I can't quite believe that it's only a week since the event with Angela Harding at The Riverside on 1 December. And I've already had to play catch up in opening the doors on my advent calendar (Angela Harding Midwinter Robin).
But I have decorated the Christmas tree and quite a few cards have gone in the post, so I'm in that dangerous position of thinking I'm making good progress in the preparations - until I find that I'm not. The days seem to vanish at this time of year, don't they?
And the weather this weekend has been disruptive. I've been thankful not to experience the terrific gales and flooding that we've seen on the west of the UK, but I've still been hunkered down at home rather than meeting friends and family as planned.
Hopefully this week we'll have calmer conditions and we'll all be able to get on with business as usual. Though in my reading this week (see 'Exhausted' below), there was a salutory reminder that frantic activity isn't always a good thing.
So if we feel pressured to keep buying, cooking, eating, drinking, working, perhaps we should pause for a moment, get off the treadmill and take stock.
Winter weather sometimes causes us to stop and reprioritise, but we can do that for ourselves too.
Thank you for reading.
PS Sorry for the delay but you can take a look at this year's reading recommendations from members of the Woodbridge Book Group here.