Fox in the garden!

As I was sitting here this evening talking to my Mother in Law on the phone when I heard a crow sending out a warning.... looked out and saw a fox in the garden. It had just had a drink from the pond.  It then sat and looked over the bank... the magpie in the left hand corner got very cross and went and pecked at his tail!  It was rather funny to watch.  

I didn't have the right lens on so I had difficulty focusing on the fox.  

I picked some of my kale, spinach and chard for dinner tonight.  It was delicious.

I woke with my pain levels much as they were yesterday - bad, so I spent the day sewing.

I made a nautical themed dress for the Sindy doll I got in a charity shop in New Zealand last year.

I made a dress for my antique Schoenhut doll, Peggy Sue, with a Maori theme. 

The name of the fabric is 'Marae' and the decorations are similar to those seen in maraes in NZ.

I made a simple little dress for Sasha doll 'Everlee Rose'.  

Christmas!

I thought I'd try and get a few posts in before the New Year ... first up is a post with various Christmas photos - decorations, the day etc...

I really didn't feel like 'doing' Christmas in the lead up to it...in fact I was very 'Bah Humbug' but by Christmas Eve, I got into the spirit and actually had a wonderful Christmas Day.  It was busy as I did all the preparation, cooking etc, but worth it.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with family.  As usual my Mother in Law and her Partner came round for the main meal, along with our Daughter in Law (Son is away) and our younger son.  In the late afternoon my Aunt and Uncle come round for a buffet type supper.  We had a lot of fun exchanging presents and some good ones were given and received this year.  I will show them in another post.

First up is my lovely Advent Calendar.

The 'new' Christmas float.  It looked fabulous.  This came round early December.

A few decorations started to get put out each day.

A couple of 'new' vintage decorations I found.

Lights in the front garden. 

(My husband also put out a load in the back garden - must take a photo of those!)

Christmas Snowmen

Our little lighted villages.  Sadly this one decided to stop working a couple of days before Christmas.  Guessing the bulbs must have gone.

Some little kitsch deer...I have been collecting these over the last few years.

This plastic one was the latest addition, found in a CS for 10p on Christmas Eve.

I went overboard with the Christmas Trees this year, putting both up (one year we could only put a small one up so ended up with two trees) and also got out all the Christmas teddies and dolls!

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Christmas Day soon dawned...

The Christmas table

The first two are seated - it is a bit of a tight squeeze!

Now there are three...

Sadly our eldest son couldn't be with us this Christmas as he is working on his ship in the South Pacific and was between Australia and New Zealand on Christmas Day.  Last year his wife to be didn't arrive in England on time for Christmas, this year he wasn't here!  Perhaps next year they will get to spend Christmas Day together.

I made my 'traditional' desserts...  Pavlova 

and a fresh fruit salad.

Plus of course Christmas pudding.

In the evening my Aunt and Uncle join us for a light buffet type suffer.

I never eat the evening meal, as always still too full after the main Christmas dinner, which was probably just as well, as by the time everyone else had finished, there was nothing left!  

Hubby took DIL home Boxing Day morning as she had to work in the afternoon, so we have had a quiet time since.  

A New Camera

Today I received my birthday present from my husband.  My actual birthday was in March but I didn't know what I wanted until recently.  As I have been struggling so much with pain I wanted a lighter camera to use when out and about.  After a fair bit of research by both myself and my husband we settled on the Panasonic TZ70

I couldn't wait to charge up the battery so I could start having a play with it.  Fortunately it didn't take too long to charge.

I just used the basic setting to start off with.

My dahlias are looking fabulous

I'm not sure what this moth is...currently trying to look it up in one of my identification books.

Dalmatian beans.

Some zoom shots:

Some macro shots:

Wrapping it up.

Some shots inside the Cavy Shed:

Dallas

Dundee

Some shots taken inside the house: 

So far I am really pleased with it.  I am looking forward to trying out all the different functions and settings.