At this time of year a highlight on the village calendar, and great for cottage guests too, is the Cheddar Festive Night. Now well established and very popular for people from a good distance around, the main village road, up to the lower gorge is shut for the evening. Stalls and events all pop up. Decorations twinkle. IT feels that the Christmas season has well and truly started.

But this is not a usual year. The Festive Night was of course cancelled a long time ago. However the creative people at Cheddar Arts have been promoting an alternative to lift spirits. They call it Cheddar Winter Window Wanderland. Homes around Cheddar, and even some temporarily closed stores in the Lower Gorge, have been busy decorating their windows with tissue paper and silhouettes. And today, Sunday 6th, and for the next 14 evenings between 6pm and 9pm, people can wander the village (map and addresses supplied - over 200 participants) and marvel at the creativity of the many. All COVID safe, in our little groups outdoors.

And today is that start, and we signed up alongside so many others. We're looking forward over the next two weeks to wander around and see what everyone else has done. And here for you is our little offering. Firstly the house and cottage in their usual Christmas lights and then the main house window with our contribution. In our case a vague theme of ecological wonderment with seasonal twists. In the centre the pale blue orb that is our precious planet, with Father Christmas flying over. And, yes, that is a penguin too ... our younger daughter (now 30) has loved penguins since she could talk! We also appreciate the surreal situation, Escher-esque, of animals on the Earth looking at ... the Earth. Hmmm.

And for all of you coping with the trials of this tough year, we wish everyone a safe, peaceful and hopefully nurturing seasonal time, including all cottage guests, past and future.

Huw and Mary

I don't often mention guests specifically in this blog but I am making an exception. This last week our guests were Lucille (Lucy) Campeanu and her partner Gino from Australia. They were here for 9 days and managed to pack in a lot in that time including two separate circuits of the Gorge Walk, visits to Wells, Glastonbury and Bath Spa where they literally enjoyed the spa - the new-ish Thermae Bath Spa facility which includes a rooftop pool where you can gaze at Bath Abbey nearby.

They also made it to Stonehenge and took part in one of the special groups allowed in to the stones themselves (normally off-limits) for sunrise. Pretty special but made the more-so by them being in the area when a magical crop circle appeared overnight. A huge 7-pointed star: you can see the images here.

Anyway they also managed some quiet time back at the cottage and because Lucy is amongst other things a creative coach and artist she had chosen to document their travels in England and afterwards in France with an "art journal", images of which she has been posting and "vlogging" on her Facebook page as she goes along. We were particularly taken by the two paintings she did in her journal of the cottage and the patio view to the garden. They are below and you can get a lot more of this by checking out Lucy's FB page here:

                                                           www.facebook.com/artshedangel 

​Another lovely idea of lucy's was bringing with her some painted "Peace Rocks", and then leaving them in various places along their travels. Each has simple instructions on the back encouraging the finders to adopt the rocks for the next part of their own travels and then to leave the rock in turn for others to find - but not before photographing them in their new location and posting this up on Lucy's FB page for her to track their slow migration.

So a different take on how to capture your journey. And do keep you eyes open for a Peace Rock as you travel around.