Belated New Year, cardboard art, weaving

Handsome Son visited Saturday, bringing shortbread and ginger ale for the New Year, adding to the tea and banana bread I provided. 

Since the first person over the threshold this year was a blonde woman, we missed the first footing. But HS,  the dark haired man arriving a bit late with food and drink, was close enough.

For people unfamiliar with first footing, it's a tradition in the North of England where I'm from.  It brings luck if the first person over the threshold in the New Year is a dark haired man bringing fuel, food and drink. 

Usually men would leave their houses before midnight, with the items - piece of coal, bottle of Scotch, slice of cake -- and chat in the street until they heard the ships' sirens and bells and, locally, pans beaten with spoons, sounding in the New Year. 

Then they'd be welcomed in with a glass of something good and a kiss from the lady of the house. Local legend has it that it had to be a dark haired man, not a Viking red -blond, this being the territory where Vikings raided. Not inviting one in!

We enjoyed our belated observance as a good start.

Speaking of cardboard as an art material, here's a wall piece I made from the insert in a Misfits grocery box 

And the weaving is progressing while I listen to A Pocketful of Rye.

This determined enjoyment and making is protest against the regime. 

Happy day everyone, make your protests heard by your MOCS.  

Happy New Year, and all it entails

Happy day, white rabbits, hoping for the best, and planning -- you know the rest .

Photo AC 

Last day of the year, 123123!

Yesterday I suddenly felt like making a Tiny Tapestry, hauled out my lovely handmade and signed Hokel handheld loom, and here's what happened

Still on the loom in case I feel like making another little house on the same warp. 

The plants have been repatriated next door, except the bromeliad is staying here and I'm free cycling my spider plant.

Let's hope for a better year coming up.

Happy New Year everyone, thank you for taking part here this year, and we'll continue in the new year which is already here in the Southern hemisphere.

photo AC

Misfits box reveal

 It being Friday, two weeks since last Misfits delivery, my box arrived. More modest this week, what with the vegetables already  in the freezer and the fish and all.

The ordered  pita bread wasn't included, but an unordered jar of dried basil was. They'll refund me for the bread. 

And I got a year end State of Boud's Box report, all about what I ordered, what I saved etc. 

It's heartening reading, since I've been eating very well, all organic and nice condition. For the entire year, including pantry items such as olive oil and broth and baking needs, flour, yeast, baking powder, and canned goods,  I spent $877, and saved approximately $730. 

I made 25 orders and the total includes the flat shipping rate of $4.50 per box, any size box.

This is the first full year of ordering from them, since I shopped at the local farm till late September 2020, near the end of the growing year here.

This is definitely a good thing. I live in an expensive region, and it was clear from comparable  local organic prices that I was making a great saving. 

This might not apply so much if you live in a place with a lower cost of living, but I think anyone probably can save to some extent.

I also was spared shopping trips in winter, and didn't need to rely on Handsome Son, who would have done it, did it for the first several months of the pandemic, but he works so many hours, didn't want to add to his demands.

Anyway this isn't a commercial for Misfits, just a nice end of year finding.

All in all, happy camper, very glad I tried it.

It's all good!

And since it's New Year's Eve, wishing you a much better new year, and as late Scots husband would say:

Lang may yer lum reek!*

*Translation for Sassenach readers: long may your chimney smoke, meaning long life to you.

This year brought continuing old friends to this 'ere blog, and new ones, too, thank you for joining us. You're all very important to me, everyone, with advice and encouragement and good humor and your own blogs which never fail to lift my spirits. Wishing you all a good Nerdy  (Scots for New Year's Day).

Happy New Year

Hoping for a good year for us all.  And thank you to everyone who's made this year a little better for us all.

And here's my latest fitness workout.

This is a mother and daughter team, daughter leading the walking workout, her mother working along.  I like this a lot, much better than young people issuing commands to older ones, without having any in the studio.  She watches how her mother is doing, and doesn't get her stressed out, though she's pretty fit, I must say.  It's ten minutes of perpetual motion, with a lot of variety in movement, which I thought I should try, out of a chair for this series. And if you read on, you'll see why this is important at this exact moment in time.

I made the Shortbread recipe from Tartine, seen here, dough pressed down into the pan

And here it is, cooling, scored for breaking, little fork marks.

At this point I had not tasted it, but it was cooling nicely, when friend from next door brought his two little grandchildren to the door to wish me Happy New Year.  Exquisite timing.  So they went home with a couple of pieces each, warm from the oven.  And they're all dark haired, so I counted them as my First Footers.

Scottish and north of England tradition, you need the first person to set foot in your house (here it was on the step, but who's counting), to be a dark haired man. Since nobody else will be in the house till (dark haired) son visits, I'm all taken care of.  And when the first footer comes in, they get things like this to eat, and adult ones get a strengthening tot of something, all in the name of having a healthy and wealthy New Year.

My dad was our first footer growing up, and he had to leave the house before midnight to join all the other first footers freezing out in the street until they were allowed in for the ceremony right after midnight, after they'd heard the ships in the river sounding their horns or whatever they call them.  Some guys used also to first-foot houses where there wasn't an available dark haired man, and I expect the glass of scotch was very welcome there, too.

Anyway, I tried a piece of the shortbread, and it literally did melt in the mouth.  Gosh it was good.  Posh, but good.

And then, since I need a bready something to go with breakfast, and just couldn't be bothered to bake bread, I made a recipe of hot biscuits with ap flour, no wholewheat this time, with sliced almonds and chopped walnuts.

So now you see why a walking indoor program in this soaking wet weather, is also on the menu.

I don't look back over the year, never have, and this one wasn't very thrilling to remember.  However, some good things came of it.

I got access to meetings, including my centering prayer group, because they went online.  I've developed more blog friends this year, thank you everyone who started reading back in March or thereabouts, you're treasured, as are your own blogposts, those who are bloggers themselves.  And thank you, long-time readers who are still faithfully checking in, after all these years.

And I've been able to take in concerts I'd never have made it to, if I'd had to get there in person. Last night Taiwanese Fusion Jazz, last week Indian Kathak dancing and music. And lectures from the Princeton art museum, The Rug Society, and Emily Dickinson's house. So I feel very enriched.

I hope we've all found some consolations for the anxiety and losses we've dealt with.

Happy New Year!  Hoping for a better one, as always.  And now I have to put the Christmas decorations back in the box for another year. If you were wondering why this is happening on New Year's Eve in the Northern Hemisphere, it's because we have readers in NZ and Australia, for whom it's well into January l, 2021. Being inclusive here! 

Happy New Year, and, in Scots fashion: Lang May Yer Lum Reek!  It means long may your chimney smoke, meaning long life to you.