ALONE AT CHRISTMAS: New Year's Day 2021

Newbury resident Caroline ffrench Blake describes spending the festive period on her own for the first time

New Year’s Day, 1st January 2021
Day 10

The last day of my festive diary started early – at 5am – with a shared FaceTime call from my two daughters in Sydney and California. We compared our versions of the family favourite of roast glazed ham and red cabbage, and had a Ham Cam, as Clare called it. All our versions looked rather different. We decided to pool our knowledge on the subject in a kind of best practice recipe for future reference.

There are all sorts of hazards in America, where gammon, English mustard and cider vinegar are not easily available. This is not a problem in Sydney, and Kate’s version was magnificent. Mine was already mostly eaten. Clare’s was superbly home cured, with its own unique appearance.

Writing the diary over my solitary Christmas period has helped me make sense of this time, and feel connected with the wider community. Of course it must have been strange for everyone, and being alone with your own thoughts for extended times can result in seeing things in new ways, which can be helpful, or the opposite. I sometimes wonder what the long-term effects will be for the many who are in this position, one which may continue for several more months.

Having friends to talk with at length makes a huge difference, but I am aware that not everyone can access the technology and the opportunities it offers, and that some may have lost contact with family and friends – a deeper dreadful isolation.

It seems to me that a sense of purpose makes a difference. I have some lone artist friends who have simply continued to get up in the morning and work as usual. Newbury artist Edy Gosselin paints every day from early in the morning until the light fails, for the gallery in Atlanta that represents her. Carolinda Tolstoy spends each day in her studio, and throws, fires and decorates pots, losing herself all day in the magic of the alchemy of fire and clay and colour and gold.

Passing through Newbury on my way back from Reading last night, I saw the Newbury Soup Kitchen set up tables outside for any who cared to come and eat, with no questions asked. A number of local businesses had contributed food, and the soup kitchen had provided home-cooked food as well. This summed up and confirmed my view of Newbury as a uniquely kind and civilised place, often with the best that civil society can offer.

Maybe in the future we will build on these initiatives, as well as the tree planting projects, and create a better post-Covid world that cares for and develops everyone in the community, with full regard to their health, spirit, and environment.

A happy and better New Year for all, and thanks to those who have read my diary, and kept me company in this way.