TO READ

Sometimes it's a list in one of my notebooks, sometimes the books I pass on our shelves, the ones I always meant to but never quite got around to. There are the books that were too heavy to read in bed, the ones that didn't work for my mood at the time, the ones that got sidelined by something more compelling, more comforting, more. I go through phases with books, returning time and again to my comfort reads. The books I go to when I'm ill, tired, sad. Childhood favourites or all-out trash, books that cosset rather than challenge. I can admit to 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'Pride and Prejudice'; the ones I'm slightly ashamed to love sit in the second layer of the bookshelves.

I read 'Beautiful Ruins' last week. I started it at Christmas, read a few pages, put it down. I came back to it and ran through it, crying at the end, wondering why I had waited. I moved on to 'Friday Night Lights' and again have been rushing, wanting to know what happened to these boys, suspecting that the glory days of High School faded into, maybe, sadly, nothing. I read too quickly in my hurry to find out. Chris always says that I can't possibly read books properly, that it's all too fast. He may be right, but that sweet abandonment to the story is so good that I can't resist. 

I'm reading 'The Goldfinch' next. 

SEVEN

It's been seven years. Seven years with some posts I still like, some that I don't. Seven years with some concentrated effort, some clear gaps. Seven years... Gosh.

And this year?

This year I'm going to carry on, quietly like always. I'm going to write, sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm going to do my fourth, and my fifth, Moonwalks. I'm going to carry on cooking old favourites and hope that a few new dishes sneak into the rotation.

And, in the meantime, a few good food moments from the last year:

6TH JANUARY

Happy New...

I think it makes more sense to start on the 6th this year. The first few days of January were mostly spent sleeping and hiding from appalling weather, yesterday was all list making, food shopping, tidying away Christmas, and alarm setting. Today, so far, is sleepy with a large dose of email.

Christmas felt like the break we needed. Two and a bit weeks away from work. A few days with nothing much to do except bake cookies, granola, and sherry cake for presents. A Christmas spent dodging rain and wind in Sussex but with a day of sunshine perfect for a Boxing Day walk on the beach. Time in London with old neighbourhoods, friends, and much missed foods (gözleme, banh mi, good burgers), then back to Edinburgh in time to have a quiet new year, just us, some prosecco, and some kitchen karaoke. As I said, it was the break we needed, it feels like the start of a new year now.

On Saturday I bought a diary and a new green notebook and wrote a list of.. resolutions? Maybe not. Just a few mini goals. 

Bake bread

Go to yoga

Write a letter

Share photos from Greece (is it too cruel to do that in January?)

Fill our wedding photo album

Remember to eat at the table 

Happy 2014 x