I have GOT to stop moving on the last day of the month!! This bad habit causes all kinds of logistical difficulties!

Despite always finding us on the move at the wrong moment, December has been good to us. It started in Corsica, which remained impressive until the very end:





It proceeded via Sardinia (start here), where things didn't go quite as planned, but we still ended up with a very enjoyable stay. Cagliari was where we celebrated Christmas, very pleasantly.





We've been in Sicily only a few days, but already we're loving what we're seeing:





We arrived in Cefalu just this afternoon, and in a little while, we'll head off to see how the townsfolk celebrate New Year.

What else?

Well, the Velvet Cushion this month sprouted five crime stories (travelling, you see, and in need of undemanding reads): The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre (a witty look at contemporary Paris); The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey (her last, very poignant novel); The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (a fun read, enhanced by following along with Henry Eliot and his merry band); Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand (one of those closed-circle mysteries, in which you think that none of these nice people can be a murderer); and The Christmas Party by Kathryn Croft (another of those closed-circle mysteries, but in this one you think any of these not very nice people could be a murderer).

The other five in the month's tally were rather weightier: Lolly Willowes (in which our 1920s protagonist finds her best career option is to become a witch...); The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (a searingly twisty psychological drama); Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan (an appropriately depressing state-of-the-nation epic); The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (an utterly brilliant novel, and the culmination of a months-long group read in the company of Simon Haisell and a coterie of Mantel devotees); and Sea and Sardinia by D.H. Lawrence (a fitting accompaniment to our time on the second-biggest Mediterranean island).

The Velvet Cushion, BTW, has grown by a factor of a third this year, topping out at 120 posts. This is good (one of my New Year's resolutions is to read more and read smarter). But it's also not good, as it definitely points to time NOT spent doing other things that are also important. How hard it is to find a balance...





I'm always a little scared by New Year. Inevitably, you look back, at all the things you haven't achieved... And you can't help but peer forward into the gloom of the future. This year the prospects seem muddier than ever. So many unknowns... So few clues... So little wisdom among our leaders...

But I'm always also invigorated by New Year. It's a new start, a clean slate, an opportunity to do things better. I have so many plans. And I'm determined I'm not going to let all the stuff I can't control grind me down...

So, my hope for us all is that we start with a splash, but also -- the tricky bit -- continue well...

Happy New Year!