Decay of the Decade

It's the last day of the decade. It was cool and damp to start with but improved throughout the morning. Urban-cub brought Ellie along for us to look after while she worked a late shift at the airport. Ellie had only just woken up and was still a bit zonked. It didn't take her long to snap out of it and from then on she was the usual bundle of joy.

The Silver Vixen had bought her some utensils for baking, and yesterday she had ensured we had the correct ingredients for her to enter the great morning bake-off.

She donned her chef's hat and her apron and took all of the ingredients out of the box and laid them out on the work surface.

The Silver Vixen stepped in to help and the Gorse Fox beat a safe distance to his study. Slowly, the smells of baking biscuits permeated the house. They were clearly having a great deal of fun. The timer on the oven went off and there was a frisson of excitement. Soon Ellie was standing by the Gorse Fox's desk with a nice warm biscuit in her hand. It was delicious.

The rest of the day was spent playing with her other crafts. There was painting, there was drawing, and there was play-dough. Then during the afternoon, she took to the lounge and the bedroom, camping on the floor of the lounge and using our bed as a trampoline. Pistol Pete managed to get away from work a little earlier than expected and came to collect Ellie around five-ish.

It was then a bit of a rush. We were due to meet up with the Sonning Crew at the home of Old Bill and Lady Penelope at seven, and we still had to prepare a starter for the meal. (Each couple would be providing one course of the festive dinner). In a flurry of breadcrumbs, paprika, and mushrooms slowly things began to come together. Nevertheless, it was very much down to the wire as we stumbled out of the house clutching the dishes on the dot of seven.

We had a lovely evening. Lots of chat and laughter and a soupcon of lubricating drinks. Slowly the clock ticked down towards midnight. Another couple joined us. The TV clicked on and we watched the New Year's fireworks, both on the TV and through the windows as local families clearly had their own displays.

It had been a lovely evening... and quite some decade!