It’s lovely to find time to sit and savour the season at this time of the year isn’t it?

Even though it’s dark when I go swimming and still dark when I come out, it doesn’t seem to matter. There’s a lightness of spirit, people smile and wish each other good morning more readily during December, I think.

The Cotswold towns might look a little less cosy under overcast skies like these. Without all the visitors, there’s a pleasing kind of stillness however and there’s warmth to be found behind any of those doors.

The joy of a morning with friends, making Christmas wreaths is hard to explain. It was a home-grown affair with no elaborate arrangements beyond booking the village social club for a few hours, just sharing greenery from gardens and hedgerows to create beautiful wreaths for our doors.

As is often the case, there’s almost as much left over when we’ve finished - maybe enough for a few more? Nothing is wasted!

The Christmas Tree Forest is magical, even during the day. Going to find a tree is a delight, especially when one of the first trees we encounter whispers in our ear, “choose me!” We did!

When Mary’s here, we enjoy the delights of Daylesford too, this year admiring the huge bunches of mistletoe hanging from the trees. Too many kisses to count?!

There’s plenty of inspiration for creating the most stylish of tables and surprisingly, in this normally natural coloured world, there is some colour!

Do I prefer the simpler red and white, though?

But actually, in another corner, there’s an equally elegant navy, grey and white theme going on - with a small hit of red here and there. Occasionally, we turn a price ticket over and gasp.

Because we know the best things in life are not things at all and the pleasure of sitting around a perfectly imperfect table with our friends later is all the proof we need. Well, we also needed the 40% proof rum for our Feuerzangenbowle, wondering how it could be that our “small friends” are now old enough to be enjoying such things with their parents!

It took me a while to realise that the days before Christmas are as enjoyable as Christmas itself. In Gloucester Cathedral singing carols on Saturday afternoon, with the Stuart Singers (and Father Christmas himself up there - did you spot him?) we smiled as we heard the invitation to stand and sing “Carol number 5: While Shepherds Washed their Socks by Night”.

These are lovely days.