Tara getting ready
for Remembrance day
(check out her harness)
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"Following
Yonder Star"
(see below)
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Christmas
dinner
(note Covid precautions - the open
window)
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| December
was great! Odd but great. It was like being in a
state of flux for the whole month because one
never knew from day to day what would happen
next. Brexit vied with Covid for the headlines in
the news which was refreshing (-ish) and we
didn't know until the week before what we'd be
allowed to do for Christmas. The government
pulled a blinder by warning that London would go
into lockdown a few days before it did (because
of a new, more contagious, strain) so everyone
left and spread it round this country and beyond.
Towards the end of the month, the inevitable deal
was whisked from the bag at the very last minute
(as EU-related decisions always are) and the
French closed their borders. Oh, and Bill Bailey
won Strictly. In the end, we were allowed
to mix on Christmas Day only - so we did - and
the rest of the time we stayed in Tier 3. All
fairly predictable really but it concentrated the
mind and we had a fabulous time! Two culinary
highlights were a wonderful goose dinner on
Christmas Eve prepared (mostly) by Hannah and a
fantastic piece of beef from Campbell's for
Christmas Dinner itself. We also had, magically,
the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which we
could see on clear mornings and is said to be
what was prophesied in the Book of Numbers
("A Star shall come out of Jacob") and
is reported in Matthew's gospel ("For we
have seen His star in the East and have come to
worship Him.") See photo above. Perhaps best
of all was that we had a white Christmas - it was
officially declared so by the Met Office and was
confirmed by looking out of the window.
Just
before New Year we were put into Tier 4: the one
above the highest tier. This was LockDown by
another name, really, as was meant to stop people
congregating for New Year celebrations. So we
stayed in (as we usually do, really) but we had
the bonus of all being together to see 2021 in.
There has to be a silver lining or two in all
this, and that was certainly one! Tara didn't
like the fireworks during the evening, but they
didn't go on too long and we enjoyed Jools'
Hootenanny as ususal. It all goes to show that
while making forward plans in nigh-on impossible
at the moment, much doesn't really change. At
11:00 (midnight European time) Big Ben sounded
for the first time in years. The hands showed
10:59, but they made the bell toll at 11:00. Not
the chimes beforehand, just the tolling bell
marking the end of our stay in the EU.
The
rest of December was pretty much the same as the
rest of the year with lots of on-line meetings
and sittings. Tara has some smashing times at
Paws Play ... although the field became
progressively more waterlogged as the month went
on and the rain fell.
For
Ian, the highlight of the month was him passing
(with 87%) his Intermediate Radio Amateur
examination and getting his new callsign.
As
we leave 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is in
use and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has just
been approved, COVID-19 rages and is currently
outstripping its height last summer and we are
properly out of the EU. At this time last year we
hadn't even heard of COVID. What will happen this
year? Whatever, may we wish all of you who read
these notes a very, very happy, safe, well and
(perhaps) prosperous 2021!
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