Christmas is coming so fast...

Although Nicholas is the only one coming at Christmas, and we've decided to do things rather simply, I seem to be in a rush. I've finished making all my presents, I've sent everything off, but I haven't got a Christmas tree yet. I decided not to use the enormous fake one I bought 2 years ago, it's very impressive, but a real pain to get down from the attic and last year it took me a whole day to set it up and decorate it, and then another day to take it all down again! So this year it'll be a tiny real one in a pot.

This is the finished result of all that spinning and knitting for Grama. It's not bad, I had a good time doing it and I'm quite pleased with the result, but I think it's going to be too thick for her and there are goldy bits she's not going to like. Never mind.

I've started putting a few things on e-bay again, I haven't done that for ages. I still have far to much stuff here, loads of paintings, and no walls to put them on.

The weather has been pretty miserable for the last two weeks, but nothing compared to the rest of France. No snow and not really very cold. My woodstove is working well and does not use much wood. I haven't used a quarter of the quantity I used to burn in Le Mée. I saw an ethanol fireplace on the television yesterday. No chimney, no smoke, and apparently they heat fairly well. Bit of a pain having to fill it up with fuel all the time, but you can put them anywhere, hang them on the wall like a picture, or against the wall, anywhere. Might be a good idea to keep the cold coming up from the veranda.

I did a day at the German calligraphy studio near here on Saturday, entitled "Illumination" (manuscript type!). It wasn't really illumination at all, but it was good fun and a very tranquil setting and atmosphere. I managed to make a sort of Christmas ornament star, all decorated in gold leaf. Quite pretty, and I learnt a few techniques.