Launch

A day mostly occupied with Christmas preparations. Despite having a cough, Pete accompanied me into Peterborough this morning to pick up Molly's present and a few other bits and pieces. It was raining quite heavily and I discovered that my favourite pair of boots has developed a crack in the sole, which meant that I rapidly got a damp sock.

We got everything done fairly quickly, and after a restorative cup of coffee, I headed out to the Rowing Lake. By this time the skies had cleared and there was brilliant sunshine. I spotted hazel catkins out along the river, making it feel quite springlike, even though it's still two days till the solstice. On my way back I disturbed this heron, and caught it just as it was becoming airborne.

In the afternoon Ben and I made some chocolates (some of which will be given away) - peanut pretzel knobblies, black forest truffles and creamy salted caramel fudge. The last of these was the most tricky - I haven't made fudge for a long time, and never on our induction hob, so initially the temperature was a bit high. Then the sugar thermometer  stopped working! Nevertheless, it all turned out OK, and looks very pretty decorated with dried raspberry and bronze sugar nuggets.