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Just about to start the long drive north, so here are some last pictures of our time near the sea. This was from a very blustery evening walk at Goldcliff where we walked along the coast path that goes alongside the power station and along the sea wall. The fresh and clean-feeling air really blew away the cobwebs. My respiratory problems have dried up at last down here and I'm feeling much healthier and stronger than for a long time.

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For my father this Christmas, 3 embroidered hankies. He's always been a very big fan of very large hankies (so is doglet's co-carer; perhaps this is why I married him). These I bought from John Lewis and embroidered with silver-grey thread. Birds, bears and (friendly) rats are part of our shared vocabulary.

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 The doglet's co-carer is a big fan of the colour orange, so I chose this beautiful dark rust-coloured yarn for his Christmas present, a rick-rack scarf (pattern here). The stitch is pretty tricky, requiring you to knit into the front and back of both purls and knits, and pulling stitches one over the other. I was really pleased with the result though, and the yarn is so soft with a great halo effect. Photographed here next to a bowl I bought my mother years ago from Made in Cley in Norfolk. This combination of colours is gorgeous.

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2 0 1 3 is here. The sun came out and shone beautifully, making us all very happy and optimistic. Doglet had a fantastic day of rolling. 2013 has a good feeling. I was not sorry to see the end of 2012, with all its illness, stress and sadness (not counting, of course, the happiness of getting married) and am unusually pleased to see the new year come in. Here's to rolling in the sunshine! Happy New Year all.