In 2014...A Guid New Year tae Yin and A'

Some have meat but cannot eat
Some would eat if they had it
But we have meat and we can eat
and so The Lord be thankit

And we have light and  heat and fuel for cooking ,
And television. telephone and internet
And thanks to  an ice  storm,we know what it's like to be without
And so The Lord be  doubly thankit.

There was certainly misery enough in the city to keep me from complaining

One of the last things I watched before cable blacked out ,was the  Mansbridge interview  on Tweeting with Margaret Atwood. He outed her  that she still has an electric typewriter,a manual typewriter and of all things,   a pen . is kept handy.

I couldn't help thinking about teachers who feel cursive writing is an obsolete skill that no longer needs to be taught.

A woman last night told how she had to sleep on the floor during the blackout. The family were forced to sleep n sleeping bags but she had to stay on the floor in hers to keep the fire going all night.

I shook my head  twice at  that.

I'd been thinking how one might prepare for an ice storm.  I've  always missed  a fire .ln the house. I wouldn't exchange it for central heating. But  a fire  in the grate is a spiritually comforting thing.

Even if  it was ever warm enough in  a Scottish summer not to have a fire in the hearth , the house
was strangelyempty without one.

But we never burned  the fire all night long.
We made sure the bed was warm and cosy.
Getting  up in the cold was hard to do .
But, oh no, we never needed a fire when warm in our beds.
There was and still is something  special about that too.

During the power outage, I put my head out the door to smell wood burning smoke from someone else's house.

So....many of us ended 2013, without some of the comforts we take for granted.

Because  of it,  we start 2014 with a new appreciation for all the good things  we normally enjoy without even thinking .

I did get  my Christmas cards  off to Scotland. I didn't get the Canadian ones away before the  storm.

I forgot to mention, my car was iced in to the driveway as well .


I received mail with  many bright and beautful cards of good wishes  and they  brightened my space.

Now on this first day, my wish to one and all is , A Guid New Year In 2014.

There's lots to talk about in the weeks to come.