Is it really the last day

of 2014? According to the calendar it is...but where did the year go?
Every year I draw up a large sheet of light cardboard - days across the top, months down the side and all the dates in the middle. It is our wall calendar for the year.
My mother started it when she and the Senior Cat retired. They suddenly had no school diaries and there were other things that needed to be included in the calendar. Some things had to be planned ahead.
Her calendars were always done in beautiful "infant school" printing. My days and months are done on the computer, printed off, cut up and stuck on. The dates are legible - sort of. The birthdays go in, any known medical and dental appointments, any regular events or other important dates. Then, gradually, other things go in as well. I can look ahead and remind the Senior Cat - who sometimes forgets to look - about the birthday of a grandchild or great-grandchild or that he has an appointment. I add mine so that he knows - and put mine into the calendar on the computer as well. I also try to remember.
And, at the beginning of every year, the calendar will look quite empty. "It is going to be quieter this year," the Senior Cat tells me. It never is.
This time last year I was concerned about two very elderly friends and a younger one. One of the very elderly friends has bounced back after minor heart surgery. He's gardening again - gently - he's walking his elderly dog - slowly. The other has left for the great library in the sky and I miss talking books with her. She was a voracious reader until the last.
And the younger one has also died. I still find it strange that, this time last year, she was living in her own home - that I could knock and then call out and walk in. The place belongs to someone else now. I have no longer have the right to enter it.
It has made me think about "ownership" and "right of entry" and how these things change and - well, do they matter? They seem important at the time - but are they really? Friendship seems more important.
I have seen less of friends than I would like but leaving the Senior Cat for more than a few hours is no longer wise. My friends understand that. One of the joys of e-mail and social media is being able to keep in touch even when I cannot physically be there. Much has happened in their lives too.
And I wonder what will happen in the coming year. I am not making any resolutions. I have things I would like to do and I hope to do them but they will not be resolutions.
So, those of you who read this - please keep me at it. There are novels I still want to write - although I doubt publication more and more. Why do I bother? I don't know. There is the more serious book about weaving patterns for knitters. There are knitting patterns to write for my friend P.... There are too many books to read...and yes, a blog to write I suppose.
Whatever happens - Happy New Year to the rest of you.