I did something on the weekend I've never done before. No, nothing sinister or illegal. I roasted chestnuts on an open fire. At the moment, it's late July and winter in Australia. My husband had been working away from home for the week and I wanted to do something special for dinner to make him feel glad to be home. But special for us doesn't usually mean a fancy 5 star restaurant. It's usually something homey like a really good home cooked meal. I like to reconnect with the earth by baking, so we set up the outdoor fire pit and I bought chestnuts and a roasting rack. It was such a simple thing to do, and because of its simplicity it worked a trick in boosting both our spirits. This brings me to the topic of tradition. Literature is steeped in in. From Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to J K Rowlings' "Harry Potter" series to Helen Fielding's "Bridget Jones 's Diary", Christmas is filled with turkey, pudding,
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