I notice so many pagan folk bemoaning the celebration of new year. Not our new year… ours is at Samhain. And I mostly share that view too; if one has to find a start/stop point on an ever-turning wheel… but culturally we are tied to the landscape we inhabit, which is predominantly Christian. And so as well as celebrating Yule I celebrate the family feast festival of Christmas – while avoiding as far as reasonably practicable the ‘commercialmas’ side of things. And likewise I celebrate (no, perhaps that’s the wrong word here)… I mark Samhain and I celebrate the calendar new year. So, happy 2012ce. Counting from the presumed birthdate of a presumed deity. E&OE.
Traditionally it’s a night for Jules Holland’s Hootenanny on the telly, turned up loud and replete with nibbles and whisky. This year we spent it instead at a close friends house who was on work standby and couldn’t imbide. We had a great night (well, wecould have a glass or two…) then returned after midnight for the rest of the show and a small tipple from the naughty bottle. The naughty bottle? That would be the Talisker 57°N that we brought back from Skye last year. 57 being the latitude of the distillery, the strength of the liquor and the price of the bottle! (thinking: how are they going to cope with inflation? I guess all they can do is make the bottle smaller! lol). Anyhow, damned fine stuff, was on my tongue for hours!
And after four, yes four… count them, hours sleep we had a slap up family lunch with family.
I love gadgets! The photo above was taken with my Canon 7D, driven via USB by my Android tablet running DSLR Controller (currently in beta). It’s great – I can set up the camera remotely and focus on any area of the picture simply by touching the tablet screen at the appropriate place. Magic!
Rosher.Net 
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