Bah humbug!

I really have not yet got into the Christmas spirit, and am unlikely to do so for another week at least.  So I could summon very little enthusiasm for going out yesterday evening to take biscuits to the old dears who play bingo at one of the retirement homes in Brighton.  The Lions have been running these sessions for several years and it just so happened that I was on the rota yesterday - and that being the last session before Christmas, it was the time to distribute the goodies.  It was the second consecutive evening out for me and I could have done with staying in.  That said, Thursday evening's excursion was a personal outing: the Old Bat and I went out to our local Italian for a meal.  And what a meal!  Ravioli stuffed with lobster meat and served with a salmon and sage sauce with deep fried parsnip shavings, followed by a succulent tiramisu, washed down by a Sicilian red.  The restaurant was decorated for Christmas and the background music was Christmas carols and some of the less raucous secular Christmas songs.  Even that didn't get me in the mood!

To top it all, I had given no thought - well, almost no thought - until yesterday to Christmas cards.  Of course, I had missed the last recommended date for posting cards destined for overseas addresses so they may very well arrive late.

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So as well as missing the post, I have mistimed posting these pictures by 24 hours - but the other way!  I have recently posted a few pictures taken in the Forêt de Juigné not far from our French hidey hole, including one of a memorial to men shot by the Nazis during World War II.  Rather nearer to our village than that memorial is another, just on the edge of the forest.

 

This is a comparatively new memorial and, while it is good that there is now a more permanent structure, somehow the old, hand-painted sign seemed more emotive.