Well, hello 2025, and Happy New Year to anyone reading this. I have very little idea who that might be, other than a few kind commenters, but according to Google there are quite a few others hanging around on the sidelines. I myself do sometimes read blogs that I don't comment on, though not often. So hello anyway.
My brother and sister-in-law went down south again yesterday, so we've just been gently pottering about, putting things back in their usual places, washing sheets, watching programmes that we've recorded, and so on. Also going for walks, such as this one yesterday, along the path beside the golf course. It's funny how hills always look much smaller in photos than they do to the eye. These are the Pentlands, and you can't see, but they're covered in snow.
It was a beautiful day yesterday, and also today, but rather chilly. Not many people were on the path.
But the light was beautiful.
At our ages, 74 and 76, it's impossible not to wonder from time to time how many more New Years we'll see. My brother is now 77, and though he's very fit as far as he knows - well, none of us does know for whom the bell will toll (next).
Still, I always remember Charles Lamb in The Essays of Elia, writing, "I survive, a jolly candidate for 1821", and that seems a good attitude. We're fine. We hope to continue thus for a while. Meanwhile I simply must start another quilt.
I've been writing this blog for nearly 19 years. I'm slightly sad that there's no easy way (is there?) to print it out economically and concisely, since it's a record of these years. I've seen companies that will do it as a fancy book, with one page per entry or whatever, and all the photos, at vast expense. This would take up more pages than I'd like to leave for my descendants to deal with.
Anyway, on with 2025.
