How are you? Is this time of year tougher for you? I’m trying hard not to be swallowed up. This time of year is my well-trodden path and each year I try harder to predict, pre-empt, and pre-judge the shadow boxer. Time for the tool box. I’ve been out having a half-day off. My eldest daughter left her teenage years behind her today and we treated ourselves to a big walk, through town, on a very cold, snowy but sunny afternoon. It felt utterly magical to me. Quiet roads which usually bustle with tourists, and the favourite viewpoints and photo spots stood uniquely calm. My idea of heaven. Luckily for me, hers too! 

When we were finished, we’d become quiet with hunger and knew we had to wait until our tummies reached home before we could talk again. Lockdown means no café coffee, no longer even pavement queueing, only order and pay in advance if you know when and where you’ll be. In other words, we were famished. 

Home for a birthday dinner, presents, it’s been a perfect day and I cannot tell you the last time I felt that feeling. Had the pandemic not visited us, we would not have found ourselves with the opportunity to do what we did today. Out with the drudgery, sorrow and dark spots, there was a little shining dagger of light and I will live off it for a long while! I wish for you the same.   

Love from

The room above the garage

A Moodscope member.