Last night I wish I had gorged on grapes while bells rung, toasting my feet on the fire of my (least favorite) calendar, then running all over the house opening the windows and doors and running all the way back around closing them. I wish I had grabbed the whiskey bottle and a lump of coal, rubbed the coal on my face, – commando-ed out to the barn (though I would be wearing underwear lest we get confused, ) and I would have burst through the front door of the barn, I wish I had been singing, kissing the animals and sloshing the whiskey about shouting – Don’t mention the Scottish Play! I would have done a jig! Sheila would have been deeply underwhelmed. But it was so cold yesterday, I would have had to wear three pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves.
Then I might have broken into the tinder box and let off all the fireworks while Queenie and I shared a jug of ginger wine (How did Queenie get to be the senior cow!) and TonTon and BooBoo set off rockets behind our considerable backs. We could have gone for a walk to look for wild animals and good luck corn, banging pots and lids to ward away the bad spirits (and probably the wild animals!)
Then the three kittens could have picked imaginary roses and had a parade but no-one would have been watching because we would all be sorting and soaking the black eyed peas for New Years lunch, throwing out all the peas that had blue eyes or even brown eyes while drinking turkish coffee and throwing the grinds down to tell our future.
Then we might have sat around crouched over a fire, the dogs and I, melting lead and dropping it into cold water to see what we could see. Once I made a dragonfly, but I cannot remember what year that was or what the following year was like. Probably a lot of hovering. If we had sat there long enough around our smoky fire, staring into the buckets of water and lead, Daisy and Kupa and Mama and Big Dog and Scrapper and Mr Pink would have come out of the shadows to sit a while. But only if you pretend not to pay attention. You must never look directly at the New Years ghosts. You have to let them be.
But I didn’t do any of that. I drunk pear cider and we ate pickled herrings (John’s tradition, actually he ate them, I didn’t – all that salty mayonnaise is not to my liking) and way before Midnight I was fast asleep in my big boat bed, dreams and New Years Ghosts gently rocking me through the night tides, from one year to the next and now I have woken up in 2015.
No fowl will be eaten today. The Matriarch will cook lunch (steak) and in the evening John will cook little wonton bundles made with go-forward pork and shrimp – filled with good luck – this is another of his traditions. I am happy to be cooked for, this is the best kind of good luck and a most excellent tradition. Otherwise it is business as usual and hopefully not as cold this morning as yesterday, that blowing cold made my hands cry.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Happy New Year from the farmy.
celi
ps. I know we were going to drive to Indiana on Friday to pick up the pig huts but now John is workingon Friday so once again I am at an impasse. I cannot drag that wonky trailer by myself. Never mind. Something will turn up.
pss. You and I leave for New Zealand in FOURTEEN days. This time we are going to stay on an authentic New Zealand farm, you will love it, a big beautiful farm house that is rented out as a wedding venue with porches and orchards, shearers quarters, barn and fields of wild flowers. My daughter and I will be cooking! And you are coming along!
The Kitchen's Garden 
52 responses to “Happy New Year”
Happy new year, Celi! You might not have done any of that stuff, but we saw you do it all anyway. Here’s to another year of adventures. I think it’s going to be grand.
How lovely for you to start the year by being cooked for! We are off to our neighbours for dinner, so I’m having a lovely start too! All the best to you and yours for the coming year.
Christine
Happy New Year – it must have been exhausting doing all that, even if you were asleep 😉
Next year I’ll teach you how to make pickled herring without mayonnaise in any of a dozen different ways you might like and suggest you melt silver to tell your fortune coming : that is what I have done all my life . . . . and my feet are sore[sih] from dancing the New Year in till nearly four in the morning and then having to cook a traditional dress-up Euro New Year’s Day lunch for all those still around . . . good first day of the year: may it continue on so for you and me 🙂 ! [I have just closed my eyes and seen them too . . . ]
Farewell 2014, you helped me grow older/wiser and taught me many a thing. Hello 2015, with you I know we will laugh and cry as this is just what we do….but as with all beginnings and endings there is hope and prayer for that which will come.
Happy New Year to all of the Fellowship! (Now go get those Peas on the stove)
I too was in dreamland before the bells tolled. The journey home from a busy week in Dublin was hard work because the day forgot to dawn and many drivers refused to switch on their lights, What were they saving them for. An accident? I look forward to some sunshine when virtually travelling with you to New Zealand in a couple of weeks time. May 2015 be a healthy year for all the farmy family, fellowship and most important the animals. May abundance, contentment and peace come dancing through your door!
And we too were in dreamland at midnight when the doorbell rang: our first ever first footers in 23 years in FranceFrance, two young men we didn’t know, to wish us Happy New Year/
Happy New Year Cecilia and all my farmy friends. Being an early bird I was in bed well before any balls dropped, and up to a cold frosty morning (19F). Wish I was closer Miss C I would drive to get your pig huts with you!
Happy New Year Cecilia, I try to get my mom’s herring beet salad recipe . I don’t think there is any mayonnaise in it.
I love beetroot, that sounds wonderful!..
Happy New Year, c! I’m looking forward to a whole new year of news from the farmy.
A very happy new year to you, my darling, and all the blessing in the world for the farmy. xx >
Happy New Year to all at the Farmy….I also thought of Daisy this morning as I put up my new calendar….but it is to the future that we must turn our face and leave the past in the shadows behind…
Not sure what will happen about the huts, but I feel absolutely certain that because it is you, something will turn up…
I never been to NZ..I will go get my passport and get my bag packed….don’t go without me!
And a Happy New Year to you and yours!
Happy New Year! The New Zealand farm sounds wonderful, can’t wait.
Thank you for taking us to New Zealand with you! It will be warm and green there, right? I could use some warm and green, right now!
warm and green and bounteous and there will be sheep and cows and pigs, we will go for a long walk every morning, I cannot wait!!.. c
Happy New Year C from the kids and I! xx