i wonder

winter solstice has just passed.

as far as the earth is concerned it is a new year.

i spent the last few hours of the shortest day

playing in my new music room - the green room.

it is coming together nicely.

it is a good space to work on and to work in.

the the aim is to have it bizarre and inspiring

for all who enter ...

i've been thinking about our coming new year show.

and it feels like a good way to celebrate

our recent time living in the mountains.

and so, i have been looking again at some of the songs i wrote there.

i chop wood

i make fire

i feel good

a little higher

she makes bread

with special flour

we drink wine

any hour

gluten free for me.

appropriately it will be t on drums.

t, our neighbour in the catskills,

introduced me to many of the mountains secrets

on our regular cross country walks as the seasons passed there.

it already feels like so long ago.

an amazing chapter in our lives.

one that gave us a baby.

and so, new years eve will be an evening to reflect on

and say good bye to my time as a mountain man.

i wonder, will i shave?

angus

the future is now

we don't get snowed in here
as we did in the catskills.
but the morning frosts are thick and white
and the fogs fill the valley.
then by midday, the days are usually crisp and clear.
the feel of these days take me back to winters on the farm.
to the olden days, as my niece gracie would say.
back to the mid nineteen hundreds.
long before cel phones and laptops.
back when much of what we take for granted now
was science fiction. i read 1984 before 1984.
now suddenly it is the end of 2009
and i am a father ...

we make our new home here.
a most enjoyable work in progress.
we watch our son grow and change and explore.
he is the most incredible mirror ever.
so this is what it was like.
and this is what it's meant to be like still.
this endless energy and curiosity.
this ongoing joy in discovery.
and he continues to make us laugh. hard, and often.
the funniest little creature i know.
and the most amazing inspiration i could have imagined.
and so, with asa as our example,
we imagine, and prepare for, the coming year.
what do we want it to look like?
how do we want it to feel?
family and making a living. one must balance and inspire the other ...
i feel a potential wholly different from times past.
and, when the hour is upon me,
i shall resolve to have a damn good time next year.

angus