It is hard to believe this is our fifth Christmas in Ireland. Five years ago we packed up, gave many of our possessions away and left the UK. We had a rental cottage arranged but no permanent home to go to and we knew very little about the area we had chosen. It was, truly, a leap in the dark. Thanks to some good friends we arrived to a warm room, a roaring fire and an Irish welcome. There was even a Christmas tree waiting to be decorated.
We must have looked a ragged little family, wet, cold and exhausted from the stress of the move and the journey and with little but the clothes we stood up in. It is hard to get more than that and three dog travelling cages in the back of a Peugeot 308! As Covid was gearing up for a new wave of sickness we were under strict lockdown for two weeks so couldn’t rescue any clothes or possessions from the storage facility. This situation stretched for months as a new, nationwide lockdown was imposed on December 30th.
Despite this we still managed a Christmas in our small cottage. Our lovely friend Lynn has somehow found a space in our car for the tree ornaments, both of us had wrapped a couple of presents and smuggled them in for the other and we had one day to hit the town and gather Christmas food. Jacqui turned this into a wonderful meal and we were feeling quite festive by the end of the day. Our own little tin-pot Irish Christmas.
This year we are settled in our own home and free to go where we please and the run up to Christmas hasn’t been as fraught as it was five years ago but it has been rather difficult. As regular readers will know, Jacqui is now on crutches though thankfully she can still drive. I am trying to develop some stamina in my shoulders but they are still very weak and painful. We’d worked our way round a lot of things but then last month I caught ‘flu, and believe me, this year’s flu is very nasty. This exhausted me, I had a very bad cough and I lost my voice for a week. As we were relying on me to do the running around for shopping and other tasks as I have the functioning knees. This made life rather difficult.
We also had some more problems with our older dogs, one who is 18.5 years old and one almost 15. Cynthia, the younger of the two, has improved but still shows some of her previous symptoms so it was back to the vet for her. She’s not eating a lot at the moment though she’s developed a taste for Chloe’s special diet. This is the only commercial food we use and it is recommended for bladder stones in dogs. Chloe has become accustomed to it but will only eat it mixed with something decent, like cooked chicken. Cynthia, who previously would make gagging noises if she even smelt it, now picks out the chicken we add in and eats the special tinned food. I’m increasingly tempted to give them a bowl each and then swap them over halfway through.
Prone as we are to the tail end of Atlantic weather, it has been very grim with storm force winds and torrential rain for almost a week. The road outside was several inches deep in liquid mud from the fields making it dangerous to drive or even walk. As last month’s power washing overloaded the soakaway system our garden and drive are like a swamp in places and we only go out when it is absolutely necessary. Jacqui had her second round of eye injections last week and although they seem to be doing some good she had a dreadful 48 hours afterwards. Her eyelids became bruised and swollen, she was in great pain and she could hardly see. Then just as she was feeling better she succumbed to this nasty ‘flu.
Despite all this she has managed to make some Christmas puddings, is planning to add mince pies tomorrow and we still intend to get our fresh food shopping done early this week. We managed to get Christmas cards written and posted before the deadline and my next job is to get the tree up and string a few lights around. A real blessing this year is our lovely, more efficient wood burning stove which chucks out heat to supplement the central heating. So we will be done soon and can relax, dogs willing.
Well, today is the solstice and days begin to get longer, if colder for a while. As we look towards spring and warmer weather we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and successful New Year.
Thank you to everyone who reads this little blog. I really appreciate it and I hope to see you back again in 2026.
With much love, Jennie.
Nollaig shona!