It’s late on the first day of a new year but hopefully not too late to wish all my friends a peaceful, healthy and successful 2025. Last year we were in New Zealand and this year we saw in the new year here in Tuscany.

Tomorrow we set off back to England after having extended our usual stay at our home here in Tuscany. The refrain of “auld acquaintance” reminded me I hadn’t touched my blog for a couple of months. And so, here I am again. Resolutions! Maybe this will be one. Do you make them? And break them?

Our Christmas here was pretty idyllic. Snow fell early in the morning of the 23rd just in time to greet three of our grandchildren who had come over to share it with us, along with their parents and aunt (another of our daughters) and uncle. We walked along the mountain peak to a hermitage on Christmas Eve, the only prints before ours of animals and birds, the snow crisp and fresh, diamond-glinting in the bright sunshine.

We climbed to just below 1,000 metres and stopped at the hermitage of Cerbaiolo where the resident priest, Padre Claudio, plied us with hot coffee, cakes and completed our break by giving us a Christmas blessing

Snowball fights, taking turns to ride on the sledge, rolling over and over in the drifts… it was such fun to see children being children. We made snowmen (with rather rude appendages) and drank hot chocolate, topped with melting marshmallows on our return to our river home. And as the kitchen traditions are different from ours (and rightly so – and we savoured a good few of them: the usual panettone, panforte, cappelletti in brodo, chestnuts and a hard nougat called Torrone – ouch, my fillings…), I had to hunt down a turkey for lunch on the 25th as this is not eaten here. We successfully tracked one down in time. It was good for us to celebrate the Christmas season somewhere else. It’s so easy to become stale.

My decorations are back in England, so we made a few instead: garlands from citrus peel and bay leaves. iced ginger biscuits and dried apple rings. Earlier in December we had made an impromptu visit to Rome, to visit the shop of a lovely Italian friend, with the excuse of buying some gifts but really to totally surprise her. The velvet “pine-cone” on the tree above was from her shelves. If you ever go to Rome, visit La bottega dei Petali in Piazza Mattei to see Silvia’s enchantingly tiny shop. She makes many items from petals and leaves of flowers that grow in the meadows up here in the Apennines. If you are on Instagram, her address is @labottegadeipetali. Take a look.

It’s late and we leave very early next morning, driving back over three days on account of the winter weather. But I wanted to wish you all the best and start the new year off afresh. I have the delicious task of completing a first draft of a new novel by February 13th on my return to England and I want to explore new ideas too for future writing. New year, new start. Let the tingle and excitement continue.