..is how I am going to end this blogging year.

'Is your glass half empty or half full?'  asked the Mole in Charlie Mackesey's book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. 'I think I'm grateful to have a glass.' said the boy.

I have a glass - a very pretty charity shop find...

and I am very grateful that it is full of Brandy Alexander!

(A friend and I 'met' for cocktails last night.)

I will raise a glass at midnight tonight to all my friends here and say a deeply felt THANK YOU for helping me through 2020.

 I am setting aside today to Unravel 2020 with Susannah Conway's help She has a free workbook to guide me in looking back in order to look forward....Treating it lightly.

A very short freezing walk to the shore yesterday! I chose to see this wonderful clouod as a good omen - a giant bird of hope for 2021. Funny how we do that...

Susannah Conway also offers a guide to choosing a word for the coming year - that's next. Under consideration are Glad, Recovering, Adventure, Hope and Best.

Will you be choosing a word for 2021?

..of a very strange year, and I don't know how I want to end it here on the blog. What I do know is that I want it to end!
I've never felt like that before.

I am thinking about my word for next year. My word for this year was stronger.

Sometimes just getting up and carrying on is brave and magnificent.

I love these words by Charlie Mackesy.

I have had the laziest Christmas ever..and I've loved it.

Though I did have a frosty barefoot walk this morning, and I do go out to feed the birds.

The house smells wonderful as I have just made these spiced nuts (a Nigella recipe). Toasted in a non stick pan with oil, garam masala, celery salt, muscovado sugar and rosemary they make a lovely nibble with a glass of mulled wine...

Here is another Charlie Makesy bit of wisdom -

'What is the bravest thing you have ever said?' asked the boy.
'Help' said the horse.
'

Being kind to yourself can start now..

'What do you want to be when you grow up?'
'Kind' said the boy.

I hope you can pour youself a lovely drink, snuggle down for half an hour on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and listen to  The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse.

(also available from Penguin on A)udilble)

Brilliantly read by the author and illustrator Charlie Makesy, this is utterly enchanting.

My special nessage to anyone who is alone - please look after yourself beautifully!

Happy Christmas and I hope you will all be as cosy as this fox.

..to look after.

..the shortest day, and a turning point hopefully!

We need light, lots of light - fairylights, candlelight, and starlight. There will be more daylight from today, and some sunlight would be wonderful (it's been very murky here of late).

I feel for the parents of children young enough to be expecting Santa and old enough to be able to read all the Christmas Is Cancelled headlines. They must have had a lot of reassuring to do today here in uk where much tighter restrictions have been imposed.

The fact is Christmas Day is still Decemberr 25th. We  have to think what kind of meaningful Christmas we can have - a thoughtful one might be nice.

It wasn't cancelled on radio 3 today. Christmas Around Europe was a delight and very moving while I wrapped gifts to get to the post tomorrow, though how I come to be doing so much at the last minute beats me!  I've had all the time in the world after all....

How are your preparations going?

..except that it's only 371 days till next Christmas!

Smile...

.. is a virus, doing what a virus does - replicating at every opportunty.

It doesn't know or care if you complain, or what tier you are in, or if its fair, (the words fair and virus can't belong in the same sentence). It's not personal or political or rational or evil. It doesn't know we have vaccines. It doesn't know it's Christmas. It doesn't 'know' anything, other than to replicate in human bodies at every opportunity and how to spread to other human bodies whenever and wherever it can. It doesn't know or care that it makes us ill, so ill that some of us wll die.

We, however, know how to reduce it's chances of replicating and spreading. We have  choices to make.

Simple.

Though we may not like it.  :-(

We have controlled many viruses in the past. :-)

We will defeat this one too, of course.

,,is required with this particular robin..

..which is rather shy. In many ways it is easier to tame a robin in summer when it is used to you being about the garden, indeed often keeping you close company as you disturb the soil exposing worms, but possibly in winter it is hungrier, which could be an advantage.

After putting mealworns out in the same place at the same time every day for a while, you will probably find the robin waiting nearby at feeding time, and the next step is for you to wait nearby  - but not too near - until it comes to feed. Gradually, over a week or two, you will nove closer, just standing or sitting quite still as it gets used to your presence.

If you have two robins and one chases the other off, you probably have two males - they are fiercely territorial. But if there are two and they tolerate each other they are most likely a pair. The nale may feed the female which is about the only way you can  tell the sexes apart. They can pair up as early as January.

Not a very good photgraph as this one does not like me to get too close - yet.

Cherry and cinnamon, listening to Schubert. A moment of sanity and peace. Perfect.

These triangle lights remind me of a very happy winter trip to Stockholm where almost every window had either these lights or a large star. I loved the city -wide simplicity of that.

If I coulld keep only one decoetion it would be these. I have them in every window, and if I come home in the dark the sight of them warms my hearrt.

What's your favourite? The one which warms your heart and makes this nidwinter season seem special?

The roller-coaster that is Christmas in a time of pandemic.

Anxiety levels are high. Every where and with everyone. It's a pandemic after all.

 Politics/vaccines/tradetalks/supply chains/deadlines/graphs/numbers of dead/scandals/controversies/information and misinformation/masks and social distancing/ schools open/schools closed/changing rules/guidelines/laws/heartbreaks/the 538 decisions required to buy and set up a new laptop and even the simplest of things requires more thought than ever before...

Shopping locally (I am lucky to be in a low risk area) I stepped  into a shop and saw someone I knew at the counter and said Hello. You don't have a flag said the boy behind the cash desk. You've come into the shop without a flag! There are too many people in the shop! His tone of voice suggested the situation was an emergency.

I didn't know what on earth he was talking about and it must have shown on my face as I headed for the exit ( I did understand the bit about too many people in the shop ) as some of the people, trying to be helpful, waved their flags at me. and pointed towards the door.  Nearly, but not quite, toppling a stack of books I found a sign. All shops have at least ten signs most of which I can't read anyway. I have AMD.  By this time I had figured out that you had to have a flag to enter the shop, and someone was taking the last flag and putting it into my hand while telling me how lucky I was that there was one left. I wasn't feeling in the least lucky. I was feeling like some bumbling idiot as I dashed over to my friends and arranged to meet at a nearby coffee shop then got back out as quickly as I could throwing my flag into the box attached to the window.

An outside table at The Boathouse with a view down the calm waters of the Firth of Clyde, friendly service and a good cup of coffee restored my equilibrium a little.  I was at the bus stop when I realised I had walked off without paying for my coffee. I tried phoning my friends who were still at the cafe but by mistake left the message on her home phone instead of her mobile....

I was so glad to get home.

Aaaaargh....Have you had days like this? In the great scheme of things nothing much, but at the time...

..gently towards a quiet Christmas.  I am enjoying the things that can be the same as usual, that can be 'normal'. (I always feel I have to put that word in inverted commas now!)

I can still enjoy selecting, writing sending and receiving Christmas cards. I love Christmas cards! I can bring out the Christmas box from the eaves cupboard and select my favourite ornaments. I can put the triangle lights in every window of the house to shine out into the darkness. Burning the orange and cinnamon scented candle, and bringing in pine branches....

The present list is coming along.

I bought three of these tiny and perfect poinsettias with my supermarket shop - they are about 6 inches high.

I'm thinking of having a wildlife Christmas, mainly because it will have nothing to do with Covid, and if I can tame my rather shy robin by Christmas day that would be the perfect present.

Tip one - buy a supply of mealworms, online or from a pet shop. Live ones are irresistable to a robin - they respond to the movement instinctively, but dried ones are proving attractive to this robin.

Tip two - put some out in the same place around the same time every day..


Over at Cornflower Books Karen has found a great little series of short films about art in a most beautiful house which  you might enjoy....See here.

Tomorrow - a confession. It's not all sweetness and light here!

!
The first snow, the first Christmas card and the first present all arrived on the same day recently. The new laptop just got set up this morning...give me a day or two to  get the hang of it, but it's so nice to be back here!

I hope you are all well.

...some technical problems - sorry- hope not to be away too long!

Meantime, keep feeding the robins and stay safe and well.

But before you go November, taking my cold with you please, here are the last few items on the list which helped me through...

Make a will because it's the right thing to do.

Show the people you love that yu cared enough to save them extra stress and worry by making or updating your will.  A cheap kit from the stationery department (perfectly legal here in uk), a chairty - linked free session soliciotor, or if your affairs are complex an appointment  with a solicitor/lawyer. We don't want to think about this, but for peace of mind we really must.

Make a point of following the rules to help others.

We isolate so that when we gather again no one is missing.

Says it all really.

Make changes to your routine so that you don't get bored.

I've done a little of this (watching less news) but am finding some routines comfortingly normal.

Make love not war

Well, of course.

Make a virtue out of necessity

Tricky one? Many have done things they had been putting off, learned a new skill, put their houses in order......In something of this vein I note the wording of the Scottish Government advice and rules. We have Protection Levels rather than Restriction levels. Clever psychology?

Make the best of it!

Whyever not? What would be the point of making the worst of it after all.


I hope the list was of interest to you, and maybe even helped you make it through.

Now December is about taming a robin.....