New Year traditions

I don’t really do the traditional Scottish things at New Year any more – the bells, whisky, black bun, first-footing etc. Probably due to the excesses of my youth when I over-indulged in most of these (I don’t really like black bun!).

Nowadays, life is more sedate at this time of year, but we have developed some things that are now family traditions, which seems to me to be a better way to celebrate the start of a new year.

These traditions are about what happens on the 1st of January – during the normal waking day, not around midnight and the wee sma’ hours.

I always do some gardening – whatever the weather! Sometimes it’s no more than walking around the garden, looking at what I’d like to tackle in the year ahead. One year I started to cut down a tree – and quickly realised that it was completely beyond my skills and tools, so a professional was called in to finish the job. Today, I tidied up a bit in the greenhouse. It’s not much, but it’s a good way to start the year.

We also watch the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna. This dates back to when I lived with my parents – it was always a regular feature. My parents still watch it too, so phone calls are arranged around the starting time. It remains an ambition of mine to spend New Year in Vienna, and go to the concert live. Maybe one day …

We always try to go for a family walk – although the rain put paid to that today! The photo was taken by the Fish Wife a couple of years ago on our New Year walk at the North Inch in Perth.

Finally, over the past few years I have cooked a curry. This is a tradition that we will definitely continue. Sometimes we invite friends around to share it with us – sometimes we don’t. Today it was just the three of us, and we cooked our own chapattis for the first time. Good fun, and largely successful.

Happy New Year – however you celebrate it.