Christmas was very family-orientated and quiet despite two very excited small grand-children...do you not remember that all-consuming sense of anticipation and the longing to see Father Christmas and know that he really does exist? My grand-daughter has assured me thst she met the real Father Christmas last year at Castell Coch and I believe her! She has a photograph to prove it!
Yesterday being the Twelfth Day of Christmas we took down the decorations and removed the tree from the dining-room leaving the usual confetti of pine needles which despite thorough sweeping and vacuuming will continue to appear throughtout the year, they are ineradicable.
The daily routine of the farm continued as usual over the festive period in horrible weather a lot of the time. The rain has been incessant and it is impossible to get tractors onto the fields to start hedge-trimming. Even walking across the fields has been miserable, squelchy and slippery. This morning however we have a good frost and everything is crisp and silvered with a pale sun gleaming over the valley.
The Farmer and I managed to take a couple of days away last week joining my sister and her husband in a cottage they had taken in the Forest of Dean. It was lovely much-needed break and a good start to the New Year in a beautful place. We walked the dogs through the Forest to Symond's Yat to the high viewing point above the dramatic meanders of the River Wye. At this time of year there were very few people there but I know that later on it is a very busy tourist centre so we saw it almost empty of people and in its winter bleakness.
Now it is back to the normal routines and ongoing projects with no doubt new ones to be started in 2018.
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
