My grandparent's dresser, now in my kitchen, all ready for Christmas

…and now I’m out of Deadline Hell, I’m embracing it fully. The daughter and I have been decorating every inch of our lounge and kitchen, and we have sparkly fairy lights lining windows and stairs, protecting us from the gloom of December outside.

The first batch of mince pies (made to my mother’s recipe, of course) have almost all been scoffed, and the tree is up and decorated. I packed the husband off to work this morning with Nigella’s Chocolate Fruit Cake, which is apparently going down well in the office. Which means I need to make another one, dairy free, to take to Wales for the family at the end of next week.

Unfortunately, in the midst of all this festiveness, I’m writing a book called Summer of Love. I have a lot of summery tunes playing while I write, but still, trying to capture the heat, the buzz, the feel of a summer heat wave, while layering on extra cardigans and hankering after some mulled wine is stretching the imagination a bit. Maybe I’d better turn the heating on…