By the light of the fire...

11.56 on a gloomy Sunday morning,  a morning just 23 days before Christmas!  How did that happen?  I must admit to being pretty jaded about Christmas,  the magic disappearing once children grow up and away, and Father Christmas is relegated to little more than a cartoon character.  And what exactly do you buy MEN??? 

But there is one thing I do love about cold, December evenings.  A fire - a real, log fire roaring in the grate, and my dad is particularly wonderful with log foraging.

There is something mesmerising about a fire; the flames, the hiss and spit of the logs and toasty toes.

And although I may be missing the magic of Christmas, I am loving the fantastic Christmas fabrics on sale this year, particularly this red reindeer material.  It is a cream and red cotton fabic by Kokka, which has a crisp, timeless, Scandinavian feel to it.

http://folksy.com/items/3892706-Festive-owl-cushion-23cm-tall-











 This week I have also been pondering how easy it is to let friendships slide.  In this age of technology it should be easier than ever to keep in touch, but I must be getting lazy, as I discovered yesterday that a very dear friend got married thee weeks ago and I knew nothing about it!  Admittedly, he lives a thousand miles away in a beautiful part of Israel, but as part of a large group of friends still in touch after 20 years, I was amazed how few of us knew that Shimon had got married and we'd somehow missed it!  Obviously,  men aren't very good at passing on information.  Unless it's a football result...