Ann and JJ leave for Thailand early in the morning. Tom is minding his mum's place while she is away, so for the first time in a long while, I will be home alone. While I cherish solitude, I am not very keen on being thrust into loneliness, especially at Christmas time. And yet I realise that I have often been at a loose end at this time of the year for one reason or another.

Some time ago, the Chinese Tang dynasty poet Li Po wrote,

'All the birds have flown up and gone;

A lonely cloud floats leisurely by,

We never tire of looking at each other -

Only the mountain and I'

I can't find the translator's name, and it's very unlikely that it would have rhymed in lines 2 and 4, but I appreciate the point of this short work. Everything has fled except that which is immovable. I think it will shortly be time for a bush walk.