Tis the Season

It's very hard to keep merry at this time of the year, the queues are long, tempers frayed and the shops seem to be full of things you don't want and empty of things you do.

What a pleasure it was then to take some time out to wander around Cirencester one evening and enjoy carols, a lantern procession and a Germanesque Christmas market. By the time we got there most of the shops were closed (although the stalls at the market were open) so a lot of the hustle and bustle had gone and people were meandering about happily.

It has to be said that it didn't quite compete with the Cologne Christmas market that we visited a few years back, this one is on a much smaller scale, but there are still lots of stalls selling lovely handcrafted goods, decorations and great food. There is mulled wine, Gloucester old spot sausages and the densest, most chocolatey brownies that I've ever tasted (these were probably the reason we walked home in record quick time.)


The lanterns were gorgeous too, every conceivable Christmas shape made out of willow and coloured tissue paper. Algie thinks he will make one next year and take part ... I'm guessing it might take the form of a giant toblerone.

A lovely evening despite a catastrophic start at Costa .. we ordered a Caramel Latte which I hated. It was supposed to be a Crème Brûlée Latte but to be honest the menu is so extensive that I was lucky to end up with any kind of coffee at all. Still it helped keep the chill off.

Algie forgot to charge up his camera so that explains the pretty poor photo's, these were the best of a bad bunch which was a shame because the lanterns were glorious.