New Year's Eve separates people. There are those who want to sing and shout and frolic with crowds and there are those who become even more introspective than usual and hunker down to brood in silence. i'm obviously in the latter camp and so are you if you are reading this. When my husband was alive I used to say that my iideal NYE required 3 things: drink champagne and make love by the fire. Since then two out of three hasn't been bad, and there were a couple of years when I didn't have a fireplace.. So now I go to a spa/retreat, to drink champagne by the fire, and think. I have a lot of thinking to do this year. I'll try to be productive about it. I have slipped into a slough of despond and that is never creative. So I have a lot of work to do. I hope there's enough firewood. I wish you a good fire to heat your brain and warm your heart.

Does anyone know that expression? I haven't heard it for a long time but I think it's an accurate assessment of the time remaining in this calendar year - just two days left. But I looked it up:

shank |SHaNGk|noun1 (often shanks) a person's leg, esp. the part from the knee to the ankle: the old man's thin, bony shanks showed through his trousers.• the lower part of an animal's foreleg.• this part of an animal's leg as a cut of meat.2 the shaft or stem of a tool or implement, in particular:• a long narrow part of a tool connecting the handle to the operational end.• the cylindrical part of a bit by which it is held in a drill.• the long stem of a key, spoon, anchor, etc.• the straight part of a nail or fishhook.3 a part or appendage by which something is attached to something else, esp. a wire loop attached to the back of a button.• the band of a ring rather than the setting or gemstone.4 the narrow middle of the sole of a shoe.

It doesn't sound as if it's time-related, does it? But speech, well, English speech, is all metaphor, isn't it? We speak in images and colour. We see red when we're annoyed; we are blue when we're depressed, black when the mood is really dark; we're yellow when we are cowardly, and go white with fear. But we spring back when we recover. We unwind at night; we wind up our business affairs; we are wound up when we're excited. I don't have to say any more. You get the picture.

This is not what I was going to say at all. I was going to get maudlin about the end of this year that was. I guess there's time enough for that. Don't hold your breath.