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| Lower Bents Farm, Totley Bents |
So this is 2019. It's a strange place and it will take me some time to get used to it.
Here we stand at the beginning, looking out over a mysterious landscape that stretches before us like a counterpane - all the way to the distant hills of December. Who knows what will befall us as we travel onward?
There'll be personal happenings, national matters and events of international significance. For the billionth year running we will receive no visitors from outer space and God will continue to ignore us. Perhaps he is dead.
Yesterday, at the KCom Stadium in Hull, my beloved team thumped Bolton Wanderers by six goals to nil. I am glad it was Bolton because in early 1966 as I walked to Burnden Park, Bolton from the grimy railway station, a local youth grabbed my Hull City bobble hat from my head and ran off with it down the thronging streets. I chased him but he got away. My mother had knitted that hat and on the front was my "World Cup Willie" badge. That summer England would famously win the World Cup.
I wasn't in Hull to see yesterday's goal fest. Instead, I was walking with my wife. Two miles out of the city, we took the same circuitous route I have plodded a hundred times or more. We parked by the old stables on Shorts Lane.
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| View to "The Cricket Inn", Totley Bents |
There were plenty of people about, Usually,I see no one at all but with it being New Year's Day and with the clement weather, many folk had had the same idea as us.
The walk took exactly an hour and afterwards Clint took us to "The Hare and Hounds" in nearby Dore. There we enjoyed our first alcoholic drinks of the new year. I had a pint of "Black Sheep" and Shirley had a half of "Moonshine". We considered ordering food but thought better of it and returned home for cheese on toast.
Two days in to 2019 and so far so good. I have secured a dental appointment for Friday afternoon and that morning I will have a skin cancer check up at The Royal Hallamshire Hospital. Hopefully, my basal cell carcinoma has been resigned to history but you never know.
With regard to the land of 2019, I feel a sense of trepidation as we begin to travel across it. Not for my personal life but for the country and the world at large. After the events of 2018, it is hard to be hugely optimistic. Early cartographers would often sketch fabulous beasts on the edges of their maps, writing "Here be Monsters" or "There be Dragons" and that's how I feel about the year ahead.
Let's hope I am wrong. Should old acquaintance be forgot? Happy New Year Everybody! Happy New Year!
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| Tree house by Strawberry Lee Lane |
If only there would be a pandemic with no antidote that spread throughout the world and the "illness" was peace.
ReplyDeleteThe Peace Pandemic. John Lennon would smile from Central Park where his ashes were scattered if that came true.
DeleteMy wish for 2019 is to still keep getting the witty comments from you YP, they make me smile.
ReplyDeleteAs for the state of things in the world, I look back in time and see that nothing has changed and so do not worry about it.
All I would really like for 2019 is to have Tom back as he was but that will never be, so, I shall make the most of what we have and try to laugh a lot.
Briony
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With regard to Tom's ailments and prospects you need to follow the advice in that old Judy Garland song...
DeleteAlways look for the bright side,
Start the day on the right side;
You'll find life worthwhile,
Learn to wear a smile,
Keep your sunny side up!
Happy New Year to you, too! After the various (and, unfortunately, persistent) health issues I and my family saw in 2018, this new year is hopefully better. As for the big picture, has there ever been a time without worries and uncertainties? I don't know what to expect from April onwards; will I need a visum for my next Yorkshire holiday?
DeleteNobody knows Meike. Brexit remains a mystery presided over by idiots like Theresa May and her gang. I suspect that entry to Yorkshire will require intimate knowledge of how to make a Yorkshire pudding. Please don't forget the pinch of salt!
DeleteWe'll just be getting used to it being 2019 as 2020 arrives if the year goes as quickly as 2018 did!
ReplyDeleteA Happy New Year to your and your family, Yorkie. I hope it treats you kindly. :)
And I bounce back the same good wishes to you Lee.
DeleteHappy New Year, YP! I do like your photos. Such a glowering sky makes the baubles pop with colour. And that green grass! The lawn roller is straight out of the Olden Days.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pip. It is interesting to hear your take on my pictures. Happy New Year!
DeleteSince I'm a rather optimistic fellow, I never think about the out come of the years. However if one looks at what's going on around us , we could get worried about what may happen.
ReplyDeleteI hope that I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic. I am realistic.
Delete"2019 will be what it will be." as my Grandmother used to say (mutatis mutandis). I stuck the last couple of words in just because I could and I remembered them. I doubt my Grandmother even mentioned 2019 itself.
ReplyDeleteLike the quirky tree house.
Happy New Year Mr Pudding. Hope all goes well with the dentist and skin check on Friday. I don't think too much about the coming year, I just take each day as it comes.
ReplyDeleteI like the juxtaposition in the first photo of the very old building with the very modern Christmas baubles. It's very appealing somehow.
ReplyDeleteP. S. I'd like to email you about a comment you left on my blog, YP, but I can't locate an email address for you. Would you kindly email me at newjennyo at gmail dot com, please?
ReplyDelete