Not our front garden

... though J probably wishes it was! It was a dry morning, with rain forecast for later, so straight after breakfast I took her for a walk round the village. She had not been out for a while, as the weather has been so wet, so our planned teatime tour of the village illuminations, such as they are, has not taken place; now that many of the decorations are being taken down, we decided a last-minute daytime tour would have to suffice. We viewed the Father Christmas window, the beautiful wreaths and delicate fairy lights on the old houses in the square, then headed for a small residential street where I'd seen two front gardens full of light and colour. As we stood and gazed at this assembly of reindeer, penguins, snowmen and more, the owners daughter arrived with her children, greeted us, then rushed inside to ask her father to switch the lights on. He was delighted to have an appreciative audience, the whole family seemed very friendly and J enjoyed the spectacle.

We also saw lots of squirrels, crows high in their nests, a row of sheep which stared at us through the fence, and lots of walkers, with and without dogs, none of whom we knew but all of whom greeted us with smiles and wished us a happy new year. It was a day to enjoy living in a village.

We returned home to find P had cooked delicious ratatouille and tagliatelle. After eating, I spend some time helping J to review the goals she chose for 2023 and remember the things she's grateful for and has achieved. I left her thinking about her priorities for 2024 and turned to more boring tasks, though I'd rather have been following her example.