shewhomust | Blooming Christmas

The first Christmas card arrived this morning: can't complain at that, already a day in to December. Despite which, once again I am taken by surprise.

We visited the Christmas Fair in town: a food producers' market in the cathedral cloister, a craft and gift fair in a marquee on Palace Green. Both were sparser than usual (I almost wrote 'than last year', but it probably wasn't last year, nor yet the year before), both in the number of stalls and the number of shoppers. Occasionally I had to wait for someone to finish a conversation so I could get close to a stall, but there were no actual crowds. We bought a Christmas pudding, some cards - oh, and inevitably, some cheese.

It's been a short week: we took Monday off, too, to visit the Raymond Briggs exhibition at the Bowes Museum (and tea after with A and D). The museum looked splendid in wreaths of greenery and lights, and the exhibition was fun. Its main effect was to make me want to sit down and read the books, but there's nothing wrong with that.