Well all I can say is goodbye 2020 and please 2021 will you be nicer to us. I want to say good riddance but in a way I also want to say, well, thanks for the life lessons.
I suspect we've all learned a lot through these tough times. Not only the value of treasured friendships and taking nothing for granted, but also recalibrating the things that matter, sifting them out from the things that matter much less.
Maybe we've got things done that we never expected to, maybe we haven't.
Maybe we've just stayed afloat and that's plenty to be proud of.
Maybe we lost loved ones...
Bookhound's very independent father, aged ninety, died of Covid, 350 miles away from us, on Wednesday afternoon after a torrid month of worry in the run up. Bookhound and his brother couldn't be there, and can't be there now, making the sadness of what so many families have been through very real for us too. All you can do is be incredibly grateful to those NHS staff who cared for him and fought for him on our family's behalf. This has been devastatingly sad for so many and our hearts go out to any of you who may have found yourselves in a similar situation.
But the vaccine cometh. and I'm predicting that by the time my sweet peas go in the ground things will be perking up nicely. We are doing our bit as part of the 150,000 homes ONS Household Survey, chosen randomly by postcode, and have been tested about eight times so far which makes us feel we are playing our own small part.
I've planted tubs (and more tubs) of bulbs for spring loveliness and already first shoots are appearing. If I could remember what I bought that would be good, but as I can't we have surprises in store. I remember thinking back in the autumn these green shoots would be more important than ever and I wasn't wrong.
So anyway, a huge thank you for your company this year gone by, thank you to those who kindly donate to me here (very much appreciated), and thank you for your support of the Think People Think Story Christmas fund raiser. Thanks to Covid restrictions Ugandans have found themselves without work, living day to day and without NHS, savings or back up, so this has made a real difference. From March through to December Tommy's projects have funded 33,756 meals overall... astonishing.
'The sale of 37 BOREHOLE TINS in our shop originally budgeted for 185 Christmas dinners but in true African style over 400 children arrived across the two teams and enjoyed rice, beans, cabbage and soda'
Here is the village enjoying their Christmas dinner...
And congratulations to Sally, owner of tin four who won the prize draw.
I know plenty of you enjoy visiting here, but this has always been a wonderful place for me to come too, and, as I scribble, to feel in touch with a friendly and populated corner of the world. We live in a very beautiful real corner of the world but safe to say it's sparsely populated, not a lot of passing traffic or neighbours to go out and clap with, or sing with, so at times it could feel lonely were we not used to it and happy with it. And we do know how fortunate we have been this year.
And then we have books.
My reading seems to have been all over the shop this last year but I've reined it in for the New Year with a biography of Rosamond Lehmann and I shall follow it up with more of her fiction soon. My last read of 2020 has been The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham...what on earth was I thinking. Last read when I was about fourteen but still a brilliant book, and so much that resonates about threats and panic and human nature, the ability to deny danger and how people cope when that danger becomes real. Written in 1953 this is a book that has certainly stood the test of time so I shall revisit more by John Wyndham...Chocky, The Midwich Cuckoos et al. I'm also listening to The Owl Service by Alan Garner (in the bath) and Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith while I sew. I'm back on hexagons, have a small sampler wall hanging on the go, and larger hexagon quilt to finish hand quilting and the Knot Garden is also finished and ready for quilting, so plenty of projects to see me through to that day of bright light in February.
And so here's wishing you and yours blessings a-plenty for 2021. I think we all deserve a surfeit of them, don't you.
FOOTNOTE: Due to this week's events I might be a bit out of step here for a week or so. My apologies if comments go unanswered for a day or two, please do talk amongst yourselves as usual. I'll be back in the swing of things very soon so don't go away.
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