Wednesday and the last day of the year. I slept much better last night probably due to the fact that I got a lot more water down me during the day. My partner was going off to see her mother with her brother, so after taking my vitals, all still good, I shower and decide to go out for breakfast. Having got paper I wander down to the village pub and indulged in Eggs Benedict and an Americano. It was nice to sit and do the crosswords and then amble back home.

I made the fatal mistake of beginning to sort out my partners 1000 piece jigsaw. I go the jigsaw board out and started to look for “whimsies” and the straight edged pieces. I also produced little piles of same coloured pieces. I spent hours doing this and of course when my partner returned I continued to idly put odd pieces together. Before I realised I had spent hours on this activity which I swore years ago I would never do again. Just goes to show how easily trapped one can get by a jigsaw.

In the end I escape to the garden to put my new scented candle in the writing Shed and top up the suet balls in the bird feeder. Its very cold, so I close the cold frames. As I look at the garden i a bowled over by the amount of “stuff” coming up and in particular the fact that the Peony is shooting. Its far too early for this sort of growing but there it is.

I take time to draft the blog. A short one today, I’ve nothing really to say, I’m doing the best I can at the moment given the chemo and I am not sad to see the year go. 2026 is a challenge year and there are things that will happen that will give me joy alongside the inevitable nasty surprises that will come along. I shall probably quietly Hootenanny and go of to bed hoping for a good nights sleep, which I might just aid with a farewell to 2025 brandy. I hope everyone has a brilliant New Year and that the coming year brings you your desires. My only aims are to stay alive as healthy as possible, see my new grandson, due to arrive at any moment and to publish at least one more collection of poems