Christmas preparations are under way. Where we live now is very extraverted, and there are lights and inflatable figures and reindeer everywhere, so this is very low key. On the other hand, we have room for a much bigger tree than last year, so this weekend we will be making up for lost time, and inviting the grandchildren to come and decorate. They made a gingerbread house yesterday, which is still intact, though welded together with an unfeasible amount of royal icing.
But apart from that, I have been to a couple of live events. I was at the relaunch of Stirling’s Forth Fridays at the Smith Museum on the night Storm Arwen struck. She was a feisty one. I nearly got blown off my feet at one point. I was at the station watching one train after another get cancelled, when we were finally informed that not only were there no trains at all, the station frontage was in danger of falling down, and we would have to leave by the back gate. The upside of this was staying with my daughter and grand-daughter, and taking them for an American breakfast with waffles and maple syrup (in my grand-daughter’s case this also included breaded chicken but we won’t go into that!).
The second was quieter, though there was snaow involved at one point. I met my friend Anne Connolly, whom I hadn’t seen since covid, for lunch, browsed a couple of second hand book shops, and went to deliver at poetry workshop for a community garden group called Greening Our Street. They are very active, welcoming group, growing flowers and herbs and vegetables, sharing with other groups and welcoming people from all backgrounds and nationalities. They were looking to develop their creative writing as a new way to share what they have enjoyed about working together. I can’t think of anything better or more creative than that. I hope to keep up links with them as we go into a new growing year!
People who subscribe to my newsletter will have found it a bit quiet lately because of the move, and subsequent upheaval to my writing processes. I am beginning to formulate the next steps, and it looks as though it will be quarterly rather than the random way I tried last year, but the Christmas card has been chosen!