Good Ending

Wensleydale and Swaledale are adjacent, parallel valleys, running west to east off the Pennine hills into the Vale of York. In north Yorkshire. Wensleydale cheese is well-known and available as a minor option in most supermarkets - usually pre-cut and vacuum-packed. Swaledale is better known for its sheep than its cheese, and this is the first I have ever seen - a generous gift from co-grandparents. It is completely unfair to compare artisan-made, cloth-wrapped, matured cheese with a self-service plastic pack, but this is in a different league: balanced, creamy, refreshing; if you get the chance, go for it

Next Christmas it will be 30 years since Wallace and Grommit catapulted sales of Wensleydale cheese into the mainstream, with hilarious, heartfelt enthusiasm fot a Yorkshire cheese in a Lancashire accent. Tonight's instalment of the saga - the only time we watched a screen - had some visual fun with the rivalry between the historic counties, and with its own historic association with cheese, despite the thoroughly modern focus of the humour. Having three people in the room who lived for several years on narrowboats enriched those sections for us. Both the cheese and the story are perfect post-feast indulgence

One of our number is hit by quite a nasty (to quote W&G) seasonal illness, but otherwise we passed a day of perfect contentment, doing all the traditional eating and gifting and remembering, to a backdrop of the happy sound of two cherished boys. All those who wished us a happy Christmas had their wishes granted