Sunday 28th December - towards next year

 I think it must be because tomorrow is a Monday, but it feels as though we are nearly into next year even though New Year's Day isn't until Thursday. 

I can start using my new diary for real tomorrow. It's been necessary to have two appointment diaries running in parallel for several months as the 2026 events come trickling in so moving over completely will be a relief.

I will take my last 'following a tree' photograph on Wednesday (or a day or so before, depending on the weather). Looking out, I can see that the last few leaves have finally dropped.

Drawing the tree was like creating a scruffy fractal image. The branches come all twisty out from the trunk, and divide, and divide, and divide until you stop. 

The amaryllis continues to be amazing. I noticed the leaves for the first time today.

Music; 

Philip Fowke playing the Andante variation from Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

I was given a beautiful, tiny little handmade book by a friend this Christmas. On each page she had written one of the Names of God, and a Bible reference for it 'as an aid to meditation'.

I have a mind like a butterfly that doesn't stick to one thought for very long; music like the Rachmaninov variation above helps... today's page has

'I am the Bread of Life'; John 6, 48-51

 I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Jesus, the bread that came down from heaven at Christmas....