I spent last New Year 2010 in a rambling chateau in Normandy at a friend's 60th birthday celebration. Staying for nearly a week we all helped cook for thirty and playing games, letting off 12 lanterns into the night sky at the stroke of twelve on New Years Eve. As we set off to camp on the coast a few days later the air grew colder and the wind brought snow in its breath. This year of course we had the excitement of the snow arriving much earlier and the ground turned to vast sheets of ice.