Friday 2nd January - michief, tiding, conventicle, or tribe

 I've spent a good deal of time today watching the bird feeders. It's a constant joy. In all the decades we've lived here the feeders have never been as successful. 

Today I spotted sparrows, blue tits, long tailed tits for sure. Possibly other birds; I'm not that good at telling them apart yet. Definitely 2 starlings, but I'm glad they didn't stay too long, gobbling up the peanuts.

More ominously I saw just the tail of a squirrel in the big oak tree... I hope it doesn't start gorging on the bird seed and peanuts. I thought they hibernated, it is certainly cold enough at the moment. Below zero all day, and into next week as well.

Then there was a great commotion and a mischief or tiding or conventicle or tribe of eight magpies suddenly arrived in the oak, flushing out several pigeons from the branches. 'Eight's a wish, and nine's a kiss, and ten is a bird you must not miss'; who remembers that from the opening music for the children's TV programme?

We had to call out the gas board as there was a strong smell of gas at the bottom of the garden (cooking gas, not gasolene). We know there is a massive gas main running along the common ground parallel to the backs of the houses. I remember when they replaced it about 35 years ago.

It turned out this was due to some work being carried out some distance away so 'our' gas main is fine. He noticed in passing that some widget on our gas meter needed changing ('we swap these out whenever we notice them because they sometimes leak' said the gasman) so that got done in passing.  And we didn't even know it needed doing.

May I introduce Arnold Promise?

This will be my tree of the year 2026. It's a witch hazel I got in the Summer. 

It's so appropriate; my father died a year ago today. When my mother died in January 2016, we didn't know what to do with ourselves (me, my husband, my father, his brother and sister-in-law) so we all went to Nymans Gardens for lunch. They had witch hazels for sale, and my father wanted to buy me one, because I admired it and it was so pretty, but in the end we didn't get it. Now I've got what he and I both wanted.

It's in a pot at the moment, because I'm not sure where to put it in the garden. We are planning Major Upheavels at the back of the house this year so it will have to stay in the pot for a while until things settle down. Having been reading how trees all communicate through their root systems and the soil, I can't bear to keep it in a pot like a lonely caged animal for any longer than necessary. 

And here are the two Amaryllis flowers 

What a change from yesterday. Drawing the bud every day is fascinating. 

Thursday 1st January 2026 - Happy New Year

 It really is a Happy New Year for us. Last night as we were getting ready for bed, BB discovered that he was no longer wearing his wedding ring. Horrors! It had slipped off his finger sometime in the evening. 

It wasn't in plain sight anywhere so we went to bed, planning to search more thoroughly the next day.

We started after breakfast by slowly stripping the bed; BB goes up and makes it every evening and we thought that might be when he lost it.

Well, hurrah! I found it under my pillow! How romantic is that, sleeping with my husband's wedding ring under my pillow! We celebrated with coffee and croissants. 

It has been properly cold all day, but there was some sun this morning so here is my December 2025 picture of 'my' tree, the oak at the bottom of the garden 

It is almost completely bare of leaves, and will remain so until most of the other oaks are already green.

And here is next-door's cat guarding the bird feeders from all those pesky little birds that keep raiding them. We have a seed feeder and a peanut feeder in the apple tree as well as the one on the right.

Actually,  as long as Aki stays still, the birds will carry on, just keeing an eye on him. Aki isn't a climber, and he just likes watching them. Mostly.

My amaryllis plant keeps on growing. I can see a difference every day. Standing there and drawing the buds as they change helps me understand how the petals are carefully 'origami-ed' inside the green covers. 

Ì did finish the practice piece of the 2By2 stitching collaboration, today, not yesterday. Now I know how I should have gone about it, for when I start the 'real' piece which will be Ang's eventually. 

Another day of holiday, going through my Christmas presents, looking at the books, eating the chocolates and biscuits...

I'll start on the to-do lists, yes, three of them, one Monday. I wrote them on post-its and stuck them on next week's pages.

Until then I'm on holiday. If I was still teaching I'd be up to my eyes in planning; Oh the joy of retirement. Do I miss the school teaching? No, not a bit!

Wednesday 31st January - New Year's Eve

 I thought this might be a day for finishing things. 

My page-a-day 2025 diary, obviously; once I've written up today it can join the other the others on the shelf. I can't remember how long I've being doing this - since 2016 maybe. I wish I'd started sooner. I see I've lost a whole 1.5 k over the year; that's about 3 pounds or 4 ounces per month! I won't be getting 'Slimmer of the Year' anytime soon for sure. As long as I'm a little bit lighter rather than a lot heavier I'm happy.

I was going to draw the amaryillis flowers, and the new one that we'e just started off. I took some photographs to make it easier, but now I can see that's not going to happen. So here they are instead.

And I was delighted to see a single brave broad bean emerging from the cold dark soil under a cloche. I hope the hard frost and fog hasn't made it retreat back down again.

Yesterday I thought I should take a picture of my oak tree to round off the year, but I didn't get round to it. 'Never mind, tomorrow is another day'.

Well yes, but today started with frost and fog, which barely lifted until late afternoon. 'Tomorrow is another day', I doubt there will be much change in appearance of the tree.

It's been a quiet day; stitching - I've nearly finished the practice 2By2 piece for the current collaboration with Ang. We've given ourselves an extension into the New Year as neither of us had one anything until a day or two ago. 

Hint; if you want to sew with three strands of cotton and find they won't go through the eye of the needle, you could either find a needle with a larger eye, or decide it would look just as good with two strands instead. To save time and temper I chose the latter course. It looks fine.

I've finished two books over the last couple of days; Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher, and a 99p download on my Kindle, 'A Walk in the Park' by Jill Mansell.

We've had a long catchup call with friends living across the seas, hearing the news about Christmas and the family. Thank heavens for tech!

It's only seven-thirty in the evening; who knows but I might even finish the sleeves of my rainbow cardigan? 

But only if I crack on with supper; I'm frying up the bacon left over from yesterday and adding it to lentil and vegetable soup from a couple of days ago. To make it really festive we'll have some toast as well - we surely know how to live in this house!

Resolutions; the same as always (I don't set myself up to fail!);

2 bags of stuff donated/sold/thrown out every month

Write up my page a day diary 

Eat chocolate several times a week

The first one went a bit by the board this year, but I'm sure I can easily find enough stuff to make up for it next year.    

Have a Happy New Year, and thank you for your support and comments. What lovely people you all are! 

Tuesday 30th January- I spy with my little eye...

 'Let's go and have a Cornish pasty for lunch at Nymans Gardens ' sez I.

It was just before noon, a gloriously sunny day and not as appalling cold as it has been recently. 

So off we go. but...

When we arrived at the entrance gates there was a girl bundled up in layers of warm clothes, thick work boots, scarf, hat, gloves, standing by a notice

THE CAR PARK IS FULL, PLEASE DO NOT QUEUE

She had a sympathetic smile and was signalling that we should drive on - to where?

I had once worked at a school further down the road and knew we could turn at the pub. In the end we did turn, but instead of retracing our route just kept going, along lanes, through villages, past farms, until we found our way home again. 

I made a classy macaroni cheese with bacon and onion and peas and sweet corn all in the cheese sauce. Not a Cornish pasty, but pretty good all the same.

Along the way I spied trees (obviously), these trees in particular;

From top to bottom 

A plane tree... I was searching through my memory to identify the tree, then remembered the months either side of Christmas 2013 when I had several overnight stays at the Brompton hospital for tests. The ward was on the top floor level with the plane trees that lined the streets.

A ruthlessly pollards mature tree, I'm not sure if it is an oak or a beech, just by the local shop. This could be a candidate for 'following a tree' 2026, as the willow by the duck pond that I had my eye on was taken down recently. 

Several weeping willows near us have green leaves.  Surely they must left over from this year? 

There's a willow in someone's garden further down our road where the thin branches are bright orange., like a fire. When I used to travel all over the country from school to school there were things I used to watch for; one was a place where a couple of willows blazed red and orange, a shocking display of colour in an otherwise drab countryside.

On the road back from Nymans I was really pleased to see a rookery that I didn't know about, just a few, maybe half a dozen nests. Goody goody; I used to watch the progress of several rookeries on my commutes. 

It's probably a good thing I've stopped driving; there's far too much scenery to see.

Monday 29th December - inbetween times

This colourful glass column is a Galileo thermometer 

and you can follow the link to Wikipedia to find out all about it. I understand the principle enough to be comfortable saying that the glass bubbles contain different liquids that rise and fall with different temperatures. Each bubble has a little label dangling from it. 

All day the yellow 18°C bubble has been at the bottom of the column, with the 20°C, 22°C, 24°C, and 26°C bubbles above. This means the temperature is between 18°C and 20°C, therefore 19°C, which explains why I'm wearing my poncho over my fleece, shirt and vest...

I have a blanket handy too, just in case...

Today my lovely husband BB cut my hair for me. I think it's up there with cleaning the oven as a least favourite activity, but does it with a good grace. The long straggly ends dangling onto my shoulders that have been distressing me for several weeks are all gone. I am delighted by the results, even though I had envisaged something in-between my long hair and my new short hair style... we're always being caught out by the way one's hair is so much longer when wet compared to dry. 

I'm very grateful for his neat work. Visiting a hair dresser is difficult, from the point of view of avoiding respiratory infections. I always mean to try and book a mobile hairdresser to come and cut my hair out of doors in the warmer weather, and then suddenly it is winter again. 

We didn't listen to Christmas carols much over Christmas.  How about Vaughan Williams giving us a 12 minute fantasia on Christmas carols as a catch up?

London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Richard Hickox

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....