Reflecting back on 2013, I have personally experienced moments of sheer joy and happiness, yet the year was also marked by deep concern, sadness and the loss of loved ones. Life is like that, with its ups and downs, but as someone once said: ‘You can’t change what’s happening to you, but you can control how you react to it.’ I think that will be my main resolution for 2014. This time of year - the bleak mid-winter - is like one of those lows, but with the ingrained hope that comes with the knowledge that, once again, spring will arrive and lighter times are ahead. The primrose melting its way through the snow on the front cover symbolises this promise, and we have already put the darkest day behind us!

As a Dane, I burn candles all year round, not just in the dark of winter or on our Christmas tree. Candles very much epitomise the famously untranslatable word ‘hygge’, that warm and cosy feeling you have when you are in the company of friends or family doing something pleasant. Marianne Parry from Old is a fellow Dane who alsocame, saw and married; she is now carrying on the very Nordic tradition of candle making, see pages 60-61. Another story of a local company that will ‘warm you up’ this winter is about Warner Edwards, see pages 44-45, the friends from Harrington who, united in spirit, set up an award-winning gin distillery. Tom Warner and Sion Edwards are kindly offering readers the chance to win a bottle of their limited edition sloe gin, just in time for Valentine’s.  Pandora in Corby,page 7, is also offering readers a chance to win a present for your loved one: a bracelet with love and passion beads, so go ahead and enter!

Is 2014 your year for adventure? The organisers of The Adventure Travel Show, pages 98-99, are offering two tickets to be won, so start imaging where you could go… Maybe your New Year’s resolutions are a bit closer to home? Maybe youwant to make some changes to your life, such as adult learning, see page 115, or volunteering for Marie Curie Cancer Care, see page 80, or Lyveden New Bield, see page 100? There are running, bowls, movie makers and rugby clubs to join on the pages ahead, or you could take the Workplace Challenge as described on page 108?

Whatever you plan on doing for 2014 I wish you the best of luck and may the
New Year be a happy and healthy one!

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