Christmas Is Coming

 

Christmas

It’s now the lead up to Christmas and I have been emailing friends with my Christmas letter. I’m not sending cards in general this year. So I am posting here my Christmas letter for those of you who haven’t already got it. Let me wish you a happy Christmas and a good new year anyway.

Christmas Letter

I’ve decided not to send Christmas cards generally this year, for a mixture of reasons. Nevertheless I want to keep in touch with distant friends so I have decided on an emailed letter.

It has not been an easy year for me because of several mishaps, on which I won’t elaborate, and my degrading sight and hearing. Yet there have been many positives on which I will elaborate.

Firstly my family. Nat, Andy and Eilidh came to Mollans at the end of June for a fortnight as they have done for several previous years. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed the visit, Andy cycling, Nat relaxing as far as Eilidh, being the perpetual motion machine she is, permitted. I made a scrapbook for Eilidh to record past experiences which she could add to. We did nothing of particular note but enjoyed being around one another. I went over to Scotland in October and, again, did little of note but greatly enjoyed being with them for my birthday. I also managed to fit in a visit to life-long friends Steve and Jo who left Mollans for Scotland last year.

Leaving Nat and family I went to London, staying with my friend Margaret, and seeing an old friend who was instrumental in my writing one of my books and my son, Carl. The book was translated into several languages but also, my friend told me, copied into Chinese. I didn’t know that. Copyright, what’s copyright ? If I could get a copy I could add it to the Japanese translation of my first book. And I was very pleased to see my son in better health than I have ever known him, thanks to daily visits to the gym, and with a steady job, a girlfiend of a year’s standing and a second hand car. Long may that continue.

For my other pride and joy, my gardening, it has been a very good year. The flowers in front of my house on both sides of the road have provided a good display from March until November and it is gratifying to see people sitting on the bench opposite and enjoying the view. This autumn I’ve planted another 60 daffodils and narcissi to supplement those already there that mice and rats haven’t yet found. And still, after many years, no one has complained about my digging up the roadside opposite so the Mairie has taken no action.

The allotment too has done better this year than last. The summer vegetables produced better than last year, potatos, tomatoes, onions aubergines, lettuce, rocket, corn, butternut squash and herbs. A friend, Johann, helpd me clear the fading plants out to plant leeks, cabbages, garlic, shallots and more lettuces for later this year and early next. I’ve enjoyed all of it.

My big project has been to write another book, a visitors’ guide toMollans. There is none such at the moment and, given the number of summer visitors, I consider it a viable project. Friends Claudine nd Jacques have joined in enthusiastically. I have written the text which Claudine has translated into French, we have identified a source for photos and Jacques is doing the layout. I will pay to print the book I and, when I have recuperated at least most of my costs, in about 18 months if my calculations are correct, I plan to hand the rights to the book to the village primary school (which also, incidentally, is bilingual). A school in a village of 1000 inhabitants ? And a school that is bilingual ? It’s possible and the proof is here.

Apart from all this I’ve continued with my boules, free English conversation classes in the Mairie and dining twice a week with friends. I have trouble now seeing the cochonnet if it is in shadow but am proud to retain my reputation as one of the best pointers in the area. I’m helped occasionally with the English conversation classes by Keith, the only other Englishman in the village. And food for dining is no problem ; I enjoy cooking. I also continue to write my blog on my life here, which has now surprised me with several new adherents. I started it to keep in contact with distant friends and so it continued for many years. Recently however, people from Holland Germany and Belgium have become regular readers some of whom chanced to introduce themselves at the Bar du Pont last summer. It appears they are all regular summer visitors. It was my blog that allowed me to prove Russian interference in the UK EU referendum.

So I still have a lot to be thankful for and have had a good year. I do worry about the world I will at some point leave to my family and countless others. I have been part of a very lucky generation but doubt that that experience can continue. The wealthy and powerful have learned too well how to manipulate the ill-infored and less intelligent to vote for the interests of the former. Climate change and it’s consequences are serious but not being taken eriously by the rich and powerful who are focussed on short term gain. And there is the refugee problem; as long as advanced economies sell weapons to less advanced ones there will be wars and refugees that the advanced economies don’t want to accept as a consequence of their actions. Money is the source of all evil. I would have liked to leave a different legacy.

That apart,I hope yours has been a good year too and it remains only for me to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a good new year.

Ian