Christmas list 2: Staying warm for Christmas

Now it's suddenly cold. Where did that come from? As Spike Milligan once said, I don't know where that cold wind's coming from but I know where it's going.

Half a century old one liners aside, it is suddenly time to think about keeping the cold out. Finisterre has a nice range of men's clothing and the big thing is it's all made out of Bowmont wool. This is a threatened species of sheep and Finisterre is dedicating itself to keeping it going. We're talking a bit finer than Merino but pretty strong.

The beanies (red one pictured) are as warm as they look and if it doesn't quite lie as flat on my head as everyone else's I expect that's just me. £45 to you and if it gets any colder I can see mine getting a load of exercise while I'm walking the dog.

Clearly it's not a formal dress accessory but when it gets really cold nobody actually seems to mind. A nice scarf is more my sort of thing, and if someone were to be spending £45-odd on me I'd just as soon have a cashmere scarf from The Travelling Souk. These come in at £50 which isn't cheap for a scarf but it's pretty good value for a cashmere. I like the designs - the Indigo stripe is pictured and there's a green equivalent, plus a plain khaki and a plain grey-blue.

They're very warm and a bit of a treat which is probably what you'd want at this time of year. That said I won't be buying one; my wife often has words with me about buying scarves because I like the look of them and then forgetting about them, followed by buying another remarkably similar one the following year. I thought she was exaggerating but I've been through my drawer and guess what, I have too many scarves...

In a few days' time I'll be doing the first ever giveaway on this blog - nothing colossal but freebies nonetheless. It's reached 3000 readers a month which isn't huge but other than the odd mention on Twitter I've done no marketing at all, so huge thanks for reading, commenting, bugging me by email - I'm enjoying writing this.