Why do we begin a new year in January? When you pause and ponder for a minute there is no reason for choosing any particular date, indeed we did not always start a new year in January. There are many examples of calendars in use today, and more across history, where a different point was chosen. The choice of January to begin the year was made by Juilius Ceasar in 45BC, one more item on the list of “what have the Romans ever done for us”. Historically in England the new year began on the 25th of March (Lady Day) once one of the old quarter days. Our tax year still starts on the 6th April, being the adjustment for the 11 days when the UK switched to the Gregorian Calendar in 1750.

None of which was what I originally intending to write, forgive the brief tangent.

I was attempting, in a circuitous manner, to say that there is no logical reason to assume than because it is a given month in the year it is a suitable time for planning or making changes. Winter has always been, even before ME/CFS enforced it, my time for hibernation. It is a fallow season, where gentleness is the main order of business. I find that this somnolent time is necessary for future creativity. For new life to take root the soil has to be prepared, the old deadwood pruned away, ready for when the conditions are propitious for planting.

One job I assigned myself this month was to work on finishing up a number of books I had part-read. My “currently reading” pile was looking too high. I prefer not to read too many books at the same time, partly to save my memory. This isn’t always what happens in practice, What I am able to read onagiven day is dependent on my available energy. for instance, familiar topics or books I have previously read require significantly less energy than the new. A novel I read at bedtime might not be suitable reading material for when I've woken up again at 4am in pain, it also has to be an ereader book as I can't turn the light on. I have assumed that four books is the most that Ishould ever be reading at the same time. I started 2026 with ten! This month I have reduced that down to seven.

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I have also been progressing with my sewing and knitting projects. As with my reading 2025 saw a proliferation of half finished projects, while none of these have actually been finished off, as yet, beeing able to make small, consitstent progress has kept these moving along. The project Iam most pleased with is my dressing gown. A challenging sew, more for the physicality of managing such a large quantity of fabric than for the complexity of the pattern. It is now ready to be hemmed, having been on my dressferm for the past few weeks waiting for the chem to drop. dly husband has brightened the screws in my hem Marker so now there is nothing standing between me and my cosy dressing gown of my dreams, apart from the usual energy issues.

As I look out on the patch of snowdrops Ican see from the sofa, I am reminded that we all need our fallow periods, they are good for the soul and body. I hope you also find time to rest and renew yourselves.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to apologise for the lack of posts for the past few months. 2025 has certainly been challenging from a health perspective and since the summer it has been worse than normal. I hope that the worst is behind me and that I return to regular writing.

Thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time to read my missives, it means more than I can express.

So I hope you have a lovely festive period. I shall be ensconced by the fire eating mince pies.

I am very pleased with our new benches, table and chairs, which will allow me to get out and sit in the garden (when it's not raining). I haven't been able to leave the sofa much recently and while our living room overlooks the garden it is not the same as actually being out in it. We decided to choose furniture made from recycled plastic, partly for environmental concerns, but mostly becuase we needed robust furniture which will not rot. Despite my complaints about this years dry weather, it is not normal, and over winter one corner of our garden regularly ends up under water with the high water table. This is an impressive feat and testifes to the level of rainfall we usually have, when I tell you were are actually on the side of a hill. You have to admire the geology of a region that while being mostly on chalk also has strata of clay.

The return of the cooler weather is much appreciated, my poor garden is looking extremely frazzled. The hydrangeas are drooping, the leaves on the Magnolia are turning yellow and starting to drop. Even the local trees I can see from my window have the first golden leaves showing, evidence of the stress from the lack of water this year. The only plant I can see which was thriving in the hot weather is my bay tree, of course being a cutting made by my grandfather, nurtured by my mother and handed onto me it has impeccable heritage.

One of the pecularities of my nature is that while I have been having to rest much more than normal, and my brain being unable to concentrate much on reading, I have been occupying myself with making plans. These normally are far too ambitious, which then is distressing when they have to be scaled back. However I saw a wonderful series of videos by a fellow ME sufferer where she takled a sewing project in twenty minute segments. She didn't get her project finished in time but it was suprising to see just how much she could accomplish in a relatively small period of time. Of course this is the heart and soul of pacing, the only management technique we currently have for this condition.

A paced approach to making set me to thinking about what I could do. My achiever drive kicked in and I was planning about four new winter dresses and a youtube channel. I have to laugh at myself becuase I am still working away at two projects I started months ago, a bathrobe and a toile for a summer dress. The summer dress is clearly now a next year project but I did manage one twenty minute sewing session on the robe, which was very satisfying. As for starting a youtube channel, who would want to watch someone who does most of their sewing from the sofa, by hand, and takes months to make the simplest item. That is before I start considering the time and effort required, not to mention learning new skills like video editing. I did try it once, around covid but gave up becuase it took a lot more energy than I could afford to use. I might, in future, share more of these makes here instead.

The brain fog that comes with ME, together with the distraction of flares in chronic pain, has unforutnately limited my ability to read. I have had to revert back to some very light reads where I know the story well and so they provide unchallenging comfort. While I may prefer to read classical literature, history, science etc there are times when I need the hot chocolate, comfy pyjamas type of book. I have started compiling my list of flare friendly books (physical and audiobooks) becuase when I am in a flare I struggle to think and make decisions, so having a pre-made list ready is a big help.

My reading material has largely been revisiting three series of books by the fantasy author David Eddings. These are not high literature, not even particularly well written, but as I first read these aged around ten I am very familar with the characters and stories. The stories are simple good triumphing over evil stories complete with hidden destinies, Gods, magic and a plucky small group out to save the world. These are books I really enjoy reading when I have a flare but annoy me when I am feeling slightly better. I do believe quite strongly that everyone needs comfort books for when you are ill or needing a literary hug. Please do let me know what your comfort reads are in the comments, I'd love to see what other people turn to.

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Share Sudeley's Reflections

When I moved out of my mothers house twenty five years ago, excluding my books, all my possessions could fit into the back of my car. My husband and I have no children so the detritus we have collected about us in the intervening quarter of a century (ye gods!) is entirely of our own making. The books have of course acquired more friends along the way, hobbies have come and gone, and a fair amount of sentimental objects have found their way to us.

All of the physical mess is obvious, some of it is currently stacked up behind me waiting to get put on eBay, so I can’t just pretend it isn’t there. We have also taken advantage of the wholesale renovation of the house to agree that when a room has been finished we will only put items back in that we want to keep, otherwise it gets donated or sold; the same applies for items getting put into cupboards. So far this seems to be working.

I did however get a nasty shock recently. I have an external hard drive I use for backing up files that I don’t want or need to store in the cloud. This hard drive doesn’t like my new laptop so I have been transferring files from both the old laptop and hard drive onto a new one. Well my friends digital clutter is definitely a thing. Some examples of files I have uncovered:

· Copies of journal articles from when I was working in R&D (left 2003) so substantially out of date and I don’t even work in the field anymore.

· Probably my first CV after leaving university.

· Some old access databases of book catalogues – it’s only a shame I never captured my first ever book catalogue on index cards.

· So many pictures …

· Files from previous jobs … but never the one you are actually looking for.

If I were to sum it up it is a digital record of a quarter of a century. That’s a rather sobering thought. So too is the next one which is what should be done with it? It’s not as if it worth preserving in perpetuity, my life has been neither extraordinary nor worthy of note. It is a perfectly ordinary life. Will that be of interest to anthropologists in future centuries, perhaps, but probably only if the times we are living in are themselves the beginning or ending of an epoch, something we are incapable of judging. It is not even a complete picture of one persons life, I delete files all the time, although you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise and about 2Tb of non-current data would certainly support that opinion.

I dare say this is a question that increasingly we are all going to have to face, not least because of the enormous environmental costs of storing so much data. Perhaps I have become too used to the idea that I can have all my files at my finger tips, when in reality I only use a small proportion on a regular basis. If I am being honest, probably less than 5% of my OneDrive is active, although I do like being reminded of pictures taken on this day over time, at least after I acquired my first digital camera.

It is peculiar feeling when even an excel file can remind one of earlier times. I am more used to memories being associated with physical objects, but it seems that even little accumulations of zeros and ones can do the same thing. So the question remains:

To Delete or Not To Delete

I am not good at disposing of items, even digital files, at least where there are memories attached. I enjoy the sensation of coming across something and returning to a time past, I don’t much mind whether it is happy or poignant. However, I also like being able to find items I want, or to move around a space without feeling oppressed by clutter or untidiness. My mother would be amazed to hear that, I was a rather untidy child but with a good memory so I could find objects in the chaos. Now however I don’t have the energy so this a project to make my life easier.

So slowly, slowly I will tidy up my digital cupboards.

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