Geamhradh/Winter

Alexander McCall Smith has the perfect solution to the Christmas Card dilemma – you buy them to support your charity of choice but you don’t send them; perfect! And you can then donate some more on what you would have spent on stamps.
On a recent (pre lockdown 2) urban trek through Giffnock I got some rather cute ones with highland cows (coos on a moonlicht nicht) from Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, however when I put them away I noticed an unopened packet (festive dog) from Marie Curie so perhaps subliminally I adopted AMS’ approach last year. It’s not a task I relish, I will make a start today on a ruthlessly redacted list.
I feel it is far too early to put up the Christmas Tree (an aging artificial one that the boys used to scorn but now seem to admire, it does have a timeless minimalist look about it, but it’s December and the start of winter (meteorologically) so my blip is the ‘winter decoration’ which has been around in our living space (I think that’s how you describe it) for a couple of weeks, the robins are more recent. R is of the opinion that three robins is fanciful, in our Machrihanish garden we regularly had two but never three so perhaps he has a point. Here they all seem to be magpies and the woodpecker of course, which has just given me an idea for a Christmas tree decoration to add to the homemade squirrel and pine marten – can’t wait to blip that in a week or so.
The extra blip is the first of the month shot I take of the trees outside our balcony – about an hour before sunset. I intend to make a collage, or maybe even a gif of the changing colours.
The soup turned out better the second day, give me Heinz tomato with added salt and sugar any day.