Menobernating; Courie Doon

To courie doon (Scots) or còsagach (Scottish Gaelic) is the Scottish equivalent of the Danish hygge, Welsh cwtch, Japanese ikigai... just about every culture has a word for that snuggling in for comfort and familiarity. Here in the northern regions, it's also akin to ideas of hibernation, or at least the desire to hibernate!

Often it pertains to having company, but one can courie doon just fine on one's own. It tends to be my preference for the festive season.

Christmas Eve, I sat through to 2 a.m. on the main day, as I watched in the early evening a couple of the Christmas specials of some favourite shows as well as the truly excellent Sir David Attenborough doing what he alone does best...

Yes, I was working the timelines... more on that in due course! Later in the evening, I observed the midnight mass, broadcast from Cambridge. The music was sublime, the choir excellent, and the words meaningful.

What does a little old veggo lady eat for her festive meal? Tattie and parsnip mash, Brussels sprouts, soy sausages, barley gravy and cranberry sauce. It may not look all that fancy, but let me assure you, it was absolutely delicious, and was followed by stewed plums and custard. I was perfectly satisfied!

That was a festive paper plate underneath - in place of having crackers and paperhats. It also saved the plate for a second use later in the day and thus cut down on washing up!

On Christmas night, I had an hour on video chat with the siblings - ain't tech wonderful for that sort of thing? 

Then came Hogmanay, and that too was spent with yarn, festive watching and listening, enjoying the BBC Alba ceilidh, and noting the turn of the calendar by sending out first-foot messages to the sibs. 

Leading up to Christmas, The Hutch had been burning a lot of light due to the deep, dark blanket cloud that blocked all sense of daylight... on Boxing Day, the weather changed dramatically. Although it had been gloomy, it had also been comparatively warm, almost in double figures some days. Now, with the almost cloudless skies and blazing sun, the temperatures bombed. Frosts are the order of the mornings this first week of the year, and I believe a little up the road from here, snow is making a nuisance of itself. Here by the Clyde, snow is a rare thing indeed. 

Thus, 2026 arrived, and life continues as it must. If only the news had changed as the weather did, with a deep cooling off. Sadly, instead, it seems the heat is being turned up. Let all of us, in our own way, create what peace we can. Let's see if we can make it infectious to the point of pandemic proportions...