Winter Solstice

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It always makes me happy when we reach this point as I know that from now on the days will lengthen. In summer, when we reach the summer solstice in June, I always feel a bit sad as the summer holidays have not even started yet and yet the days are already beginning to shorten.

I am feeling so much better and slept well. However I did wake up at 5am panicking about the food that I need to get for Christmas - I realised that I had forgotten to add bread to my list! (As I only eat GF bread I forget to buy normal bread!)

We had arranged to meet Fiona at the woods when we took Xena for her walk so we could hand over her Christmas present - well actually her dog's Christmas present from Xena! That done we set off on our walk. It was dry and bright despite the forecast for rain.

After our walk we decided to brave the supermarket to get all the rest of the food we need for Christmas. It was absolutely painless, unlike in other years - there were car park attendants directing cars to open parking spaces so we easily found parking. The supermarket was quiet, like a normal day, and I managed to buy everything I need for all the meals over the Christmas weekend. 

After shopping I dropped the groceries off at home and went to my last golf clinic of the year. There were only two of us and we also played a few holes of a virtual course on the Top Tracer. Gavin came with me and he practiced in another bay while I was busy. As we left we noticed that a massive sale had started today in the golf shop, so I bought a few golf things - a golf shirt of £69.99 marked down to £10, and a really nice golf wind breaker type of jacket that was £89.99 marked down to £20 - I do love a bargain!

The weather has been a mixture of sunshine and rain today. The river in Cobham has broken its banks and is really high, as can be seen here - it usually takes a day or two after the rains for the river to be at maximum height, it washes down the valley and takes time to affect this area.

I cannot believe that it is 3 days to Christmas. It does not feel like Christmas, I think that is because the boys are not home yet. Both Luke and Adam are really busy at work, it has not slowed down for them yet, so they are only arriving on Friday evening. It is not the main holiday season for the northern hemisphere so many people only get a few days off at Christmas time, if at all.