Welcome, New Year!

48 this morning, raining and dark overcast, with thick fog.

Happy New Year, friends!

How did you celebrate the coming of another year? Did you go out, stay home, stay up, or go to bed? We stayed home, mostly. I have this movie I love to watch every New Year’s Eve—I think it’s actually called New Year’s Eve—and we had some snacks and champagne, a bit of whiskey and a nice fire in the fireplace so we settled in. Earlier I’d texted some younger neighbors to stop over for drinks if they were going to be home, and around 9:30 two of them came over. These ladies were hilarious and we had a great time talking with them. They left, and not long after a whole passel arrived—all the same family, brothers and their wives and children. It was so warm we sat out on the porch and visited. Then close to midnight Larry and I hopped in the van and ran over to share the dropping of the ball on TV with them, since we have no TV service here. It was a really fun evening, and I’m still smiling thinking about it.

We’re off to an interesting start on the year today, with this overly-warm weather and now, at 2 in the afternoon, a power outage. Apparently the outage is due to an “emergency equipment repair”. I am sorry for the workers called out to do the repair as it is raining heavily off and on as I write. My laptop has an hour or so of battery time so I can at least write my blog to post later. We are also blessed to have free gas for heat and an older cookstove that works fine when the power is off.

I was just about to order my garden seeds when the lights went out, so that will be on hold for a bit. It’s so nice to be able to go back into the website and see what I ordered last year, and decide if I want the same varieties again. I will probably order most of them, as we had an excellent garden for the most part in 2021.

Usually on New Year’s I pay more attention to how I am spending my time. Do you do the same? I try to be mindful about the things I choose to do—or not to do. So today, we got up a bit later than usual, allowing our bodies to tell us when it was time to wake. Then a big, leisurely breakfast. Larry napped a little after breakfast and I did kitchen cleanup and called my sister Theresa. I went outside to the gardens and gathered asparagus seeds to start in our little greenhouses, as I had good luck with them last year. I also pulled some beets for today’s dinner after Theresa mentioned harvesting kale and greens from her garden today. What a nice thing to do on January 1! I poked around the gardens a bit, picking up some loose trash, etc. There are flowers blooming here and there—pansies, calendula, and some young green onions are sprouting. There are a few leeks still in the gardens, and some fresh dill is growing. Other herbs look very green; indeed, even the grass is pretty green for this time of year. Apparently things will change tomorrow when a cold front come through.

Now I am writing, and when the power is on I will go back to ordering my seeds. Perhaps the lesson from today is flexibility, being ready to change plans at a moment’s notice without getting stressed about it? 

Dinner will have some of the traditional New Year’s elements: blackeye peas and cabbage. I’m also fixing a nice trout, the beets, a salad, and stuffed peppers I put in the freezer last fall. So it will be a small feast for the two of us. Followed, I hope, by a walk if the rain lets up enough to make it doable. 

All in all, it’s been, and will be, a really nice way to start the year. I hope your day has been as good, and that the coming year brings you health, comfort, joy and many blessings.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.