Saturday morning

. . . and I've set to getting stuff ready for the visit. Unless the conditions forty miles away are considerably worse than here, I'm sure they will come. Therefore I have a small ham on to boil (and will make soup later from the stock), some chopped tomatoes roasting in the oven as the first part of making a tomato and lentil soup (not the same as the ham based soup - that will probably be ham and pea)and an increasingly tidy kitchen as I work around it.

It's supposed to be a light meal, so I've decided to have a variety of bits and bobs, not too much of anything. There will be soup and rolls, jacket potato halves, grated cheese, tuna, coleslaw, cherry tomatoes, olives, crisps - a sort of pick and mix. Afters will be shortbread and/or mandarins. And just tea, coffee or water to drink, unless I can get to the shops.

For the rest of the day, I will be writing Christmas cards and putting the tree together. It goes against the grain to get it up so early, but I thought it would be nice to have it up for the Chinese and chat next Friday. It will be old hat by Christmas Day, but never mind. Needs must.

It's still dreadful outside but in a different way. It's been raining, probably quite heavily, and now it's very wet sleet. The icy chill seems to have gone (albeit temporarily, I gather), and the snow is vanishing at as good rate. It's going to be very wet underfoot but, I hope, not too slippery, because I want to go into town to collect the hot plates from Lakeland. I could have picked them up when I went in and had the audiogram, but the unexpectedness of that drove it right out of my mind. It would be nice if I could use them at lunch time to keep the soup and the jackets nice and warm on the table.

Well, better get on. I can smell that the tomatoes have roasted and are now ready for the next stage, and the boiling ham needs turning over. I hope conditions are not too bad where you are!