Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 January 2006 17:21:48
Thank you for your good wishes, and yes, they are cute, sometimes ...
At 11:30 pm, I tried to waken daughter, who turned over, but clearly wasn't keen to leave her bed. Son had fallen asleep on the sofa, so I carried him upstairs. Wife had already gone to bed. It was a select company of granny and me who prepared to take in the New Year; then brother joined us. The other brother phoned again from New Zealand, this time to celebrate our New Year. With just a few minutes to go, it was strange to hear the voice of my sister-in-law, already well into 2006, while we consumed the dregs of the previous year.
A thoughtful year's end, as they remembered Tam the Gun on the television, and I stayed in my seat, thinking that one less tradition wouldn't do any harm (in the past I would have been scurrying to the back door, and then the front). In the event, granny opened the front door, and we stood outside, listening to the bangs from various quarters. It wasn't long before I headed for my own bed. I think that wife had by then emerged, and she thought that we should change daughter into her pyjamas, as she was still in her clothes. As I helped daughter to change, she wanted to come down, and was most put out when I told her that it was past midnight. She came downstairs, nevertheless, and I assured her that she was our first foot.
The morning dawned bright and clear. A walk was clearly in order. We thought that we would walk around Sandy Knowe's loch, but the gate was chained, so instead we parked the car at the foot of Moncrieffe Hill. I was just a wee bit worried - once before we had considerable problems there with car in snow and ice, but to-day it was more like mud. It was a gorgeous walk, just the right length. There would be a photograph, but I had with me an old analogue camera (not that we ever called them that).
The trees in the title were growing on the hill, while the chimney sweeps danced this afternoon in Mary Poppins (they don't make them like that any more). So as 2006 emerges (although the radio's been on, I have yet to hear any news, so don't know with what events it has been greeted), I just hope that it will be one that we want to remember.