Hogmanay - 2006 -Winds, Violent Storm Force 11

We're in the middle of a real howling gale. The weather report states that the winds could be up to 80 miles per hour. The Shipping Forecast states that we're at "severe gale 9 or violent storm 11" tonight. For more information on the shipping forecast, please check the sight. We're a small island nation and the shipping forecast looms large in our lives. God keep the fishing fleet safe tonight! (If you've checked the sites for the shipping forecast, our immediate coast line falls on the line between sea area Shannon and Malin.)

My intention was to recap as we spend the last few hours of 2006. I started this blog the last of January 2006 with a blog about the hard frost. I listed all the jobs I had yet to do in the garden and started on my blogging journey. (I'm listening to the winds outside and I hope that the power doesn't go out before I finish this.)

February was the month in which we welcomed a bouncy puppy into the house. Polly. I'm more besotted with her today than I was with her on the day she arrived. She has thankfully stopped piddling on the carpet and she has shown herself to have a wonderful soft nature and is eager to please.

I was just reviewing an entry I made on the 13th of February. It is almost a photo of bloggers yet to come. Not only is a 20-something me in the photo with my two children. There is also a very young J-Funk and her dad, Tom and dear old friends Joe and Vickie.

March saw a trip to Arran, some observations on the love lives of local frogs, a couple of trips down memory lane, a visit from a dear old friend and some snow. I liked March.

April saw me doing a bit of work in the garden. Easter was pleasant and we booked our family vacation. I also indulged in a bit more nostalgia.

May was a very busy blogging month. 28 blog entries in 30 days! I managed to write a whole bunch about very little. We had late frosts, moved piles of logs, moved stones, Polly got spayed and the garden got underway as the chickens went into high egg production.

June saw me put tomatoes in the greenhouse and we had a big countdown to the big annual family holiday. There are loads of garden blog entries in June along with butterflies and moths.

July was very fun. We started the month in Egypt. Even though we were away for the first two weeks of the month, I managed to squeeze 26 blog entries into the month. Please have a look at the blog entries for Egypt. We had a great time and I really enjoyed writing about it.

August. There were agricultural shows, birds' nests with fledglings, my pal Helen had a baby and then at the end of the month, all the swallows pissed off for Africa again. The highlight for me in August were the cream teas held in a local village hall.

September was a glorious month. There are some good family birthdays in September PLUS we got a whole bunch of work done on the extension. There was glorious weather and I got some good stuff documented on my blog. I also switch to Blogger-beta. It was a bit of a pain in the arse at first, but I'm used to it now. Have a look at the bits I wrote about my grandfather's drug store. Great old photos!

October saw a slump in my blogging output. I don't know what happened there, but I didn't write as often. I was busy doing things like going to the local bird sanctuary to groove on the migrating water fowl. In October's blog entries an old photo of me at about 13 showed up and shows me to be just about as gawky as kids come.

November seems to be more nose to the grindstone but in addition to working pretty hard, we managed to celebrate Guy Fawkes night, say goodbye to Jack Palance, do some baking and be thankful for all of the blessings we have in our lives.

December is almost over. Just five and a half hours left. We started out our December in Paris of all places! It was my mom's 70th birthday. We had a rollicking good time. In addition, I got to meet Claude - which was completely delightful. We are ending our December with an almighty storm. I hope we don't lose any trees.

I've met some terrific bloggers through their marvelous blogs and met a few in the flesh this year. I'm hoping to meet a few more in 2007. May the Good Lord keep you all safe and well in the next year. Thanks for reading my blog.