A gentle sort of newsletter for this strange sort of Boxing Day. I hope you are safe and well, and that those you love are close by. A huge thank you for spending another year with me, my dogs, and my flowers. I help we bought a little balm to the ravages of a difficult year.

Monday 20 December

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The box of baubles is down from the attic. The boot room is stacked with branches and bracken. The whole lane of old man’s beard, upon which I had my beady eye, disappeared in ten minutes when the tractor and hedge trimmer passed along the track behind the church.

Tuesday 21 December

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Just as I admit defeat on sending Christmas cards, the letterbox is full of received ones. My favourites are of chard and sheep, the hand-made one from my aunt and uncle, and a photograph of mistletoe in the lime trees in front of the cottage taken by my mother.

Thursday 23 December

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A night at Killerton. Have trees ever looked so dramatic? Lit from below, the texture of their bark, the intricacy of their branches, the sweep of their boughs. Just majestic. The hot chocolate at the end was lovely too.

Friday 24 December

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I think the world is divided into those who love Christmas Day and those who prefer Christmas Eve, although if my recent Instagram post has anything to do with it, the winter solstice seems to hold more meaning and more wonder than either. This Christmas eve was a cracker though; endless mulled cider, carols at Kings, cheese and crackers, all lit by candles and firelight.

Saturday 25 December

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A workaday sort of Christmas day, with him at hospital all day and me on call. But a day with bread sauce and chestnut stuffing is never a bad one in my book, and there were exquisite almond biscuits from JC in the post, and elderberry syrup with tonic served in champagne saucers, and the scent of clementine peel on the fire.

Sunday 26 December

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A day of mist and then searingly blue skies. As we walk, the mist rolls down the valley and come across our path like a glacier. There is a chill as it passes over me, like a Harry Potter ghost.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a little time and space in this magical bit in between!