Friday, December 17th, 2021 It has been a while since I posted here - have been busy with Christmas cards, Christmas presents, and dressing the house up to celebrate the season. Time to stop a minute and answer the phone (my daughter, who brings me news of the day each evening) It is very icy here - we had snow, a bit of melting, another bout with cold and the ice came back to hopefully make everyone careful how they walk, or shuffle. I don't venture out myself, - it is enough to keep upright and mobile in the house. Eenings, and I am attracted by good TV programs, or a lovely read. I have been reading Robert Macfarlane (still) but new books that I purchased to give away as Christmas gifts. The one I bought for a son (I do not mention which one of the four!)is called "The Wild Places" and I quote the front cover....."An eloquent and compulsively readable reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface" Macfarlane questions whether they are any truly wild places left, but he goes on to describe journeys through some of the remarkable and amazing landscapes he walks through. I have to hurry and finish this book before I wrap it, - I shall take it to bed with me tonight!!! I also purchased a little book to go with it, called "Holloway" by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards. He describes the holloway thusly, - "the holloway is absence; a wood-way worn away by buried feet......a hollow way. a sunken path. A route that centuries of foot-fall, hoof-hit, wheel-roll and rain-run have harrowed deep down into bedrock" It reminds me of a path we used to take to get to school, through tall trees and bushes. Christmas comes closer and closer..... I still have a card table laden with books and scarves and mittens, awaiting either a careful and creative wrapping or a stuffing into a Christmas bag, if I don't get on with things while there is still time before the final countdown! I find mornings when I can be most creative and 'with it' - but I will lay out the wrapping paper, the tape and the holiday ribbon before I go to bed tonight, so it will catch my eye, my fancy and my will to get on with things! I looked contemplatively at the rest of the shortbread dough that I had wrapped up and saved for another session with the oven, and probably will squeeze that into the morning agenda, too! In the meantime, I shall take my tablet and a couple of soda crackers (my dear one would have viewed frightfully the idea of taking soca crackers to bed - and it is true that I would sooner have him grumbling than any cracker crumbs!!) However, one must praise what comes to make life bearable!!!