New Year's Day, 2022

It's hard to know whether we were farewelling 2021 in a style which perhaps it didn't deserve, or welcoming 2022 in a manner which we hope, if a bit forlornly, to carry on.

Whichever, when Ian let Lindsey know that he had sourced crayfish, prawns, scallops and rockling and did F&J fancy joining them for dinner, F accepted with alacrity.

Lindsey and I were together at the time. We were making our final visit to the mushroom farm for the year. They are closed now for a short summer break. We went to Avalon and bought another bird bath to accompany my Christmas one. You can't have too many bird baths if the summer is going to be hot - and so far at two days it has had more 30+º days than the whole of last summer. We went and bought new blankets and doona covers for Lindsey's place. We went to Uncle Dan's but they didn't have what I was after. So we went back to our respective homes for the afternoon.

Ian did a mighty job with the seafood. He wrapped the scallops in prosciutto and cooked them on the barbecue. He battered the rockling and fried it with chips. He barbecued the prawns. The crayfish we had au naturel. I'm not sure anyone had much of the salads! It was all very delicious and a proper celebratory meal.

Then we went home. Jim went straight to bed. I definitely didn't see the old year out and the new year in. I think I lasted until around 10 or 10:30 then I too went to bed - and slept remarkably well. Perhaps that is a harbinger of good sleeping to come in 2022, although that seems improbable.

I couldn't find the Brandy Cat on Thursday afternoon. I hunted high and low, in the house and in the backyard. I checked all his favourite sleeping spots. And then he moved slightly and I found him, squished    in behind the plant box with the sweet peas, next to the fence.  I guess it was the coolest spot in the backyard, although the veg area, under all the trees always seems to me to have a green coolth about it.

Jim is starting the new year as I assume he intends to go on:

Happy New Year,
says Jim.
Beer with breakfast, please.