Slow and quiet

Our Christmas guest (DD) left us today to spend some time with other family members.  It was very white and sparkly when I drove her to the ferry - for the second day running, a really sharp overnight frost had touched every surface white.  The trees were picked out in a white dusting and it did look so pretty (no photos sadly as I was driving!) - it may be the closest we get to snow.  By late morning the temperature had risen sufficiently to thaw the frost although the water in the buckets remained frozen throughout the day.

The frost yesterday

Ice on the outside of the conservatory door

So now it is just the two of us again, and we're slowly sorting ourselves out.  We moved the dining-table back into the lounge (we have the dismantling and reassembling down to a fine art now) and the 'middle' room is once again our cosy snug.  It's interesting how the house is constantly evolving to meet our changing needs, and every time we have to move furniture around we see rooms working in different ways for us.  It's quite fun to have a number of options.

We took ourselves for a walk into town this afternoon, and although it was still a bit chilly, it was gloriously bright and sunny, and yet again we were reminded just how good it is to wrap up warm and get moving outside.  No post-Christmas sales shopping for us, though.  To be honest, by the time we ventured anywhere near the shops, there were a lot of empty shelves so I guess the bargains have been grabbed.  I'm always surprised that people still have money left to spend after Christmas, having been urged to part company with their cash on so many occasions on the run-up to the holidays.  There's no more spending for me now until 2015!

I'm pottering around, gathering bits of paper together, jotting down ideas, and yes, compiling lists.  There are some things I would like to do/tackle/try in the coming year, and I have found that writing things down helps me stayed focussed.  Hopefully by tomorrow evening the ideas will be a little more organised and committed to paper.