January 2026 Archives

I visited Canary Wharf Winter Lights last week. This event is held annually in January to bring colour and light into a dark and often depressing time of the year. The event this year took place from the third week in January and finished at the end of the month/early February. The annual festival this year showcased over a dozen new illuminated sculptures and exhibitions, and some of them were interactive. In addition, there are a few permanent light-based sculptures around to see. I was impressed with the selection again this year. 

I visited Canary Wharf after work to see Winter Lights.

Hulahoop by Scale: This sculpture was set to light, movement, and sound with the different rings performing different movement and patterns. This changed colours and position and seemed to capture a lot of interest while we waited for the rings to move around each other at different paces.

Un-Reel Access by KAPPA: This glowing doorway symbolises a mystery about what lies behind it. The corner of the door is up-turned in one corner to reveal a bright light.

Colour Rush by Liz West: This colourful pillar of light was created with inspiration of a kaleidoscope. It sits on a mirror base with other mirrors around.

Blueprint by Studio Vertigo: This light and sound sculpture has moving beams of light that shift colour. The sculpture is inspired by DNA and the health sciences. 

Trispheric Garden by Reelize Studio: This mirrored sculpture is set to sound and shifts colour, illuminating the surrounding fountain and sculpture itself. The sculpture's form seems to mirror the tall buildings at Canary Wharf.

Out of Body Experience by Alaa Minawi: This sculpture is a group of figures illuminated into different poses.

Lacto-Reacto-Light by Jack Wimperis: This colourful sculpture is comprised of milk cartons and wire mesh cages. As it shifts colours, it takes the patterns of people and objects in front of it and projects them as shadows.

Flower Power by Aerosculpture: This sculpture creates flowers that spin out of pinwheels that change colour and speed and pattern. It is set to music, and creates an optical illusion of flowers.

In Bloom by Kumquat Lab: This sculpture is inspired by the bloom of flowers and activates upon touch with the colour of the orb changing to a new colour.

Manifestation by Marcus Lyall: This motion-projected lazer artwork is inspired by Victorian age and magic with the different drawings miorphing into different shapres and heads of figures that appear to sing as a choir, which was haunting in depiction.

At the Hand by Lacroix: This sculpture is created by the viewer who places their hand on a sensor, and a three-dimension light of the hand is created within rows of light.

Amplitudes by Limbic Cinema: This ever-changing sculpture uses light, sound, and mist from the spray of water particals. The artwork is projected near the bridge with the trains rushing past, which adds to the experience. Different colours and shapes, including wave-like forms, are projected.

SOL by Artistic Latvia: This installation is located around Crossrail Gardens and features many different planets in the solar system suspended in the air and near the ground. 

Aether by Architecture Social Club: Glowing lights and sound creates patterns projected onto rows of light, which is always changing shape.

Sanctuary by Ithaca Studio: This installation is a structure that surrounds the viewer in a mirrored sound and light-scape with glowing stars and rods of colour. The installation felt like a cathedral or being surrounded by space. 

For Ever and Ever and Ever by Anna Lomax: Three different series of sculptures were placed within different parts of the malls at Canary Wharf. The different lights are constructured with mirrors, and each side has a different view with different shapes and colours.

I had a crumble from one of the special "Light Bites" food vans during my visit. There are always several options and restaurants to visit.

Below are some of the permanent light installations. 

Whale on the Wharf

Bit.fall

The Clew

Stack

Shine Your Colours

Lightbenches

We Could Meet

The Boulder

Captivated by Colour

Previous years of Winter Lights can be seen below:

Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2025
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2024
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2023
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2022 - cancelled
Canary Wharf "Connected by Light" 2021
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2020
Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2019
Winter Lights @ Canary Wharf 2018
Canary Wharf Winter Lights (2017)
Winter Lights @ Canary Wharf (2016)

Last July, I met a couple of friends for a pub lunch and had a walk around Cliveden. I only just managed to look through my photographs during the visit. Cliveden is one of my closest National Trust properties, and it has been a couple of years since I visited it; I did not get to many National Trust properties last year. The day was beautiful, and this is a beautiful property to visit. The house is a hotel and off limits to guests unless you have a reservation or wedding, but the grounds are open. There was a wedding on during the visit. 

Our first stop was a quirkly old inn pub known as The Royal Standard of England. I visited here once before (Royal Standard of England).

After the meal, we walked around the grounds of Cliveden. I love visiting the water garden with the trees and plants in full bloom and the fountains running.

Afterwards, we walked around the little walled garden and then to the rose garden.

The formal gardens next to the hotel were next to visit.

The expansive views over the countryside allowed us to see for miles with clear skies.

More posts in this blog about Cliveden House can be seen below:

Bluebell Walks at Cliveden
Early Spring Visit to Cliveden House (National Trust, Buckinghamshire): Lockdown Edition
A Visit to Cliveden (National Trust): Lockdown Edition
A Visit to Cliveden House (Buckinghamshire, England)

When I visited Kingston last summer, I was happy to see a couple of areas of scaffolding with street art on them. On one of the walls, I discovered work by My Dog Sighs, a British-based street artist who is based near to Portsmouth and who has painted over the country realistic and colourful looking eyes with the reflection of the area projected into the pupils. The works are located in the Kingston area of London near to the river.

I also discovered this work in east London.

Previous work from My Dog Sighs on this blog is located on the below links:

My Dog Sighs in East London
My Dog Sighs Paints Re:Claim Southampton
Street Art by My Dog Sighs in Cardiff
Street Art in London from My Dog Sighs
My Dog Sighs on Rivington Street
My Dog Sighs 
My Dog Sighs
Mural in a hidden alley in Blackall Street
Collaborated with street artist Midge
Manchester Street Art
My Dog Sighs @ Bristol Upfest 2015
Artist My Dog Sighs' Hug Mural in Bedminster, Bristol

Street artist Abraham.O has been creating artwork across the globe for the past few years, and he painted for Bristol's Upfest 2024 "The Uncertainty of the Sunflower", which was a series of work featuring the sunflower along with a subject. The artwork is located in the Bedminster area of Bristol and features a woman painted in greyscale with a faded pale blue sunflower with petal plucked.

More street art by Abraham.O on this blog can be seen here:

Newest Street Art by Abraham.O in East London
Street Art: Abraham.O
AbrahamO Paints in Penge

In the middle of the month, I visited Phantom Peak at Canada Water. This immersive experience has been in London since the summer of 2022, and it is immersive theatre at its best. I visited alone, and you can visit alone or in a group or as a couple. Visitors to Phantom Peak will speak to actors (townspeople) to solve quests, similar to a real life living video game. The quests are completed on your mobile via responding to questions and speaking to people or tuning into a television. Upon solving the quest, visitors receive a card with the name of the quest. The quests change seasonally, and there are about twelve quests each season.

I turned up after work on a damp and drizzly mid-January evening. 

When the doors opened, I was led down into the town where there was a saloon for food (doughnuts and snacks) and drink. I had a doughnut and margarita, but afterwards, I saw a food order point.

Robo Chef allowed visitors to order food and drink.

I ordered some fries and chicken tenders.

I had a look around quickly.

The quests do not open until after the opening ceremony where we were addressed by the mayor of Phantom Peak and a couple of other characters, one a special Christmas character.

I went off to do my quests.

I explored the town and managed to complete three quests with a little bit of time to spare for one last drink and then to wait for the closing ceremony.

The closing ceremony signalled the end of the event with some dance and character discussions. Snow (foam) was released from above to give it a wintery feeling.

Phantom Peak is open for four hours on weeknights with slightly longer sessions to explore and complete quests on weekend days. Many who visit return, and I would definitely go back once it has selected a new venue. It is also child-friendly, and plenty of people were there with children.

Sculpture in the City takes place each year in the City of London. Each year, sculptures are placed around the city for visitors to enjoy. The annual sculpture trail is in its fourteenth year this year with the sculptures being placed in the early summer for a year, and some of the artwork is from famous artists and others from new artists. This year, a lot of the sculptures were in place for 2024. Only two of the sculptures are new for this year, and these include a sculpture by Al Weiwei and Andrew Sabin. 

"Temple" - Richard Mackness

"Dendrophiles" - Jane and Louise Wilson

"Untitled" - Daniel Silver

"Untitled" - Daniel Silver

"Charles, Jiwon, Nethaneel, Elena" - Julian Opie

"Looping Loop" - Andrew Sabin

"Roots: Palace" - Al Weiwei

"In Loving Memory" - Oliver Bragg

"Kissing Gate" - Maya Rose Edwards

"The Garden of Floating Words" - Elisa Artesero

"Caucus" - Samuel Ross

Hannah Adamaszek painted at Bristol Upfest in 2024, and this was her first outside work for awhile. The artwork follows her evolved style featuring women in tranquil settings - meditation, swimming, and other natural settings. The artist likes to paint the empowerment and strength of the feminine and to appreciate inner and outer strength. She now lives in Spain and focuses her life on sustainability.

More artwork by the artist on this blog can be found below:

Hannah Adamszek and Saroj - Great Eastern Street
Leake Street Tunnels Spring 2016
Bristol Upfest 2015
Pretty Peacocks

Over the last three years, the Fleet Street Quarter on the western edge of the City of London (and just outside the City around Fleet Street) has hosted a sculpture trail featuring twelve sculptures painted by different artists. The sculpture trail is managed in partnership with Wild in Art, and this year's sculpture is Snoopy. The Snoopy sculptures celebrate 75 years of "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schultz in which the beloved Beagle Snoopy is introduced.

Each of the sculptures is painted by a different artist, and they are all unique. Some of them feature Christmas and festive designs. The sculptures were launched in the middle of November and were on display until the middle of January to give families visiting the area something to do around the festive break. They help bring people into this part of London.

The previous trail at Fleet Street Quarter are located below.

• Penguin Parade 
• Walking with The Snowman

You may also be interested in the "Peanuts" exhibition I went to a few years ago at Somerset House.

Toward the end of last week, I went to watch "Bridget Jones's Diary", which was hosted by TasteFilm. TasteFilm allows viewers to experience the film with the element of taste through the emotions coming to life with food as well as some of the meals on screen being served up in front of viewers. I have visited a few similar experiences before. This time, I headed to a pub in Kensal Green called "The Parlour", which looked like quite a nice local pub popular with the locals. A room at the back held the viewing area (or cinema) where the film was played and where tables were set up to allow us to watch the film.

When I arrived, I received the extra cocktail that I had ordered to have while waiting. Viewers could also order a pre-starter, but I did not. I had the Tangerine Tinted Sour, which I assume was named after the love interest of Bridget's mother. The cocktail was a citrus orange-tasting cocktail. The menu was a throwback to the film with the starter being "Height of Sophistication" or "Tiny things one can eat without spilling on one's top". The film certainly took me back to 2001 and the late 1990s.

While I waited, I had a spicy margarita and a frozen picante. I seem to be enjoying the spicy margarita cocktails a lot these days.

The "cinema" room was located behind the bar, and we made our way to our seats. Each seat was laid out with our selection of popcorn, the menu for the film, a quiz, and a questionnaire. The menu for the film "Just as You Are" is a throwback to character Mark who states this line about Bridget and wins her over. The questionnaire is similar to ones found in girly magazines (such as "Cosmopolitan") to answer questions to find out our personality as a grown up and how we are doing. According to the answers I gave, I need to avoid the emotionally-unavailable men. Yes, I'll agree there! 

The quiz focused on Bridget Jones trivia and was to be done before the film started, and we were not allowed to cheat. I got eight of the questions correct out of ten, but the bonus two were related to the people making the quiz and were guesses, and I got both of those wrong. 

I enjoyed my frozen margarita with the popcorn.

We were then brought the first course, which was the starter to the main. Of course, it was the poppadoms with chutney throwback to the start of the film where Bridget goes to her mother's house for the annual turkey curry buffet on New Year's Day.

This was followed by a little taste of turkey curry, rice, and an onion bhaji served in small metal bowls. This was delicious.

The next dish was brought to us when Bridget was out with her friends at the pub. I received the vodka, grapefruit, and lime shot cocktail with tortilla chips and black olives.

The next was brought out during the "Tarts and Vicars" dress party where Bridget dresses up like a "Playboy Bunny". The cocktail was a tart blackberry flavour. This was served with a carmelised red onion tart with a sleeve around it that looked like a vicar's collar. I loved the cocktail, and the tart was also yummy.

"Nothing but condiments and cheese" was next on the menu with Bridget raiding her cupboards after discovering that Daniel (Hugh Grant's character) is a cheat. This was a blue chese profiterole with grapes and dried fruit. I didn't like the profiterole as I don't like strong cheese, but I did attempt it.

The next item on the menu was also out of the film in the scene with Bridget has Mark and her friends around for a dinner party at her house. She is a little bit hopeless in cooking as the soup turns blue. This was a leek soup served with cheese and croutons. It was served in a small metal bowl with blue ribbon tied around it.

For dessert in the film, a marmalade margarita was served. The little jar of marmalade was meant to be put into the cocktail.

The last item was the "Snowy Snog" with Bridget and Mark at the end of the film where she runs to meet him in the snow. White chocolate, pear, and almond trifle was the menu description, but it was actually yogurt, which I dislike. I ended up leaving it.

Overall, the film was a fun experience. I was not keen on a couple of the menu items, but the rest were quite good. I would go to one of their other events if I like the look of the menu and the film. 

Southbank Centre's winter festival is back again this year with more illuminations to bring colour to the dark winter months. I visited the exhibitions during early January, and it is free to visit with the artwork being located outside around the National Theatre and restaurants at South Bank Centre. 

Lee Broom - Beacon

Liz West- Hymn to the Big Wheel

Tavares Strachan - You Belong Here


Samia Halaby - Lighthouse

Otecki and others

Jakob Kvist - Diohronic

David Batchelor - Sixty Minute Spectrum

Squire and Partners - Winter Windows

Squire and Partners - Winter Windows

Nathaniel Rackowe - Desire Lines

France-Lise McGurn - Hystric Grammar

Rozendaal Rafaël "Twist"

La Bellazza is an Italian restaurant in Birmingham and part of the chain of restaurants owned by the Big Mamma Group. There are six other branches in London and one in Manchester, and the Birmingham restaurant opened toward the end of last year. Each of the restaurants have a signature cocktail but have the same or a very similar menu. I previously visited Circolo Popolare, and photographs and a write-up can be seen on the link at the bottom of the page.

I tried three of the different cocktails, including the signature mocktail Coco Loco, which comes in a special mug. I had the Watermelon Sugar Mojito and spicy margarita (amore picante).

I had the malfadine al tartufo - or truffle-based pasta. This is what I had at the previous branch.

For dessert, I had the pistachio profiterole. I was not that keen on it as the profiterole did not taste fresh and was "hard" instead of soft and fluffy.

See my visit to Circolo Popolare in London.

Last week, I visited "The Last Days of Pompeii" interactive exhibition in London at the Excel. The event consisted of different unique parts. The first part was to see some of the artefacts and replica artefacts from ancient Rome, along with some information about Pompeii. 

In this area, we learned some basic information about the people of Pompeii and the Roman empire. We were able to see and read about the these artefacts and ways of life. 

Some ancient pieces of sculpture and pottery were on display, and there were also replicas.

One of the rooms also held some replica plaster casts of some of the victims.

After the "museum" part, we were led into one area to put on a VR headset where we were immersed in the world of a gladiator who had to battle an opponent and wild animals in the arena at Pompeii. We were also showed one of the water battles rumoured to have taken place in the arena when it was filled with water.

The next immersive experience featured a huge room with projections of Pompeii and its destruction onto surrounding screens. We watched some segments on the discovery of the ancient city, theatre, and politics before the destruction. Afterwards, we were able to interact with an education area on various aspects of Pompeii and the Roman Empire. 

The last area was the best with the VR headset and being able to explore a few rooms in a villa in Pompeii.

At the end, we could have ourselves turned into Roman citizens with selfies. 

My favourite was the exploration of the different rooms in the villa. I wish that it could have enabled more.

At the beginning of the month, I enjoyed a festive Christmas "Twelve Days of Christmas" 1920s-inspired afternoon tea at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane. I visited with a friend who lives outside of London. The Grand Sheraton Park Lane is a 1920s Art Deco hotel located opposite Green Park. 

The afternoon tea is served at Palm Court, which is a bright and open space inside the hotel. The natural light comes through different stained glass windows and skylights. A Christmas tree stood in the middle of the room. 

As my friend and I arrived early, we had a mocktail and a cocktail whil we waited and warmed up. They had different festive drinks on the menu. I had a mocktail, but I do not remember what was in it.

I enjoyed a range of different sandwiches, including traditional egg and cucumber. Brie and cranberry and turkey were additional options. They do cater for dietary requirements.

They also gave a complementary birthday non-alcoholic drink, which tasted delicious.

Next up were the scones, and these were served with clotted cream, lemon curd, and two different types of jam. I think one was strawberry or raspberry, and the other one may have been apricot.

We also got miniature mince pies to take home.

The pastries were all themed from the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song. 

These included a Six-A-laying Black Forest Opera. It had a 1920s-style white chocolate feather on top. The Pear and Chestnut Tart had a white chocolate snowflake, and it paid tribute to the pear tree in the song. 

The Golden Paris Ring with Saffron and Plum was also served, and the last item was the Pipers Pistachio '11' Mousse. My favourite was the golden ring, and I also liked the pear tart, although it was a little filling. 

We also got a birthday cheesecake.

Afterwards, we walked through a cold Green Park and had a quick look at Buckingham Palace. Despite the very frosty and chilly January day, we did enjoy the brisk walk.

The afternoon tea was enjoyable, and I was able to try different teas. They had a special festive Christmas tea and a mulled wine tea. I also enjoyed the chai. 

Irish street artist Conor Harrington has an instantly-recognisable style featuring Renaissance figures in a state of motion or movement of conflict. The piece in the centre of Bristol was painted back in 2012, but I only saw it recently. It is titled "The Duel of Bristol" for the See No Evil festival.

More work by Conor Harrington on this blog can be seen here:

Conor Harrington's Second Mural Off Brick Lane
New Mural by Conor Harrington Off Brick Lane
Street Art: Conor Harrington
Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art
Dublin Street Art
Street Art on Whitecross Street
New Street Art by Conor Harrington
Belfast Street Art
Street Art Round-up in Early Spring 2014
Street Art Tour of Walthamstow

Street artists Phelgm and Sweet Toof have made some collaboration works in London earlier this year (summer of 2025). Phelgm, a street artist from Sheffield in north England, has created street art across the world with his fantasy characters using monotone illustration style. Sweet Toof is London-based, and his work appars across London. This year, Sweet Toof has been busy again establishing his work across east London after a break of a few years. Phelgm has returned to London and has collaborated on a couple of murals with him, including one off Brick Lane and this one in Dalston.

The work features two of his characters inside one of Swet Toof's mouths. One is pulling or inserting a tooth, and the other is touching a gold tooth.

For more street art by Phlegm on this blog, see:

Phelgm and Sweet Toof Collaboration on Hanbury Street
Phlegm Artwork in Hackney
Phlegm 2019 Street Art in Brussels
Phlegm Street Art on Art Mountain in Brussels Celebrates Painter
Cranio and Phlegm Collaboration in Dalston - War
Plegm Paints "Hydra Towers" on Ion Square
Newcastle Street Art
New Mural by Phlegm on Old Street
Phlegm's Mural on Hanbury Street
Phlegm and ROA Street Art at South Bank
Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art
Street Art: Phlegm

For more information about Sweet Toof and to see more of his work, see the following posts:

Sweet Toof in East London 2024-2025
Phelgm and Sweet Toof Collaboration on Hanbury Street
Street Art by Sweet Toof on Brick Lane
Street Art By Sweet Toof, Mo, and Gold Peg
Street Art: Gee, Paul Insect, Sweet Toof, Bortusk Leer

Over the past few months, I have photographed work by street artist WRDSMITH around east London and Brick Lane. The artist WRDSMITH (Wordsmith) creates mainly paste-up stencil artwork featuring a vintage typewriter with text on a "typed" page of paper, which is pasted up or painted onto the wall. The artist is originally from Ohio but lives in California and has placed work in London several times. In some of the pieces, there is a collaboration with other artists, such as C3.

Collaboration with C3

SusiFoxyArt and WRDSMITH

Previous posts about Wrdsmith on this blog can be seen here:

WRDSMITH Street Art Round-up 2024
'Never be Afraid to Reinvtent Yourself' by Wrdsmith
Recent Street Art by Wrdsmith 2022
Street Art: WORDSMITH & C3
Recent Wrdsmith (Wordsmith) Street Art

The Nutcracker Family Restaurant is located in central Ohio in suburb of Columbus called Pataskala. The restaurant is designed like an old-style dinner and contains many of the wooden and tin nutcracker figurines throughout the restaurant along with the other red, black, and white colour scheme that a lot of old 1950s diners had. The restaurant started operation in 1995, and I visited it in early December. The restaurant started as an ice cream parlour but it is now popular for breakfast, lunches, and it opens on some evenings for dinner.

I had the chicken parmigiana, which is a chicken breast served with spaghetti and tomato sauce and topped with cheese. This was also served with a breadstick.

For dessert, I had coconut cream pie.

The family restaurant's food is simple family food that is typical of Ohio restaurants.

This year, London's Gingerbread City takes place in King's Cross at Coal Drop Yards. Although I have wanted to go to the event in past years, I was unable to and this was my first ever visit. Gingerbread City hosts a creation of buildings made completely from gingerbread, and these have been designed by the architect community of both professionals and students. This year, the theme is "playful". One of the first pieces showcased when entering the room was a gingerbread Big Ben.

Other buildings included Brighton's theatre, a circus, a roller coaster, and a train station, carousel, acqueduct, stadium, and much more.

I enjoyed seeing the creativity in the use of gingerbread and other materials, such as ice cream cones, candycanes, gum drops, cake decorations, popcorn, marshmallows, icing, peppermints, and much more.

I enjoyed this English village scene complete with church and sheep.

The roller coaster with elves was one of my favourites.

Someone even made a replica of Brigton's famous building in gingerbread.

The circus, using stained glass melted coloured sugar was a nice touch, and inside the tent were scenes with animals and acrobats.

This one reminded me of a dollhouse with open rooms.

My favourite on was a lovely house with coloured sugar melted to form windows and a pond, which was also lit up.

The impressive arches reminded me of a train station and included a rotating carousel.

Visitors could vote for their favourite gingerbread creation at the end and also have a gingerbread photograph of themselves made from a selfie on an iPad. 

At the end of last month, I had a whirlwind visit to Bournemouth to visit a few friends and then to visit the Lower Gardens to see the Christmas Tree Wonderland. It has been a couple of years since I visited, and I went after Christmas this time. The gardens were still busy but much easier to navigate to see the lights and some small displays. There were also new attractions open with crafts, robotic reindeer, a Christmas train, golf, and Santa grotto. The Christmas market had mainly closed after Christmas, but food and drink was still on offer. 

The different light displays added a lot of colour and were better with crowds instead of the single Christmas trees that they used to have spread around the gardens, which people would crowd around to get selfies. There were many different areas with lights, light sculptures, and a light tunnel.

On series of lights on the trees also had a disco ball.

There were some Christmas trees, and the bandstand had a giant elf inside.

At the Christmas market, I got a hot chocolate.

I enjoyed Bournemouth in Christmas this year, and I think that this is a better use of the space and helps to manage keeping the crowds moving.

Last month, I bought the "Twelve Day" wine advent calendar from Good Pair Days. I use their service to sometimes buy and identify new wines that I enjoy with a meal now and then. I definitely will not be having a bottle a day for twelve days but will be using these up as and when I want to enjoy a bottle of wine. The options were a chilled box containing wine and rose or a mixed box, which also included red. 

The box came with some extras as well, including a wine bottle stopper set with corkscrew and a booklet of their wine guide with facts and other information about wine.

I am looking forward to try the wine over the coming weeks and see if there is a favourite amongst them.

This month, I received the Craft Gin Club gin monthly subscription box for December of 2025. The Craft Gin Club subscription box contains a full-sized bottle of gin, mixers, snacks, and a magazine (The Stir) with food and drink recipes using the gin. December 2025 month's full bottle of gin is Hentony Festive Gin, which sold out. The gin is from the Cotswolds in England, and the founders of the distillery are from Poland.

I received different snacks and mixers to pair with the gin. 

Schweppes Tonic Water: This brand of tonic water pairs nicely with the festive gin and lets the flavour of the gin work on its own.

Heartease Farm Sparkling Apple and Pear: This Welsh sparking apple and pear juice is made to use the monthly cocktail and tastes refreshing and is good enough to have on its own or made to mix with gin.

Angostura Cocoa Bitters: This brand creates bitters to add to drinks. A couple of dashes will transform your drink into a subtle flavpur for cocktails, mocktails, or othr dishes.

Goodrays CBD elderflower drink: This drink can be paired with gin or on its own and uses natural ingredients.

Brothers Toffee Apple Cider: This Somerset brand of drink can be enjoyed on its own or mixed with gin, and it uses real apples and ingredients.

Crosta Mollica fennel seed tarallini: I love this brand as they make many delicious products, and I loved to receive these little savoury biscuits that pair nicely with cheese and cocktails.

Savoursmiths Christmas Ham with Umami Truffle Glaze: This brand uses fine ingredients and comes up with unique and tasy flavours. I was not sure about these as I do not eat pork, but they are vegan.

Copperpot Gingerbread Fudge: This brand comes from Cornwall, and I've previously had their fudge before and enjoyed it. It does pair nicely with the festive gin.

Taylors Toasted Marshmallow Popcorn: I love popcorn, and this was delicious and tasted of toasted marshmallow. 

I also received a Christmas Gin Bellini syrup for the monthly cocktail and dried orange and cinnmon to garnish my gin and tonic this month.

Pantone® colour of the year for 2026 is a shade of warm white with a pale brown tone known as Cloud Dancer (11-4201). This shade is a comforting and relaxing colour to reconnect with society, according to the Pantone® website. Each year, the company launch a colour to influence choices in industries such as design, interiors, fashion, and more. The colour is a neutral shade which can pair with a lot of options to promote creativity and a sense of calm.

Pantone® helps set colour trends, so expect to see the colour used in fashion, interior design, home furnishings, graphic design, and artwork over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2025: Mocha Mousse
2024: Peach Fuzz
2023: Viva Magenta
2022: Very Peri
2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating
2020: Classic Blue
2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle