Artificial snow snapped

An early and swift Blip today. Helena has just been up to show me the Christmas cake that she has just finished icing. She cooked it quite a while ago and has been valiantly feeding it with brandy ever since, which I am delighted about. This looks brilliant and I was even offered an offcut of the organic marzipan which is now lying underneath this 'snow'.

We had another few inches of the real stuff last night and it is still gently falling. I went out late last night to hear the silence on Helena's recommendation. I even scrunched about in the snow to hear that unique sound of newly compressed flakes underfoot. Helena went out early this morning to see if she could see the Eclipse, but it was snowing. I checked some astrology software last night and it does look an interesting arrangement of planetary aspects and particularly with my old friend Chiron conjunct with Neptune, for those few who are interested.

Whilst having a bath this morning, I went back to reading my camera's manual, in English photocopy form rather than the Japanese original. The camera was cheaper because it was a grey market model! So I decided to try out the pre-set for portraits for the first time with this 50 mm. Since I focussed on the cake, poor Helena is not in focus, but she preferred this one to the other couple of shots. I think i will go back to manual settings rather quickly!

We do love our Christmas cakes, usually needing several before our winter festival is over. Perhaps we can find one or two, or three in the winter sales, as we often do! I need to make lunch now to stop me thinking of this cake.

ps
Have you checked the BlipBlog for the good news?