However, uni doesn't start again until the end of the month, so even though I will be working, I am going to take it easy through January. I'll be spending time outdoors, gardening and pottering about the house. You?

IN DECEMBER:

I WENT TO... Bundanoon for Christmas with my folks, sister and her family and my aunt. 

I ATE... Breakfasts out at Bowral's The Press Shop and Palate Pleasure and dinner closer to home at Gosford waterfront's fish.dining where I had a beautiful fish curry. I'll be back for the Thursday special of mussels, fries and a glass of wine. I couldn't think of anything more decadent for a summer supper.

I OP SHOPPED... No time. No, literally. Exams, a much looked forward to visitor, grandparenting duties and the festive season kept this little blogger busy.

I MADE... Zippered pouches from the natural dyes workshop I did at Jamboree in October and little Christmas scenes to welcome in the festive season and spirit.

I READ... Jane Harper's Force of Nature. I haven't read Harper's debut, The Dry, but her second release was on the seven-day loan shelf at my local library so I grabbed it, reading it in a mere two days. It's ages since I've stumbled across such a page-turner and I was engrossed in the story. I'll be hunting the op shops and putting my name on the long list at the library to read The Dry. 

I also read Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid. I've worked on the periphery of refugee and asylum-seeker politics in Australia for the past few years and heard many accounts, first and secondhand of the migratory journey from conflict, anxiety and fear through desperation, alienation, more fear, sometimes hope. Exit West is a dreamlike walk through the raw emotions, horror, day-to-day survival and animal instinct of a young couple seeking asylum and navigating new worlds, social mores and yearning for what once was but is irrevocably lost.

Image: Cathy Stubbs, of Two Minute Postcards