Ready, steady...

Ready?  Yes, I think we are.  I finally put up the tree on Friday and - surprise, surprise - the lights worked!  It's a pity the tree has been standing around for a bit too long and is already starting to drop but SWMBO seems happy.  I strung the cards up and eventually got round to hanging the other decorations yesterday.  It was yesterday, too, that I drove to Hassocks, a small town/large village the other side of the Downs, to collect the meat: a turkey to take to the farm at Easter (assuming we are invited), a turkey crown for who knows when, a gammon and some venison.  The whole turkey, the gammon and the venison are now in the freezer but the turkey crown in in the fridge just in case we are unable to get out on Christmas Day when we are due to have lunch at house of the parents of our son's fiancee (if you see what I mean).

I was very glad not to be driving very far yesterday morning.  The almost incessant rain means that even in our neck of the woods there is a lot of both standing and running water on the roads with very large puddles in places.  But at least there is no flooding in our immediate area although some roads are closed as impassable not so very far away.

After due consideration I have decided that I am not especially ashamed of my reaction to a telephone call the other day, although I did display considerably less than what might be called the Christmas spirit.  A woman (I hesitate to call her a lady) rang to question why a neighbour of hers had received a gift of £20 from the Lions.  She actually lived in Hove, not Brighton, so I was able to assure her that I knew nothing about this as it would be Hove Lions involved.  As I was looking up the phone number for Hove Lions she ranted on about being a disabled pensioner and why wasn't she chosen to receive £20?  And so on.  I (almost) regret that I lost my rag.  I told her that her attitude smacked of "gimme, gimme, gimme" and I wasn't prepared to help her any further.  Oh well, that's one fewer fan of Lions International.  Too late to do anything about that now.

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This is another picture taken last Monday from the same spot as yesterday's.  The fields of St Mary's and High Park farms are alternately in sun and cloud.  The highest point on the horizon is Ditchling Beacon which, although it might not seem it in the photo, is one of the higher points of the South Downs.