Happy New Year - eventually

A very belated Happy New Year! We've returned from what was truly the frozen North. Our slow dial-up connection was even slower than usual, prompting suspicious thoughts that the service is being relegated to a creaking server in a back room, as broadband use increases. Too slow to view sites with photos, let alone do any posting or replying to good wishes - for which thank you , so we had what turned out to be a blissfully computer-free time. Many books were read beside the open fire. Long midwinter sleep was enjoyed. Brisk walking took place in below zero temperatures, followed by cooking and eating large meals. However, no whisky was consumed, not even on Hogmanay. To salvage a bit of Scottish New Year tradition now that we're back home, I poured a dram of Macallan single malt for this photo, which my husband then very nobly drank.

This is a stingy, south of Scotland measure of whisky. If we were on Speyside, the dram of neat whisky would fill between a third to a half of the glass. I confess to not being a particular whisky fan. I love the smell of it, but a glass is too much for me. This despite starting my working life in a distillery, where all staff were entitled to a lunchtime dram of whisky. Nowadays that tradition has been toned down to a monthly bottle allowance, which is far preferable from a health point of view.