Fairy lights, how I’ll miss them when we pack down our Christmas tree tomorrow. Their gentle glow has filled the house each night for the last month and a half somehow making it feel cosier, magical, like they envelop us into our own little world, removed from everything else. It’s this feeling I love at this time of year. The scooping in of loved ones, time a shimmery, untouchable thing, no forces of the outside world can penetrate the long, languid days between Christmas and New Years. It’s us that creates this chink in time though, us that creates the magic, just as we do with the fairy lights. We hold space for our family and ourselves during this week. Its a good reminder it can be done.
We tend to always make New Years Eve plans very late (its meant something quite different since having kids!) and yesterday morning a friend suggested a roving New Years Eve feast. A few of us are to host each stage of a meal, which is such a brilliant idea since I really didn’t have the energy to host an entire thing this year. It’s so representative of our little community, this burden sharing we do between us. We’re lucky enough to live close walking distance to a really special small crowd of families in our village so that will be us, a parade from one house to the next; children galore, no doubt a dog or two, towing beach carts filled with food and drink, with glasses of champagne or Pimms in hand. And most of the parading will be done walking around the old Police horse paddock located opposite a few of our houses. Once used for homing the local police mounts, the paddock is now filled with horses and ponies belonging to various locals. Given we’re coming into the year of the horse it feels fitting that our celebrations will be observed by them!
This year challenged me in ways I would never have suspected. It pushed and pulled me to my deepest core and has brought me out stronger than I ever expected. There’s been hardship but there’s been plenty of sparkle also. I hadn’t expected more growth going into this year, but there was so much of it. So much light finding too. I found old parts of myself as I turned over old river stones deep within and in doing so found a more familiar and determined version of who I am. There’s plenty of self-work to do still but I feel like I’m better prepared for it now.
Reminders to self (rather than resolutions) as we go into the new year:
Water and sun are your elements - one to soothe and calm, the other’s warmth to remind you who you are
If you can’t get to the ocean, the garden is always a place that will help you recalibrate and provide clarity
Its often the unexpected, unplanned moments that become your most treasured memories
When a door closes look for the open window
Loudly played music and a dance in the kitchen first thing in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day
Only you have the power to cage yourself, only you have the key
Magic creates magic
Book Loves wrap up (and others on my list I’ll be reading over summer)
Broken Country by Leslie Hall - a quickly devoured, fast-paced, beautiful read.
Magnolia Parks and Daisy Haites by Jessa Hastings - guilty pleasure, frothy, sugary, fun.
A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan - I can’t stop thinking about the point of view of this edge-of-your-seat coming of age story.
Robbie Arnott’s backlist - turns all his books are my favourite!
Because You’re Here by David Nicholls - like curling up by the fire and slowly melting into relaxation mode every time I picked this up.
The Names by Florence Knapp - I’m only halfway through this, listening on audible during work commutes but I also bought in hardcopy because I didn’t want to stop reading. The writing is just beautiful, the subject matter important, the concept so clever and tenderly delivered.
The Safe Keep by Yale Van Der Wouden - I just started this and it’s jaw-droopingly good. I’ll be curled up with this on New Years Day recovering from the festivities.
Substack Loves
Cass Dowding - The Christmas Special with Annie Winter - Cass has done such a beautiful thing with her The Sentimental Gardener podcast and I loved reading about how her last episode for the year came about because it has so many gems in it. No doesn’t always mean the end, stay curious, ask the questions and the map will unfold before you, the power of nature to heal. Well worth a read and a listen.
Olivia Wickstrom - I loved her 31 Ways to Romanticize January - even if we’re opposite seasons the sentiment of grounding ourselves in each week so they don’t just whizz by sits beautifully with me and is certainly something I will be searching for this next year.
We’re headed into the year of the Fire Horse. I like the sound of her, she sounds like a spirit animal.
Perhaps I’ll leave the fairy lights up a little longer.
Happy New Years lovers, see you on the other side,
S xx
