New year...same old resolutions

New Years Eve, Old Years Night...call it what you will. Tonight of all nights there's magic in the air. Hidden in amongst the chink of glasses, the chatter of friends wishing each other good health for the year to come and the fireworks that light up the winters sky there is the expectation of a clean slate, a new chapter, a chance to start afresh.

New Years Eve sparkles with excitement and expectation...

Tomorrow is New Years Day; less sparkle and more grim reality. In the cold grey January light of day there are resolutions to be made, diets to start, & budgets to stick to...the party is over and there's a lot of tidying up to do!

My 'tidy up' will start the same this year as it does every year.

The garden planner will be retrieved from its place under the sofa, the seed catalogues spread out on the kitchen table and my trusty shortbread tins full of seed packets will be opened up and their contents exclaimed over like lost treasures.

Making lists, deciding what to plant in the year ahead, and ordering seeds makes Christmas last a little longer but also clearly marks the end of the festivities and the hard graft to come. Winter may be hanging around for some time yet but tonight I can at least dream of spring and ease myself gently into the year ahead.

Happy New Year to you and yours.