January 11th

Hope you all had great pressies for Christmas; we had some great ones. My second favourite is the wonderful richly coloured gown that my freind Ana gave me. I've already worn it to a party!

Rhos Hill snowdrops

But my first has to be the joint present Joe, Bex and Mark gave both of us. A Kindle. Yes, us...a Kindle! I've been enjoying it tremendously. It's going to be particuarly handy when we're away, no more lugging five books with us. But right now, what I'm loving is the ease you can download the book you fancy; when you fancy it, and often for free or a few pence. I'm going mostly for classics I've always wanted to read, because these are often heavy with small print and a feeling of 'worthiness' about them that is sadly off-putting. Reading them on a Kindle means the font can be a comfortable size, and the book is as slender as a sheet of cardboard.

Jim's first buy was Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun; it's one of the few books by Ronald we've not read, and that was specifically because the font in the paperback was so tiny. This book moves through the seasons looking at traditions of the British Isles, and begins right now, at Christmas and the new year. It inspired us to Wassail our apple trees with apple juice. We paced around the chosen tree chanting the rhyme...Here's to the, old apple tree, Whence thou mayst bud and whence thou mayst blow! And whence though beat apples enow! Hats full! Caps full! bushel-bushel-sacks full, And my pockets full too! Wassail! Wassail! Wassail! We are hoping for a mammoth crop of apples after all that hard work.

Meanwhile the buiders are back and the extension keeps extending. The man for the windows came yesterday, bringing a sample of the oak windows he's going to fit, and planning is looking to reduce the roof size so that we can still look out of the landing window. It's looking exciting...just a bit cold and wet, without a roof or windows, but it grows ever day and we can't wait to get going on the inside...once there is one.