Tuesday 8 December:

Early morning walk just after sunrise (8am ish) to Bathurst Basin/The Ostrich/near St Mary Redcliffe/M-Shed/Gaol Ferry Bridge and home. Initially very grey and overcast but, albeit briefly, followed by beautiful orange skies.
Ru was already in the studio when I left (she worked there all morning).
Moira and I had morning coffee as usual and left a coffe+mince pie on the stairs for Ru.
Collected my next Bloke’s Books book (‘The Crossway’ by Guy Stagg) from Storysmith and also bought envelopes and sellotape dispenser(!) from Wyatt+Ackerman.
Completed Christmas card/letter/grandchildren photo card (with Moira’s approval)… and Ru posted off copies to Alan+Lesley (probably our only ‘actual’ Christmas card etc).
Started trawling google maps for possible urban sketching locations in Siena (for this coming Sunday).
Watched ‘The Belles of St Trinian’s film on catch-up in the afternoon (as you do!).
A couple of small concerns: first, the radiators were cold (late afternoon) and second, the kitchen sink wouldn't drain (thanks to candle wax?)... hopefully, now sorted.
Had a zoom catch-up chat with John Tom in the evening (seemed like an awful long time since we last properly spoke… possibly 3 years?).
Image: orange sky behind St Mary Redcliffe on my morning walk around the harbour.

Monday 7 December:

Went for my usual harbourside walk first thing (around 8am)… still pretty drab and overcast – although the sky did briefly ‘pink over’ very briefly as I approached SS Great Britain.
Wrote up some brief thoughts to email to Ru in connection with her forthcoming exhibition.
Got my hair cut (so I look neat and tidy for all those Christmas parties we’ll be attending, obviously!!).
Finalised our Christmas card etc… for what it’s worth.
We retrieved all the Christmas decorations from the back bedroom wardrobe… and Moira (more or less single-handed) did the business… even though only one set of tree lights actually works!
I made some more mince pies (and I must admit I was quite impressed by the quality of the pastry!).
Evening telly: ‘Only Connect’ and ‘University Challenge’ (plus ‘Nigella’ in between).
Early to bed to read.
Image: Christmas Tree.

Sunday 6 December:

Usual Sunday harbour walk with Moira at 9.30am (lovely sunny/slightly misty morning), before streamed church (good talk from Maria, but I’m afraid I tend to ‘opt out’ before the end of the service these days!).
Read the Sunday paper… and also put together a ‘grandchildren’ Christmas card – based on the very few pics I’ve taken of them this year (and relying on Alice’s pic of Mikey, Dan+Jemima – because we haven’t seen them at all this year!).
Did some ‘wax scribbles’ that might be used as the basis of a Christmas card… we’ll see.
I’ve been thinking of possible items for inclusion in Ru’s forthcoming “(nearly) LOST and (not quite) FOUND” exhibition in January…
Evening telly: ‘Dark Materials’.
Early to bed to read my Ray Bradbury ‘Dandelion Wine’ book.
Image: draft Christmas card? 

Saturday 5 December:

No walking this morning… apart from fetching the newspaper.
So, another lazy day spent reading the paper and then finishing my ‘Rebecca’ book (which I really enjoyed) and scribbled a quick review.
‘The Railway Children’ was on the telly (again!)… 50 years since ‘birth’… and so, of course, I felt I HAD to watch it. I really do wonder how many times I must have watched it… 30? 40? 50 times?? A LOT!
Watched another Bristol Old Vic streamed production in the evening (“Christmas Carol” – last year’s version, not the one Felix played Scrooge). Just like when Felix played Scrooge, the actor playing the ‘lead’ was excellent… but I thought the ‘musical score’ and general production and script was pretty average. Disappointing.
Received another letter from “my mate Matt” (Health Secretary) giving me Covid advice – albeit several days after the advice had come into force. But, hey, he now says I can go to school or work!
Image: another letter from “Matt”.

Friday 4 December:

Went harbour walking first thing (currently, I end to set out about 8am – more or less sunrise), although there haven’t been many decent bright mornings of late. I’ve started to do the my harbourside walk in the reverse direction (ending up walking up Leighton Road) in order to avoid schoolchildren and parents (although it does mean dodging people on their way to work across gaol ferry Bridge etc). Uneventful (apart from watching two cormorants argue over a fish!) and pretty overcast.
Morning coffee with Moira when I got home.
Tony (Hadland) sent me a first draft of his "1971 Minibus Tour" blog (about our marathon trip to Greece and around Europe).
Lazy day… I sketched some bookshelves (badly) and I read a fair amount of my ‘Rebecca’ book.
Evening telly: ‘Grayson Perry’s art club exhibition’.
Image: Cormorant taking off. 

Thursday 3 December:

The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be made available across the UK next week (although it could take weeks/months before everyone has access to it).
I read in bed (‘Rebecca’) immediately after breakfast and then went for my daily walk after Moira and I had had morning coffee. Light, continuous rain and grey skies.
We’ve decided to give our daughters £100 each (as a sort of Christmas bonus?)… essentially acknowledging that things have been tough for all of them financially, whereas (because we’ve doing less!) we haven’t been spending as much as usual – and hence had some spare cash to spare (albeit only a small amount).

Set up another 'virtual' urban sketching trip (to Siena).
Sketched briefly after lunch before watching ‘Nativity’ film on telly.
Evening telly: ‘Portrait Artist’.
Image: Stewy’s sheep (Cooperage Lane).

Wednesday 2 December:

First day after Lockdown #2… Bristol is now in Tier 3 – which, as far as we are concerned, is effectively is the same as Lockdown #2.
Bloke’s Prayer ‘attended’ by everyone and everyone seemed to be coping ok (Jeff always struggles with zoom; Nick’s always travelling on a bus which makes things tricky; Robin is due to return to Bristol tomorrow after several weeks in the Canary Islands.
No dawn walk (or walk of any kind) today… just bumbled around doing bits and pieces.
Did some sketching in the morning (related to the Drawing Group ‘Parks’ theme).
Finished my Bryson book in the afternoon (excellent) and then made some mince pies (with rather mixed success… but they tasted good!).
Evening telly: ‘Repair Shop’.
Image: mince pies.