I Had A Surprise,

first thing in the morning,

 when I went to start writing the blog, there was this box on my chair,

 I really did not know what to make of it,

 it came with a message,

 after posting the blog,

 it was time to investigate,

 opening number 1,

 what should I find?

 a mini bottle of bubbly!

 that will go nicely with Sunday lunch, many thanks to Diana, 

 we also had a couple of sweet advent calendars on the fireplace,

 Quality Street, a mixture of chocolates and toffees,

 and heros with mini bars,

 it was time for our Christmas decorations outside our front door,

 our Rudolph door mat,

 and wreath,

 I had to pop down to the shops for a few things, and noticed that there will be some gaspipe repair works going on soon,

 the sun low as I walked to Beckenham,

 on the way back the owners of the Gate House, or Foxgrove Lodge as it is known, has put their Christmas tree out,

 arriving home, work still to start on the gaspipe,

 Diana had been busy, the goose was cooked,

 as I sat at the table I noticed the Jay was back looking for peanuts, 

 on to our Sunday lunch,

 a starter of mussels,

 then time for the advent bubbly,

 carefully does it, 

 and we were ready to go,

 'Cheers!',

next the big bottle and on to our main course,

 which was delicious, and there was lots of it, I will be having goose sandwiches for weeks to come!

 we had bought a small Christmas pudding for dessert,

 and some brandy, 

 well it is the first day of Christmas, 

 a top up of brandy,

 and we were in business,

 the dessert needed just one more thing, 

 to be opened up a little, and a extra dash of brandy added, 

 what a great start to Christmas,

 and there was still more to come,

a sweet for myself and chocolate bar for Diana, what a lovely way to start Christmas, in the late afternoon Steve called round for a coffee and a chat, 

after he left it was feet up for Citizen Kane, which Diana mentioned she would like to watch, which was fine by me, we spent the rest of the evening watching a few quiz shows before we were off to bed.

I Have A Number Of Books,

from around the 1890s or thereabouts,

  that are illustrated with woodcuts, 

 most of which have natural history as their subject matter,

 and it is these illustrations that,

 Italian artist Michele Volpi brings to her clients’ skin,

 with a surrealist style and a monochromatic palette, Volpi inks diagrams of insects, plants, and human anatomy that resemble vintage illustrations borrowed from natural history or science textbooks,

 born in Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Italy in 1991, she only discovered that art of tattooing 5 years ago,

but already has a growing list of clients, for more of here work have a look here at her Etsy page, what an unusual subject matter for a tattoo, but there is no doubt that her work is spot on.

DIY Chopsticks,

I had never heard of them before,

 until now, for more than 100 years, a town in Nara Prefecture has been using leftover, high-quality cypress wood from the home construction process to create disposable chopsticks, but even in this process there are leftovers: slices of wood called hamidashimono that were simply collected and burned, so a team of designers worked with local craftspeople to up cycle these leftovers to create an izakaya-grade DIY chopstick set,

 the kit comes complete with everything you need,

 as well as 50 x Hamidashimono sticks you will receive in the kit a Higonokami Superior Brass whittling knife, sand paper, a chopstick holder and Ue Washi Koubou hand made paper bands for the wrapping chopsticks in prior to use,

and it is all rounded off in an indigo dyed tenugui, apparently whittling a single pair of chopsticks good enough for eating takes about fifteen minutes — and is the ideal pre-dinner activity over good conversation and a glass of sake, or two, just keep the plasters handy!