We all need to close down in someway to get ready for Xmas. Many of us will not be able to be with the entire family on the 25th December. Or even at all. I imagine we are forming our bubbles and then see how we can blend them. In the New Year we’ll be facing the big decision on whether or not to have the Injection! We owe it to ourselves to take time out from this stress and uncertainty. I’m trying to do this. Not very successfully. In this household of 2, we’ve successfully ‘sourced’ gifts for the family and made preparations for framing prints, ordering Xmas cards and discovering ways of making ‘money, please, Grandma‘ into parcels which look exciting. Now the shops are open again, I could go out for a spend, spend spree. But I won’t.

Instead, I’m planning a revamp of this website, changing the emphasise of the pages and the blogs, sticking to the subjects of reading and writing. I have an old book titled Your Diary but its aim is not just diary writing – something I’m not very good at. I quote: … This book has been founded on the belief that children cannot write … unless their interest is aroused and the imagination stimulated.

Each section of the book is made up of an excerpt of a piece of published writing (I’m looking at a page called A Mad Tea-Party – no prizes for guessing which book that comes from) , followed by a test quiz, fun for grown-ups as well as children, ending with an exercise in writing about going to or attending a tea party. I loved the readings and the quizzes but, childishly lazy as I was, I never did do the writing. How I wished now that I had done. In the New Year I shall be investigating Reading to Write, making the New Year a new beginning for all those who experience stumbling blocks with their own writing. I the meantime, have a second read of the literary critique written by Catriona Bolt for MIROnline.org

A Happy Christmas to all and Best Wishes for a creative 2021!