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Hi, Rusty!
Well, when one counts heads , there are quite a number of people for whom to buy them!
Some of the gifts, though, are only smaller things for the children......but I wrap them individually as half the fun is in the unwrapping !
But as I said earlier, I am thankfully near the end of it all now.
How many pieces is your jigsaw puzzle?
I think mine is a tad too ambitious for me.
I too am going out for lunch tomorrow!

Good morning, Rusty!
It is a beautiful day here...the sun is shining in a bright blue sky!
I am going out very shortly....a bit of shopping and meeting a friend for lunch.
I hope you enjoy your morning at the Pine Cone with Miss La Bamba!

Wiki has the two place names as possibly having a similar root. Adding in other info, Croxteth said to be a contraction of "Stochestede" (or stockade, place for cattle) and Toxteth from Crocker's staithe, Crocker being a person, Viking or not according to taste (did they really have Vikings round there and is it a Viking name?) and staithe a landing place (as in ships, for the loading and unloading of).
mmm
One of my family names is Fairam, or Farlam, or ffarlam or Fairlamb (far north of England) , also according to taste. (I like ffarlam, myself). If you look this up in a dictionary of surnames, you used to get stuff about chimneys that didn't smoke (as in lang may your lums not reek). However, about 20 years ago I saw a sign pointing to Farlam, a village in Cumbria. I have a copy from a 12th century roll mentioning a Roger de Farlam. One of the sources of surnames is place names, so Bingo. I notice that this origin has now been adopted by on-line dictionaries. It's supposed to come from places where ferns grow, chrise!
I lost my internet connection for most of yesterday and until about 9 am this morning

Hello Elle and Rusty

Good luck with the jigsaws. I have cleared my dining-table of them, ready for Christmas.

Hello Pigale

Did you do your recent jigsaws? I did a 1000 piece map of London Underground - never again. The last 200 pieces were white and it was trial and error fitting them in. Not very interesting.

Hello Rosalind

Interesting to read about Croxteth/Toxteth. I believe the Vikings were in the Wirral, Irby, Greasby etc

The Lakes are great for ferns, rosalind. The British Pteridological Society was founded there in the 19th century.

https://ebps.org.uk/

I guess it is wet enough there, chris! Thank you

Good afternoon, Elle!
Fine day here, too.
I am home for the day now.
Had a nice time at Pine Cone.
Puzzle is on the easy side, I think.

Hello Jigjag,

No, I have not even set up the plywood board on which I do puzzles!
I am giving my back (which is a lot better) another couple more weeks before I make a start. I am more than a little tired of feeling achy and
do not wish to take any risk!

I did do a 1000 pieces puzzles of 'Old Paris' once - never again!
The pieces were very small and I almost needed a magnifying glass
to complete it!

Good afternoon Elle, Rusty and Ros,

How are you? I see you are all very busy with Christmas
preparations - that's one thing that I don't bother with anymore,
but I do remember the fun hours it used to be getting tree and
everything ready.

Reasonably bright here too, not exactly warm but way too mild
for this time of the year - we may pay for it around Easter!

Are you busy cooking any special cakes Rosalind?

Hi pigale

Yes. I am cooking a special cake, a gingerbread house complete with a roof covered in choc drop tiles, and then snow edges (every tile, 5 bags of them, with a snowy edge, chocolate trees (moulded), fence (choc matchsticks) and children with snowballs. Tomorrow I make the walls and set them together, Saturday I decorate it. The house eventually gets lit from inside.
Plus have to clean the garden cloches (they make a tunnel from front door to tree) and decorate the tree on Sunday (it can only stay inside max 48hours as I shall plant it out later). I am altering table mats to fit new colour scheme. Have many curries to make for Monday, a wool game to organise. At least I have wrapped up everything and slung the myriad lights rund oneend of the room. If I have the energy I'll clean the silver!
I had a day off yesterday, now housework beckons. I have just returned from the shops and found I had forgotten to buy any food for myself!