Hogmanay celebrated on the hill

New Years Eve came in with a great snowfall then settled into a cold starry night with a big full moon, a blue moon, that is when there are two in a month or 13 in a year!
We drove on the white on white roads and there was no other traffic, no traces in the snow whatsoever. The valley folk are wise.
Arriving at Shield Law, the hill overlooking Bellingham, was quite the challenge. We did not want to crash into a stone walls or slip and slide off the road altogether. I was holding the tray with the cooked salmon filets and in the back was the potato dauphinois a la Suede and a bag of goodies slipping and sliding about.
The trip itself was such an exciting adventure! Thanks to the bright full moon light we could see for miles and that really helped. It was so beautiful
Hogmanay was spent in the company of Ben, Ruth and Fred plus their three cats Patricia, Hemlock and Bramble and Molly the black lab.
It was a relaxed cosy evening and I am particularly fond of that family. It was so kind of them to have us over.
Around midnight Ruth opened the window to let the old year out and the new year in. We toasted with some delicious port.
The food was not necessarily traditional but very festive. Bubblies, starters of tomatoes baked with chevre, salmon, apple pie and mince pies made by Ruth and were delectable. I think it is a marvellous idea to share the cooking, like a potluck! It worked out very well indeed.
Hogmanay comes but once a year. Last year we were at home in Sheep Cottage with friends from Germany having cheese fondue.
Next year?

Brother Blue

Brother Blue passed this year and I will miss him. He was an amazing man. During all the years I lived in Cambridge Mass he and his wife tirelessly shared of themselves and their vision. They both wore all blue and the butterfly was his symbolic animal.
A storyteller among many things, he performed in streets, prisons and schools.

Full Moon New Year

Preparing for the New Year by hanging more prayer flags in the tree outside the window in front of the cottage. The first thing you see when you arrive. Welcoming I hope.

This year we shall also hang wishes a la Yoko Ono on the tree in white. She made a beautiful tree in Bergen Norway once with the towns folk. A tree filled with white wishes, or wishes in white tied to the branches.

It is a willow. A goat willow from what I could tell from the tree book I have.
The cats have first row baskets on the sill and can watch the prayer flags and wishes from inside.
It is snowing and it is beautiful. All the fells are white, the sheep are whitish and luckily are given hay to eat.
I am going to put out bird seed for our many neighbours.
On the actual New Years eve we shall be seeing it in with some friends in Bellingham. Ben, the gardener and his parents live on a hill with a view of the North Tyne Valley and they have lovely cats and a dog too. It should be really nice and cosy.
Not so far to drive back home from either!

My booty

I was given some perfect and lovely presents this year!
The catalogue for the huge photography exhibition at the Pompidou in Paris called La Subversion des Images, a book of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist, The History of Curating, which is incredibly interesting and stimulating, a Russian film on DVD called Mother and Son by Alexander Sokurov,director of the Russian Ark and The Sun, and Volume One of the Agnes Varda Collection which includes The Gleaners and I-hurrah!
I am reading the Obrist book like a vulture, it is a really good read. he interviews different curators like Harald Szeemann, Lucy Lippard, Pontus Hulten...
Toblerone in a tube and a big one as well to satisfy my sweet tooth, what more could a person ask for?!
We ate salmon cooked in a Swedish way, and Noah made a delicious brunch with smoked salmon the next day, and the cats got turkey!
It is snowing outside and it is warm indoors. Absolutely perfect.