Thursday 1 January 2015

A Happy 2015 to everyone!

Well dear friends,that's another year bites the dust.   Done, dusted, all the old calendars taken down and birthday reminders transferred to new pristine calendars, together with any other significant dates that needed to be remembered.

Now I am champing at the bit to get the decorations down.   I never find the patience to leave them until Twelfth Night, but shall leave them up today, mainly because I am having a total rest day after all my Christmas entertaining.   I have so enjoyed having a house full of people much of the time and because I love cooking, I have also enjoyed providing the meals.

Last night's beef pot roast worked well, as did Mary Berry's Souffle Fish pie - that is well worth a try if you are a fish pie lover.   You can get the recipe by going to bbc.co.uk/food and then putting in Mary Berry's fish pie.

Now can we please all forget about Christmas and New Year and get back to some kind of normality?   It is much easier on the farm of course, because animal life goes on just the same as always.   They don't know it is Christmas; as long as their food arrives on time and they are well fed, watered and warm, nothing else matters much.   Something sad happened the day before yesterday when one of the sheep we overwinter tried to jump the beck rather than go round by the bridge.   She got hopelessly stuck in the mud rather than making it to the other side and the more she struggled the more stuck she became.   By the time the farmer found her she had drowned.

Now all that is left to do is to get used to writing 2015 on cheques rather than 2014.   (Yes, I am afraid I am old fashioned- I don't bank on line and I still pay my bills by cheque - not sure what I shall do when cheques disappear off the radar which I believe they will do before long.)

To end on a cheery note - our Winter jasmine is in full flower, we have one or two yellow species crocus out and my tete a tete daffodils are well and truly showing their green spikes in my planters.   The snowdrops under the Scots pines are well up and if the really cold weather holds off for a few more days I may have one or two to show you.

Roll on Spring.   You can't come soon enough for me.

16 comments:

George said...

Here, here! Three cheers for a return to normality. Here in the U.S., the holidays seem to run nonstop from Thanksgiving to New Years. A bit too much for me.

A Heron's View said...

A Happy Gregorian New Year to you Anne xxx

Mary said...

Yes, I'm glad the season is over regarding holiday celebrations - will be de-decorating ASAP!

Have a great 2015 my dear - keep coming up with all your wonderful English farming posts, you help bring home so much closer for me!

Best of everything, always.
Hugs--------Mary

Jane Brideson said...

Many blessings to you for 2015 - I am still in hibernation until the new shoots appear - roll on spring!

Rachel Phillips said...

Happy New Year to you too Weave and may 2015 be a good one. I still write cheques, you are not alone by any means.

jinxxxygirl said...

Like you i would much rather be writing checks. Hubby is a modern techie person though so he pays all our bills online. It always makes me nervous as things are so easily hacked anymore it seems.

YES! 2015 I'm ready! We just had our first freezing night last night. I'm sure there are at least a few more in our future... But for me Spring can take its sweet time as i SO dislike the summer...Hugs! deb

Heather said...

Our cherry blossom is trying to come out and I noticed a flower on one of last summer's antirrhinums! It's wet and windy here tonight so I am very glad we don't have to go anywhere. I am looking forward to normality once more though I will miss the Christmas lights when the days are dull. Perhaps I could re-arrange them somehow when everything else has been packed away.
Sorry to hear about the sheep - poor thing.
I still use a cheque book and refuse to do online banking.
Happy New Year to you both.

Mac n' Janet said...

Ready for the new year. I write a few checks and need to be careful with the date. My daffodils are up, but not blooming, my Jasmine is in bloom.

angryparsnip said...

My weather last night (New Yews Eve)
is quite like yours. We had winds, freezing rain and snow. We usually get snow in the mountains but not in the valley. Now every few years we are having a hard freeze again tonight. Not sure my citrus Trees are going to make it.

Woofs to Tess
cheers, parsnip

Twiggy said...

It is very windy up here today. Before we went over to my inlaws for a fuddle today, I spotted around 30 sparrows hopping around the lawn eating the bird seed we had put out and a male and female blackbird hopping around together. Just lovely.
Twiggy

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Poor sheep. Sigh.
But flowers are nice! Friend Rose gave me two paperweights bulbs in some dirt in a pretty, clear glass, uh, shallow bulb holder thingie? Josephine left it alone for a week, then excavated one yesterday.
Ray recovered enough from flu to go to store and watch an American (college) Football game. I'm about two days behind him in terms of getting better. Bed is my friend. Josephine is currently yodeling and, literally, bouncing off the walls in her play. She is something else.
Happy New Year to you and the Farmer, Pat! I really enjoy your writing.
xo, m & jb

Gwil W said...

Don't jump in the mud if you can go round by the bridge.

I think I'll make that my motto for the new year. Poor sheep though.

Galestorm said...

Happy New Year and all the best in 2015!

Pondside said...

Happy New Year to you on the Dales. It's good to catch up a little on what you've been doing. It sounds like you had a good Christmas and deserve an equally good rest!

Gerry Snape said...

well said...lets get back to normality and look for the buds on the magnolia...sure sign that life is coming back to the garden!...Happy new one!!

The Weaver of Grass said...

I love Gwil's idea of making my poor sheep's fate his motto for the year. I might follow suit.

Thanks for all your new year wishes.