smokingboot

A year, a year, Oh 2022 you were strange, tough, and good looking!

You were a proper curmudgeon when it came to work and health. Work was debilitating, a time of much planting and seemingly little harvest, though our charity's event for the Scottish Day of Stories was a blinder and still makes me smile whenever I think of it. But there were less sunshiny times; R found himself travelling to England every week and returning utterly exhausted. To make matters worse, we caught Covid in June, and the fatigue levels were beyond belief, indeed we can't even be sure the issues we are currently suffering aren't related to LC after-effects. And of course, the tendinitis got so much worse, I must consider it of utmost importance now.

2022 had more than its share of wonderful times though. It was a delight having Mallory's-Camera over for the Fringe, the festival getting back on its feet after Covid and Lockdown hit the arts hard across the UK. We explored, we adventured, we tried new things and by god we walked! We saw some excellent theatre, puppets, collective story telling, stand-up comedy, and, er, ballet. Sortaballet. Don't mention it to R!

The company and creativity of friends were bright lights, even when the days seemed dark. And then there were the visits, which deserve a paragraph of their own, because they were so often tied in with the year's most extraordinary gift; somehow thoughout 2022 I continually found myself in the midst of intense beauty.

From travels to Lochs Lomond and Inchmahome, to the Wemyss caves, to Skye, to Inverness, as well as the NC500, there was story and changing light all around me. Scotland can be travelled joyfully in a car, but everything you pass just makes you want to hold from racing down the road, to stay and go deeper. A walk around Ben Loyal will take you close to Heaven or Otherworld if you like, there are so many nameless places where you can just wander until the Queen of Elphame finds you (but no taking her gifts, unless you care little for returning!) John O' Groats and Dunnet Point will not make you feel you have reached the end of the world, how can they, with the Orkneys just over the water? All that happens is that you want to keep going into the mists, beguiled by puffins and seals, until you find yourself sailing wherever depending on your navigator, the temper of the winds and the magical fates.

But the dream didn't stop at Scotland. There was Wales, Cardiff of course, and Anglesey, the island of druids, where I was lamped hard with history and enchantment. Other mates arranged a special something for us at Silverdale, surrounded by a thoroughly elven greenwood if ever I saw one, right close to Morecambe Bay, grand and sombre in its forlornness. And there again, warm smiles with friends out of the past, changed in some ways, unchanged in others. Plus a hot tub!

So yes, personally, all the pains of this year fade away under the fun of friends and the dweomer of magical places.. On another level, of course it was an utter groan. Of the war and the tragedy of it, I won't speak. But Boris Johnson! Liz Truss, oh Liz Truss! The real ongoing damage of Brexit is this; it shone a bright light on how simply lying to the public will work enough of the time. Why wouldn't a crook learn from this?

But enough of that. Another thing to remember is the rediscovery of Grand Uncle John's life story, one lost for so long. Maybe other tales will arise. There is much work to be done. Respect, 2022, you have been harsh to many, but when you smiled, you lit up my world. And now, here we go, Happy 2023 to any and all who pass this way! XXX