Merry Christmas everyone.......

As we hurtle towards 2012 I have taken a moment to stop and wonder .......2011 has not been a great year. More a year of loss than gain, of too much death and disappointment. But then I got to thinking and looking at pictures and actually there were a lot of other things that happened too.........

Like it snowed a lot......

and I went to France......

and I went to Argentina.......

and walked on a glacier in Patagonia......

and went for a drive in Salta.......

and stayed in a beautiful Finca........

and had a coffee in Buenos Aires.........

and saw Patti Smith sing.........

in Amsterdam........

and grew my own radishes...........

and went to France again..........

and hung around the pool...........

in the hot sun........

and got to write a lot.........

and ate homemade crumpets with jam and cream and a glass of Prosecco in Dorset......

and got these in the secret Santa.....

and finally learnt how to upload a picture on my blog........

And I thought, there's quite a lot to be thankful for really......... so Merry Christmas everyone.......

Top tip: count your blessings!!

A Christmas cracker......

I know we're dashing through December ..... if not through the snow.....but I'm not really feeling it this year. I don't care who knows if I've been naughty or nice, sleigh bells can ring I'm not listening and baby, I don't care if it's cold outside.

I went to Judith Owen and Harry Shearer's Holiday Sing-Along and sang-along......... glorianaing and jingle-belling and walking in a winter wonderland; I've bought my card to make Christmas cards, started hiding presents under jumpers and in the back of my closet where I shall forget I've put them and just baked my second batch of mince pies in three days (pastry from scratch, mincemeat from a jar..... life's too short) but still, it's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I've bought a large, pink, not-actually-Victorian glass bauble and am wearing my Sarah Lund meets Santa, Killing sweater in strawberry with a pink, green and yellow pattern, and have collected jars to fill with homemade chilli jam (so much easier to make than it sounds) to give as gifts and am drinking whisky and ginger to get into the spirit.......any spirit. But the spark and glow of yuletide has yet to burst forth and rise up from the ashes of Christmas past, fill my empty stocking-of-joy and raise a cup of cheer to one and all. Hopefully the cold snap of a turkey drumstick, crackle of re-gifted wrapping paper and pop of fizzy wine will fill the bleak mid-winter air and soon I will begin to feel a lot like Christmas.

Did anyone see Black Mirror: The National Anthem, Sunday night, Ch.4 ? I've never been much of a fan of Charlie Brooker, who wrote it, till now: it was brilliant. Fabulously acted by Rory Kinnear and Lindsay Duncan, this pig's tale of the unexpected had me squealing in hysterics and horror. Go watch it again if you missed it.

Top tip: Mrs. White's Physick Rose Youth Serum, it's utterly delicious.