This January I have been mostly...

Watching:

I’ve been getting really into my crime dramas, with the return of Spiral for its final series, Danish true story The Investigation, and another real-life story The Serpent. Marcella also returned, and I’m looking forward to The Mallorca Files next month. 

The Great Pottery Throwdown has been as lovely as ever, and I’m working my way through Schitt’s Creek and The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. I introduced a friend to Call My Agent, and she’s watched it all while I’m still on the first series! 

Reading: 

I have been reading a massive amount this month! 

I read The Paper Bark Tree Mystery and The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu, so I’m all set for when the next instalment of that series comes out this year, and I've finished reading the Marnie Rome series by Sarah Hilary.

I very much enjoyed Wintering by Katherine May, which was an ideal book to read during a winter lockdown, as was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll was magical, and I can't wait for her new book to come out! 

I’ve read some self-care books, The Self-Care Project by Jayne Hardy and Ice Cream for Breakfast by Laura Jane Williams, and a couple of others that debunk somewhat the self-improvement genre, McMindfulness by Ronald Purser and 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman. 

I finally, after many decades, finished reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I had picked up this book as a child (maybe at someone else’s house) and only managed to finish the first few chapters, then saw up to the same point in an adaptation on TV at some point, so I’ve been waiting a long time to find out what happened in the rest of the book! 

Listening: 

I really enjoyed listening to the audio book of The Stubborn Light of Things by Melissa Harrison on my walks, and now I’m looking at other nature audio books to download. 

I’ve also been listening to the final series of Tracks: Abyss. It’s a bit weird as they have a different actress playing the main part, and she sounds noticeably different (I couldn’t tell Romola Garai and Hattie Morahan apart, who have played the part in the other series). 

Doing: 

I watched an online Burns’ Night celebration, and ate my haggis, neeps and tatties, and lots of Scottish snacks. I watched an online talk from Surgeon’s Hall Museum, A Poisonous Method: Arsenic, and, also online, the Twilight Tease Burlesque Revue. 

I started a little photo project, photographing appropriate items in front of town art and landmarks in my town. This has given me a sense of purpose on my weekend walks. 

I’ve been doing lots of jigsaws, and I ordered some more. I am working on a difficult one, a Japanese garden with lots of water, trees and sky, which is taking ages, so I’m doing others on another desk at the same time! 

I’m working in the school in the mornings, and at home in the afternoons. I’m finding this better than full days of home working, as it doesn’t feel like a whole day of isolation stretching out ahead of me. Also I can walk home at lunchtime the long way, through the park. 

I have had some cuddles with the school’s new support dog, Willow. I’ve always had bad wheezing around dogs in the past, so I’m taking things a little at a time to see how I get on around her. 

One of my closest friends made me an amazing Bernie Sanders mug!

Making: 

I have finished one of my terrazzo dishes, but am still working on sanding the other one – it’s hard work! I am also doing a lot of pages in my bullet journal – it seems that this is my method for coping with lockdown, as that’s what I was doing a lot of last year too!

And I have been doing digital drawings for Fun a Day Dundee, on a theme of positivity!