Merry Happy

Bob, Mary and I got up before sunrise and drove early to Muir Woods, then on to Muir Beach for them to absorb the full flavour of a California Christmas. They arrived yesterday while we were in the Alexander Valley shooting exteriors, because the forecast is for rain tomorrow which is the official shoot. It was a magnificent day - clear sky but the sun always low with a wonderful shimmering opacity in the distance, not the golden light of summer but a clear platinum haze like warm silver. I love the backwater feel up there, unsmart.

Skype to Uki yesterday for their Christmas lunch, 25 degrees (Celsius). Isn't technology wonderful - and today I read Molly Parkin's blog after an email from Robin Maddison, he had been working with her, and Sugg, and Stephen Frye. Makes me feel very backwater myself.

It was wonderful to get a call from Norma in Jaipur and hear all their adventures. Ned is staying to help at a clinic in Nepal, he fell in with some medical students there so will come back later. What a brilliant way to surmount Christmas.