Beezle Slippers

Today saw a 'Christmas Market' in Kidlington, right by La Maria that we discovered last Friday.

This Christmas contribution was a row of stalls down one side of the High Street, thus extending the normal Friday market. There wasn't much unusual, although there were some nice 'Arts & Crafts', and pretty beads and baubles and the like. No doubt such things would make very nice presents if one only knew recipients who would appreciate them! Then there were local meats and cheeses, and some good cooked food to eat on hoof, about which more in a minute.

The hand-made slippers made a slightly unusual appearance amongst the more regular goods that were offered. They look very warm and snug, and especially those made from beezle (aka sheep) fleeces.

I had intended to make my photograph today a picture of the pig roast that was announced. There was, indeed, a pig being roasted on a spit, but the whole works was enclosed in a metal cover, so there wasn't really anything photogenic about it. Perhaps this is an H & S issue! The roast certainly did not compare with the spectacular celebratory barbecue of a whole lamb (mechoui), outdoors and unprotected in a field in France, accompanied by lashings of champagne and good wine. The mechoui was in honour of a (North African) French doctoral student who had been awarded his doctorate (by a jury that included your present contributor).

Despite the lack of a photograph of the spit-roasting of the pig, the results do look rather delicious and tempting. They certainly smelled very good...

Elsewhere, there were sausages for eating from a stall run by an outfit selling game and other local produce.

And for 'afters', you could do worse than to sample some of the pancakes served with Nutella and other toppings.