Ever since I was a little girl when Xmas was approaching it signalled a time for decoration and crafts. Erika Wolfel, my Austrian nanny was my guiding light for this and so this post is to her memory and my long lasting gratitude to her for opening my eyes to nature. Even after she went back to Austria she wrote to me regularly in the most calligraphic script always decorated with a drawing, a painting or a collage and especially a pressed flower.

Our house was full of Austrian Xmas traditions from adventskranz to special decorations for the table and the tree, to Xmas lebkuchen and marzipan.

It’s a little different in the Southern Hemisphere but just as heartfelt. So the season began for me with a walk in the nearby Ithaka Creek where I foraged some branches for my Xmas wreath.

Then I made my lovely Santas which will decorate my Bookgroup Xmas table tonight as well as the dry decorations also foraged.

It was the beginning of a tradition to getting crafty at Xmas so lovely workshops of throwing clay pots without much success, mosaic making with some buzzy themes and last year’s collective effort where Loz gets the prize from her South African inspired giraffe head.

A time when we can sit around and create together.

Wishing you all many such days even if the outcomes are often imperfect.