Polverones what is the point of them Might as well eat a tablespoonful of earth, probably taste better too.

Have to agree that polverones aren't on my wish list either. I have the same feeling about marzipan.

The one thing I do like is that feeling that the pantry is full, the woodpile too. The car has a full tank of petrol and we can close the gates on the rest of the world.

I am with you, can´t stand the things but Rosemary likes them and as we cannot buy them here I thought that I would have a go at making some. I ended up making two litres of mincemeat with 250ml of it being brandy so heaven only knows what state she will be in at Christmas.

Graham

I'm with you all the way on this one!

Bloody hell, you're in the South of Spain not some remote island in the Outer Hebridees.
Ah well, nowt like being prepared for all contingencies, there's some funny weather about at the moment.

I can't explain it, it's just how we feel. The winter solstice is that time when the year ends, when there's that feeling that you need to stand guard against whatever is out there.

The Norse had the idea of Fenris tring to eat the sun when it is at its weakest, and the sun coming out of this phase was called sol invictus by the romans, the unconquered sun.

When I lived in Scotland, I always stocked up for winter. There always the possibility of being snowed on for more than a few days or the roads out being really bad for weeks, mind you one place I was stocked up all the time bit far nearest shops and no transport. It is a habit I still have but not quite so bad now.

Well I used to look at it a little bit that way when I had livestock to feed up in the hills, though Winter had hardly started by 21st of Dec.
I used to reckon on having half their Winter supply still on hand on St Valentines Day to be on the safe side, though that was back in the days of long hard Winters.

Better get back to topic I suppose, never having fed my cows on mince pies before.

Rather you than me, that's for sure.

Interesting, isn't it those who deny climate change, and yet like you, even as far south as Cambridge, I can clearly see in my mind's eye, a clear change from very cold winters to much milder ones from the 60s to the present day.

Miserable sod.

Graham

I am sure there must be some body we can report him to ...tut no mince mice pies for his girls

Sounds good to me.

Ive just taken my xmas cake out of the oven.Smells really festive here at the mo.

But my cake already has brandy in it and will be fed at intervals with even more.

I love xmas cake and mince meat with percent proof in it.Its got to to done.

The xmas cake has to be definitely drown in alcohol for me to like it... that also applies to the mince pies.

Graham and Rosemary, I think I would like yours!

Yes, we think that you would the mincemeat smells great and it will get better and better as time goes on.

I used to make at least 10 Christmas cakes every year because all the older relatives and the immediate family liked to have them as presents. One year I had an accident with my daughters glass of coke when I was putting extra brandy into the cakes. Only one cake suffered the drenching and the recipient said that there was something different about her cake and she could not work out what I had used extra on it but could I do it again please.

Now I do not make any christmas cakes because neither of us like them.

Rosemary