Here’s hoping….

 ….that 2024 will be better than the year just gone.  The Christmas decorations and cards came down today, which is always sad, but it has been lovely to be surrounded by the good wishes of all our friends, and they remain even though the cards are in the recycling box.

We kicked off the year with a lunch party, as heralded in my last blog.  Thoroughly enjoyable day in good company, but I have to admit that the preparations, though pretty simple, were quite tiring.  But it was lovely to socialise, and Christine’s light chocolate gateau was superb.  The chicken casserole was its predictable success: Martyn had bravely boned all the chicken thighs, and the stock we’d made with the bones helped make it that bit more wholesome.  Reliable BBC recipe.

I think I need to give myself a little more time to get my strength back bit by bit.  Annie and I walked the circuit to the village and back yesterday.  We did the one-mile route, and I found the mild gradient on the way back just a bit testing.  

Train services are still up the spout.  Martyn had to go to Tonbridge to collect Annie on Tuesday, and we’d to take her back there this morning.  Evidently there has been a land slip at Robertsbridge - hardly surprising given the rain of recent weeks.  Glad I’m no longer commuting to the smoke!

For the last few days we’ve had a mistle thrush serenading us from a tree at the top of the garden.  He’s a bit secretive, so I had to identify him from his song with the help of the RSPB’s excellent web site.  We’re seeing a bit more of the small birds too: blue tits at the feeders, plus the occasional robin - I saw one having a fight with a dunnock just outside the window a few days ago.  The blackbirds are much in evidence, as are the usual wood pigeons, magpies and crows.

The mild weather has given the garden a boost.  We have a blue hebe in flower, not far from a rather sulky winter jasmine, and the clematis Freckles is flowering well again.  (Must get another for the back fence.)  Bulbs are coming along well, and there are some promising buds on the camellias, one of which has sulked for the past few years.  Hoping for the best.