How is it that I lived most of my life without paying much attention to the weather? I would get up, look out the window and dress accordingly. Now it seems that we are constantly having "weather events." I am afraid I now look on weather forecasters as the Boys Who Cried Wolf.
Nothing stops the Scots and their celebration of Hogmanay. This morning I listend to the BBC Scotland and the revelry had already begun in earnest. This is not the haggis eating holiday- where they bring out little children on a platter dressed like haggis and fat men stuff themselves into kilts that fit 30 years ago and they are "just a wee dramming" whiskey throughout the night. -that is Robert Burns Night later in January--Hogmanay is the morning till eveining through night till the next morning revelry that happens in Scotland to celebrate the last day of the year. One of the special dishes is rumbledethumps--a stick to your ribs thing with turnips and potatoes and cheese and cabbage--a side dish thing that translated back to my Scots Kentucky relatives.
Vintage scottish antiques. Not easy to come by. I have a few bits and bobs--a clan tartan book, a selection of vintage brooches and a funny old book about Queen Victoria's Main Squeeze After Albert Died--Mr. Brown who was a funny old Scot who didn't bathe much if the book tells the truth.
In September 2014, Scotland will have a referendum on whether it should be an independent country and no longer part of Great Britain. That is one of those discussions that has been happening and fought over for centuries. I like the sense of nationalism that they are contemplating--they are independent and not part of the jumbled whatever that Great Britain has become over the last century. Special traditions and celebrations and ideas are not a bad thing. But it seems that only America really has made a success of the melting pot thing.
But tonight--the only melting pot thing happening in Scotland is a traditional Hogmanay stew that has a pastry top. Yum. Happy New Year!!
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