Beginnings are exciting, and embarking on a new book project has injected new life into my lockdown days. Diving into research, visiting scenic locations, and writing the first pages has brightened my 2021. Hopefully the words keep flowing 🤞

Pausing on a bridge straddling two worlds, suspended between them, do I keep going or turn back? Stay a while the water’s reflection calls, a lovely contemplation as the sun peeks through the clouds.

The tree shadows on Hampstead Heath are timeless. This photograph could have been taken decades ago. As I pass these trees on my daily walk during lockdown, I often wonder what stories they hold locked in their rings of memory. So many books have come out in the last few years on the mysteries of trees. My favorite has to be The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wholleben (originally published in Germany in 2015). A fascinating read, I filled the pages with post it notes to mark my favorite bits of new tree knowledge. Highly recommended non-fiction read for nature lovers.

DAY TWENTY FOUR: I’m grateful for this adorable pic of Dexter, my sister’s lovely dog, in his Christmas best. 😍 I’m missing them this year just as so many others are missing their loved ones. Fingers crossed we can all go home for Christmas next year.

DAY TWENTY THREE: I’m grateful to all the creatives who enrich our lives, through art, music, literature, theatre, dance, film, photography—where would we be without the storytellers, the singers, and the poets? Those who look at this life and reflect it back to us as something new? Marking our hearts with memories that carry us across the ages, until we draw our last breath? Life would be unbearable without them. It would go on, but what would be the point?

DAY TWENTY TWO: There is so much beauty in this world.

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Even in a pandemic, books are published around the world. Here’s the cover for White Chrysanthemum, published in Macedonia during this tumultuous year: Белата хризантема