed. Mark welded some more plates over holes, and I painted a bluebell and a toadstool on the corner of it.
It was so terribly cold that after a while my fingers got too numb to paint any more, and we went home to the fire and to get ready to go swimming, and to work, which is where I am now.
The snow has gone now, leaving a damp chill and a mist in the air, but the feeling of winter has not gone away.
Maybe I should have thought more about the boots.
