First of all we welcomed back Pauline who had been off for a few weeks celebrating birthdays. Check-in contained positivity and updating each other about what had been going on for each of us since last we met.
We received surprise visitors which brought up some feelings and concern about the nature of their visit as it brought up some memories of difficult experiences in a previous TC. We finished check-in and feedback and took some time to talk about the feelings that had emerged as a result of the unexpected visit. After a quick break it was off to the kitchen to cook lunch.
Chef James checking on the eggs and Chef Pauline keeping an eye on the sauce .. Mama Mia!
We have three new chefs in our midst, Chef Pauline, Chef James and Chef Johnny. Pauline was looking after the pasta sauce while James made the egg mayo and Chef Johnny was responsible for cheese and garlic , kitchen porter Neil did the onion while general skivvy Hils was on paperwork and washing up duty.
Great cheese grating Johnny!
Egg-cellent egg mayo Chef James!
Sufficiently replete, we collected some greenery for our upside Christmas tree and checked on the seedlings which are coming on a treat!
The fat and seed balls that we hung from a tree in the allotment for hungry birds had disappeared and the net they had been in was in tatters, we suspect this may be due to a squirrel raid.
nothing left of the fat balls
We found lovely yew branches which we took back to the Yurt and fashioned them into our upside-down Christmas Tree (the Yurties invented upside-down Christmas trees) and all agreed it was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. This evoked a conversation about spiritual beliefs and what meaning Christmas has for us.
Upside-down Christmas Tree Baubling
We are all very proud of this thing of beauty!
During Check-out group members talked about how today felt like a different group and that established roles changed, this felt a bit worrying for some as they didn’t want to upset anyone, however, we were able to discuss these feelings which is a good thing
To end the day, we chose our Planticons while filling in our diaries and looked forward to the Christmas Gathering next Tuesday before saying our goodbyes until then.