...and a New Year begins...

... 2016 ended, for me, with good friends and a log fire, a book-lined room, and glasses of liqueur and good conversation...J. was called  after Christmas on a legal case, so we arranged that I would spend the New Year weekend with friends in the Cotswolds.  We saw in the New Year after a delicious  and talkative dinner: we have all been friends for over 30 years. This morning I went with them  through the rain to a rather hearty church service in a stunning Cotswold church, and then we enjoyed a pub lunch. Then  I took the train to Oxford. Arriving with time to spare before Mass, I walked down St Giles, past the "Bird and Baby" to Browns where I settled with some coffee and my emails. Then Mass at Blackfriars and the pleasure of running into friends  at the Crib and exchanging whispered greetings.  The Crib is a particularly nice one - the shepherds have a sheepdog - and the Three Kings were making their way slowly from a neighbouring side-chapel.