From one Full Moon to Another

To light a fire, share snacks and watch the full moon rise. They are not getting away with this again, without me there too.

The fire was perfect.

Thick smoke billowing in all directions and exciting sparks from unseasoned wood, adding a touch of danger. We chatted nicely like you do when you are in a car, staring at a fire, or any other situation where you don’t have to look at each other.

One person went off to swim into the dark riptides, so that really gave us something to talk about as the waves were strong and we did not know exactly how long the coastguard might take to find them if went wrong. Luckily it didn’t. He had the sense to stick to paddling only.

And then the moon came up.

Nobody howled but it was the sort of gathering where it would have been fine if we did. Everybody went home happy and calmed, by sea, sand, snacks, smoke and moonlight.

And Then it was January

The main sport of January is declaring that you ‘love this time of year.’ This unsettles everybody else who doesn’t and can even come true if you say it often enough. It was a bit grey, dark, sickly and cold but here is how I got through it.

Lured in some Children

The children who sometimes lived here came to visit and make ginger biscuits. Biscuit making with children is good insurance. Do it once a year from age 2 and the fond memories will be ingrained into their little brains for ever and they will never stop visiting. That is the plan anyway. I will report back on this in 20 years time.

It looks like I only gave them a few crumbs to work with, which would have been mean. The biscuits are in the oven at this point.

Found a Cheap Source of Dopamine

I did dry November onwards. Life without alcohol is a good thing in terms of money, real sleep and less risk of major diseases. But if you don’t pour gallons of wine down your neck every day you need to find another source of dopamine and here it is.

The joy of finding the right bit of red flower that fits into the other right bit of dark green grass is better than the finest Rioja that money can buy.

Covid and Now TV

The only way to get through a nasty dose of Covid is find something to binge watch. I splashed out on an expensive subscription to Now TV so I could watch ‘Succession’, an award winning series about rich people being nasty to each other, over and over again.

I didn’t pay for the ad-free version so every episode was interspersed with L’oreal adverts for skin lotion that makes you ‘more beautiful’ because it contains extract of red camelia.

I have a camelia bush in the garden but sadly the flowers are not red, so it won’t work if I smash them up and wipe them on my face. I avoided the adverts by taking selfies to see just how pale, sick and awful I actually looked.

The results were shocking. Selfies are bad at the best of times but Covid selfies are the worst.

So bad I can only show one eye. All red and shadowed. Luckily it is the end of January now, the Covid is gone and the eyes are sparkling again with crystal clear skin, even without red Camelias.

Count the Flowers

Snowdrops

Wilting in the frost before they bounced back up again

Narcissi

Just when you think that January will never end, this pops up, every year, to announce that it is nearly over.

Joining a March

A heart-warming day when the city came to a standstill for an hour or two.

Full Moon Again

And back to the sea.

The fire was just as good, with even thicker smoke and a brisk wind to whip it into our faces and spread the sparks around. The snacks were even better with home made cakes, sushi and hummus. I managed to bring half a packet of stale pringles, whilst pretending I baked the cakes. (If you hand cake around people think you made it). Actually the pringles went down pretty well and then we burnt the last few to see what the flames would look like.

And several people swam, quite safely despite crashing waves and dark currents. I am not hardy enough for that kind of thing but appointed myself as official photographer.

It was another good night. As you can clearly see.

Happy February