I went to close the curtains and was surprised by the sunset which at this time of year happens at the other end of the street, as you can see. The golden glow at bottom centre comes from fairy lights strung around a bush by neighbours; Christmas joy is still around!
My friend Thomas sent an email to say, ‘We are not failures’ if our New Year Resolutions have not borne the fruit we’d hoped for. So be good to yourself: ‘if only for a moment, let yourself be at home with yourself’.’
One place I am at home with myself is the kitchen. The school Thomas and I attended expected us to master basic cooking, but many of the lads can do better than basic. My January therapeutic special activity is making marmalade. Not much foraging to this one but come Autumn we can make October marmalade using citrus peel, sugar and windfall or crab apples, which supply the pectin that helps the preserve to set.
January the set depends on long boiling and added pectin, using most of the stored jars from under the stairs. That’s our label up above. Friends and relations look out!
Joe Pell – Linnet 2 Uploaded by snowmanradio via wikipedia
The first birds I heard this year were the gulls, flying in the dark towards the park to hunt for invertebrates and discarded pizzas. The first birds that I saw were a little flock of linnets, chattering their way from branch to branch along the footpath. The gulls were in evidence again today, but not the linnets!
More surprising was an active white-tailed bumble bee, pollen bags packed, busy on the white hellebore, but it has been the warmest New Year on record.
Will Turnstone 