That’s Christmas over and done with for another year. We had a quiet Christmas just the two of us and my sister – not forgetting Ruby of course.

We have had plenty of traumatic Christmases in the past and so quiet is how we like it. If we see Christmas through without any dramas, it’s been a success.

After Christmas, we paid our usual visit to Nostell, and what a difference from our regular visits. The place was heaving. We often have the place almost to ourselves at this time of year when most visitors seem to be regular dog walkers,

Having taken pity on the water birds having to contend with frozen water over the last couple of weeks, we bought some duck and goose food. We took some along with us to give the birds a post Christmas treat. It seemed plenty of others had the same idea as when we arrived the birds were already tucking in so we decided to wait until things were less busy when the birds weren’t being spoiled. I was glad to see that the birds weren’t being fed stale bread. There are signs requesting that no bread be given but some people ignore the signs.

The last of the cygnets is still living in harmony with its parents. I’m guessing once breeding time approaches it will be chased off.

The majority of ducks on the lake are mallards but there are occasionally other breeds paying a visit. 

I mentioned a week or so ago that we spotted a couple of goosanders. This week we spotted some tufted ducks. They were at the far side of the lake. They are also diving ducks and keep disappearing beneath the surface of the water and so managing to get a photo was tricky.Over winter there are lots of black headed gulls mixing with the ducks, During winter they lose their black – which is actually dark brown – colouring on their heads. All that remains is a small brown spot. I made a turkey stew on Boxing day into which I put some of our leeks, carrots, frozen green beans and frozen peas. This was served with hasselback potatoes.

We had some of our parsnips and sprouts on Christmas day along with some braised red cabbage from the freezer and of course our potatoes

That’s all for 2022. Has anyone made any New Year’s resolutions? I have two, firstly to try and keep up with tagging my photos and secondly updating my blog list. Some of the blogs on my list haven’t posted for six years so I guess that they are unlikely to post again.

Finally, I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and safe 2023.