ANOTHER CAKE AND ANOTHER STORM

On of the most nerve racking enterprises in which I engage is the making of the Chocolates Yule Log,my son's absolute favourite Christmas pudding. There are so many things which can go amiss with what seems on the face of it, a simple enough recipe.

Incidentally you can find my recipe among last years “Avies Home-made Christmas” blogs.

I am happy to report that in spite of a few alarms ,like the kitchen door blowing open violently in the storm,the cat Harry deciding he liked chocolate butter cream and a suicidal spider the log came out perfectly,pheeeeeeeew! Now I can breath again.

The cat's Christmas gifts arrived ,one a sort of race track with a ball to chase another a tunnel with holes here and there to pop our of and some every expensive tuna loin treats Throughout the day the storm raged about the cottage and worsened as the afternoon wore on. By four in the afternoon t was rapid;y turning into a beastly night and I watched the trees in the lane twist and writhe about as I drank a mug of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows.

By dinner time the storm was even worse and the sound of it's passage through the trees could be heard above the television. From time to time some flying object struck a window or the door,this made the cats nervous and to be perfectly honest it gave me the jim-jams too.

Of some concern is the Christmas meat delivery due tomorrow morning from out butcher in Grimsby. With the storm hitting the East Coast tonight I fear that the delivery could well be late,or may even not arrive at all. In the event of such a disaster we have a huge chunk of beef in one of the freezers,a very large chicken and a piece of very good pork....we shall not go hungry.

It is dark now and the trees can no longer be seen lashing about in the wind,occasionally a rending,tearing sound tells us that another ancient tree has succumbed to the strength of the wind.

The noise is deafening and the curtains are billowing from the draughts such a wind creates ,it's time to snuggle up in a warm bed and even if the noise prevents sleep there is nothing quite like feeling cosy in the middle of such a storm as this.

We seem to be having a lot of this kind of storm these days,wild wind and torrential rain,living as we do on the river there is always the thought of flooding at the back of ones mind.

I once heard of a family who escaped through the roof of their house when a flood threatened their lives,I have gone one step further than that....I have a couple of dingos in the attic complete with oars and all the trimmings. I jolly well hope that we never need to use the