Festivities, fungi, and our first christmas tree! 🎄

Warning ❗ this post is going to be very festive and very photo-full, proceed with caution....

Things are feeling very christmassy over here in our little household, the fairy lights are on and Sia's christmas album is playing in the background as I type this (it's an underrated album! Puppies Are Forever is a banger and you can fight me on that one).

Dried oranges and a pink grapefruit.

I took this sweet photo of the neighbour's cat as I got home from a run last week, doesn't it look like a christmas card?! And also here is my indoor cyclamen finally blooming (another freebie from work!), I'm not really a fan of cyclamen as houseplants but I was told it would die if I put it outside so hey ho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On 1st December, Ed and I went and chose our first christmas tree! We live just down the road from a christmas tree farm so it felt nice to be able to support a local business, also it was just very handy! It was fun to be able to see our tree growing there with all its friends and then bring it home and see it fit perfectly into the space in our living room 🎄

I had a spare facemask in my pocket so we used that to identify our tree.

I think this might be candlesnuff fungus?

Ta da!

My little (hopefully growing) collection of weird vintage Santa ornaments......I like how the christmas lights shine through the orange slice decorations.........and me knitting my sock in the light of the tree!

One of the perks of having had a covid wedding is that we can repurpose all our unused decorations for christmas 😇 such as metres of hessian "paper chain" garlands, many pompoms, colourful bottle lights, lots of fake ivy.......it was fun to see it all again. I forgot how much time and effort we (mainly my mum and I) put into making and gathering things for that big event that didn't quite happen. C'est la vie...at least we're getting some use out of things now!

Ed writing christmas cards, and Juniper just being sweet! She is being surprisingly good with the christmas tree, not once has she tried to attack it or climb it! She gave it a wary sniff at first and now just likes to hang out underneath it sometimes. None of our many houseplants have suffered either, I think we somehow got an angel kitten (but I don't want to speak too soon)!

Lovely, warm, sunrise light.

We don't have a wreath for the door, so a few oranges will do this year!

The lovely advent calendar made by my mum!

Would it be a Bethany blog post if I didn't spam you with a load of Juniper snaps? She seems to have outgrown sleeping in my hoodie but her new favourite thing is to sleep under a blanket, either swaddled up like a baby or just completely underneath so she is just an almost invisible lump that you have to be careful not to sit on!

Spot Juniper!

I decided to give my monstera deliciosa its first trim this week so that it fits better in the corner where it lives...it felt wrong, I won't lie. I get so excited each time a new leaf grows so to cut a few off on purpose was weird, but I think it shows plant mum maturity. The chopped off leaves are now being pretty in a vase in our bedroom.

Two photos from two different days which show the clear, bright blue sky we've had recently, and you can spot the moon in both! 🌝 Featuring Ed's frosty car and the queue outside the post office.

Also, kind of random but here's a photo of Tom. I like to include him in my posts when I can because let's face it, he used to be the star of this blog! Ed and I visited him last week and it was the first time we'd seen him since we've had Juniper. It was crazy because he looked like a huge tiger in comparison to our little kitten, we couldn't believe it! 🐅

The next section of this post documents a spontaneous and magical Sunday afternoon outing to an unknown place on Dartmoor, we just drove down the road (past the christmas tree farm!) and carried on until we felt like getting out! We arrived just in time for excellent golden hour light 😍 it was amazing!

We decided to document all the fungi we saw on our walk, let me know if you can identify any of them!

🌞

The last sun hitting the trees.

We stumbled upon this very cool, kinda spooky, abandoned building. Not sure what it used to be, but there was a big tree inside which has grown right out of the roof! Nature taking over neglected places is one of my favourite things.

I look like I'm in a country life magazine 😂

Next up is our beautiful jewel orchid (don't worry we're almost at the end now!).....its flowers are starting to open! It's so delicate and pretty.

A tiny fried egg.

Time for some more Juniper...

I am yet to succeed at getting a good photo of her in the sunlight, one day!

And finally, my sock! I'm so nearly there, just got to decrease for the toes and stitch up the hole...then I can wear my one sock! Jokes, I still need to knit the second one but that shouldn't take too long seeing as I know how it works now. How exciting! 🐑 

Check back next week to hopefully see it on my foot!!!!!!!