Sunday morning. The pavlova will stay in the oven until it’s time to put in the pork. Bettine’s coming to lunch. We are back in our routine.

It’s a good routine too. After so many days of dreary weather with high winds and heavy rain, this morning’s blue sky and sunshine is a (literal) breath of fresh air. There’s even a frost - one of the first of the Winter, which is really hard to believe given that it’s January.

The house is full of flowers. I had bought this bunch of lilies last Monday, when we restocked the fridge for the first time since Christmas. The house always looks a little empty when all the Christmas stuff is packed away again and my first thought was to fill the vase on the kitchen windowsill with some large blooms - but they have sat there all week in tight buds, reluctant to open until last night. When I got up this morning I see they’ve opened in unison, just when I had thought they were going to turn into dead buds.

I think they might have been sulking, perhaps, in danger of being overshadowed by the beautiful bunch from Bloom and Wild which arrived on Wednesday with love from Amy. Gorgeous!

We had left the spruce and other Christmas twigs on the garden table for now, happy to have some greenery to look out on. I couldn’t resist half a dozen small cyclamen pots when I saw them on offer the other day, however, and this morning they were looking lovely in the winter sunshine.

Though there are signs of growth on the roses out there,

I think it’ll be a while before the spring bulbs do anything much.

We enjoyed a taste of Spring last night, however, when I cooked the first bunch of forced rhubarb with the last of the Christmas oranges which I retrieved from the fridge.

We are rhubarb lovers around here, and since Father Christmas put a packet of these in my Christmas stocking, I think we have a new favourite. I will always associate them with our wildlife drive in India where they proved to be the ideal travel sweet. Rhubarb and Custard in India? Perfect!

It’s lovely to be at home, then, with a heap of interesting reading. My Christmas book, Making a Life and two magazines I bought in India; the National Geographic Traveller India edition which we had flicked through in the reading room of the Evolve Back resort and found fascinating, especially the article about travelling through the Caucasus (one of our very first adventures, back in 1982!) There’s also Vogue India, with the spectacular jewellery and fascinating fashion to review as well. Last but not least, I’ve rediscovered Caroline, a Little House on the Prairie spin-off that I began months ago before it fell by the wayside for some reason. It’s a really good read and I am enjoying it all over again!

The magazine open on the kitchen table this morning is the January Waitrose food magazine, where on page 69 is a recipe for Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread. We checked we had all the ingredients yesterday and I think (hope) my Hero plans to give it a go in the next couple of days.

Watch this space!