Today we found a Snowdrop! It has been a warm November but snowdrops flowering now is just crazy – and quite worrying. 
Our Amanagowa Cherry Tree has gloriously coloured Autumnal leaves, here glowing in the late afternoon sunshine. 
I’ve made two more glass Angels for Ukraine today, probably the last as we move into ‘getting ready for Christmas’ mode.
One of our jobs at Community Roots today was starting to make Christmas cards by printing using beetroot. These ‘designs’ will be enhanced by one of our younger volunteers who did art at A level. Here is one of the initial prints. Next week, I’ll show you a finished card.
I sold two more angels today (two at choir yesterday too) one, I discovered, with a shell of Paua which is regarded as something special in New Zealand and I discovered the following by googling –
“It is believed that all varieties of abalone (including paua) strengthen the body as well as the heart. If a person wears jewelry made from paua shells, it is said that he can express his feelings to others articulately. They are believed to bring sensitivity, harmony, and connectivity in relationships. As this shell is found in a number of colours, it represents the beauty of life, which is ‘change’ that we experience every day.
It is a common Maori practice to gift paua shells to one another. According to them, this shell brings good luck, prosperity, and peace to the wearer.”
Volunteers always leave with some of the day’s harvest. This is one of the carrots we chose because it made me smile. 
I’ve worked on my Angels for Ukraine again today and experimented with sea glass for the heads of the smaller ones. I like the way they are not round like the glass beads I usually use. I think they show character! 
The tall drawers that I keep all my materials in are very lovely, highly lacquered and painted with lilies.
Detail
We’ve taken down our Christmas tree today and packed everything away for another year. This fragile little owl bauble was my Mum’s and is now very carefully wrapped in tissue and boxed. 
When LiveWire No 3 was here before Christmas with her family, she went shopping with her Mum in the lovely little independent shops that we have in Redruth. T chose these earrings for my birthday and I love them. Thank you so much, T.. 
A friend of many years, and a colleague for many of those, enclosed the following pieces with her Christmas card in the hope that they would be useful for my glass work. They certainly will. I can see the long ones and the sparkly ones enhancing angels already. I shall unpack my workroom again in the next week or so. I’m thinking I shall have to experiment with making owls. There are some perfect beads here for eyes…….
A Ming smile plate with pieces of jewellery. Thank you very much J.
We delivered some of the delicious cake that I made yesterday to our very Dear Friends today. We left it at the gate as there is Covid in the house. 
Dinner tonight was next door in the as-yet-unfinished and therefore very draughty new extension where we had a delicious meal and lots of catching up. S has a beautiful black angel on her tree.
The flowers on the table were all collected from her allotment on Christmas Day!
LiveWire No 3, our Granddaughter of 10 years old who was with us recently, took lots of photos at the Heligan Night Garden and has sent them to me. If you live locally, do try to get there! Thank you, T, these are a beautiful reminder of our lovely evening all together.
I love Christmas lights! This is our dining room.
Our Advent candle has reached 17th December.
On this day in 2004, my dear Dad died in St John’s Hospice where he had been beautifully cared for since the start of December. My favourite perfume is vanilla and I have been wearing it for 40+ years. One of the last things my lovely Dad said to me on this, his last day with us, was, “I’d love some of that vanilla ice-cream please,” as I leaned over to kiss him. He was a very special man. He chose ‘Joe Hill’ sung by Paul Robeson for his funeral and I play it every year on this date in his memory.
More sorting revealed these stones that LiveWire No 3 and I collected and wrote on some years ago. I’m going to put them in the garden at some point.
The lovely Mr S has put the lights on our little Christmas tree planted in the back garden. Now it feels like Christmas.
Many years ago on our first visit to San Fransisco we found the wonderful City Lights Bookshop. I bought a book of poetry and was given this bookmark. We also did the Armistead Maupin trail finding all the places in his Tales of the City series, a series I loved. 
We are still sorting all the stuff from the Welsh dresser which is awaiting auction. This slender little vase that was once my Granny’s had been very neglected and the silver was black. Now it is shiny and beautiful and now contains our last rose, picked today before the next storm, Burra, arrives tomorrow.
I’m researching what the various marks mean.
Rehearsing with the Ingleheart Singers at the Eco park was fun as always. On the way out some of their quirky decorations amused me.
I should have included these Wallflowers yesterday, just beginning to flower. I’m hoping that, being at the front door, they will cheer people with both their colour and their scent.
It’s time to bring out the Christmas earrings. These beautiful Origami ones were a birthday present a few years ago. They were made by Mary Lee.
A rule for living? Yes, that’ll do nicely!
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