The last blog of 2023

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from the Olivia Rose Diaries. Now is the time to marvel at how quickly the year has flown by, the time to take stock of what has been and look forward to what is to come. This week between Christmas and New Year always feels like an in-between sort of time, a phase where I feel in limbo. Each year I resolve to keep myself busy so that it won’t feel that way – but it always does.

We have spent our Christmas this year house and pet-sitting for our friends in the next village. It is only a mile away from Le Shack and yet it feels like a different world. The house is on top of the hill, with a sunny aspect and clear views over the tree tops and valleys all the way to the Pyrenees. The mountains are around 50 km away but on a sunny day, when they are sharply outlined against a blue sky, they seem so close that I feel I could touch them. Sunsets and sunrises have been stunning as the air has turned colder.

Le Shack has a completely different outlook, situated as it is on the shady side of the hill, surrounded by oak forests and rolling hills. I often feel as if we are embedded in the hillside itself, our views more immediate and less lofty. Both homes are in beautiful situations, but I find it comforting to think that you don’t have to go very far to find something completely different.

As yet we have had no snow anywhere near the cabin this year, but that hasn’t stopped me reading a couple of books with a snowy theme and I thought I would share them with you as the year draws to an end.

The first is called The Snow Tourist, by Charlie English, who wonders what it is about snow that leaves us spellbound. Part memoir, part travelogue, the author travels to the cold places of the world in a quest to experience snow in its many guises, both fearful and wonderful.

I’m just over half way through this book and have found it fascinating and satisfying, from seeing how the Innuit communities have adapted to living in harmony with the snow, to the sports fanatics who push themselves to the limit in their bid to conquer nature at its most extreme. His honest account of his own battle with fear on the high peaks gives added depth, an apt reminder that the mountains will always have the last word.

The second book is a novel by Eowyn Ivey and is called The Snow Child. It is set in Alaska in the 1920’s, with a husband and wife beginning a new life on a smallholding in the wilderness. The descriptions of the landscape are mesmerising, a place so harsh and yet so beautiful that it takes a special person to survive.

The couple lost their first-born child ten years ago and still carry the sadness with them, so when a wild and fey young girl appears after a snow storm one night they believe that perhaps they have been given a second chance. Fairy tales and reality are interwoven so skilfully that the reader is as bemused and enchanted as the husband and wife. This is one of those books that draws you in, makes you care deeply for the characters and sympathise with their struggles. I couldn’t put it down. It’s the sort of book to read by the fire with a stock of biscuits to hand, a perfect antidote to winter. Magical.

And the third book is not about snow at all. I haven’t read it yet but it is on my ‘to buy’ list for 2024.

It’s called Micro Adventures by Alastair Humphreys and is described by the author as ‘taking the spirit of a big adventure and squeezing it into a day or even a few hours.’ That sounds an excellent idea to me and I hope it is going to provide me with some inspiration for making the most of 2024.

And that about wraps it up for this year. As ever writing this blog has been a joy and I have enjoyed getting to know you all and sharing my travels with you. I wish you the best for the coming year and look forward to adventures to come, whether they be micro, middling or mammoth – and hopefully a combination of all three!

All the best.

MJ