New year coast

New Year's Day brought sunshine in abundance and blue skies. More freezing weather is forecast for mid-week, so it made sense to make the most of this glorious start to the year and head off to the North Somerset coast 15 miles away . . . .

Those are Welsh snow-covered hills in the distance, across the Bristol Channel.

 

The view is benign on as fine a day as this but the channel has a tragic history. Between 1678 and 1807, those same hills looked down on more than 2000 slave ships that sailed along here, from Bristol, heading for Africa. In the 1730s, when that savage trade was at its height, every second slave ship that set sail left from the city . . .

* * * 

These, thankfully, are happier times (at least in this part of the world) and this handsome chap is the first of this year's canine guests. His arrival a few days ago marked the official start of my brand new post-retirement career. 

 

Frank is 11 years old and also retired - he was a working sheepdog - and I am very, very taken with him. So is the Edinburgh Boy, who behaves beautifully in his presence; he treats Frank with all the respect due to a wise old dog. We'll miss him when his owners return on Sunday but as he lives just a few doors away, the withdrawal symptoms shouldn't be too bad.

 

Coast, blue skies, sunlight on water, dogs. The best possible start to the new year. I hope that yours was as good.

An Irish blessing for your new year

"May your joys be as bright as the morning, and your sorrows merely be shadows that fade in the sunlight of love. May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to keep you happy, enough failure to keep you humble, enough success to keep you eager, enough friends to give you comfort, enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness, enough wealth to meet your needs and one thing more: enough determination to make each day a more wonderful day than the one before."

Comments

[Jay]

A beautiful day! And the company of two good dogs, which is very good company indeed.

The Irish are such poetic people! That's a lovely blessing.

[Liz]

A glorious start to the new year indeed. We had more snow here throughout the day so it didn't get more energetic than reaching for another chocolate from the tin.

[colleen]

Happy New Year!

[Teri and the cats of Furrydance]

Wishing you many more lovely days like this in 2010...

[wendy robertson]

Dear Boots
What a wonderful New Year Wish, which I have taken the liberty of copying and sticking on my wall.
And if I ever do manage to get a dog, it will be down to reading your canine comfortable blog.
wxx