I have something of a predilection for trees in their winter glory.  I daresay had Burns turned his mind to it he could have written a rare poem in praise of them which I'd have been delighted to quote in this blog post that's being published on his birthday. In recompense my picture tips its hat to another poet worthy of a supper in his name.

January has sped past without very much happening in the little pool that I inhabit.  Ewan went home early on.  The band got back into action, joined last night by Esther who got me into thinking about the saxophone in Barbansais about fifteen years ago.  She and husband Andy have just returned to Edinburgh after some ten years in Munich.  We lunched together in Henderson's the veggie restaurant run I understand by descendants of the Henderson who opened one of Edinburgh's earliest veggie places in the New Town years ago. I had an aubergine dish that was ok but didn't measure up to the stuffed aubegine I made myself at lunchtime today. 

I had another meal out at L'Escargot Bleu where my tasty rabbit was washed down with conviviality.  I haven't had a home cooked rabbit to compare it with yet.

I was cited for jury service but as in the only other time this has happened to me I didn't have to serve.  I'm of an age where I have the right to be excused but I didn't exercise that right; not entirely from a sense of civic duty but mostly in the hope it would be interesting. 

There is a celebration of the work of Francois Truffaut on currently and I've enjoyed a handful of films from it so far.  I went to the cinema to see Les 400 Coups which despite its fame I don't believe I'd seen before.  It's a good film but quite a hard watch dealing as it does with the harsh childhood of its protagonist, Antoine Doinel, who is modeled on Truffaut himself.  

Thanks to my BFI subscription I've been able to watch the four subsequent films that follow  Antoine through adolescence, marriage and divorce.  Truffaut made the first film in 1959 and the last in the series in 1979.  In all of them Doinel was played by the same actor, Jean-Pierre Léaud.  Apart from Les 400 Coups they are all comedies and very funny.

There are another half dozen films unrelated to Doinel being shown in cinemas and I intend to see them all and indeed have already seen two, L'Argent de Poche and La Nuit Americaine.  I'd seen the latter before but remembered nothing about it other than the title and its meaning which I will leave you to discover for yourselves.  It's a light-hearted look at film making.  Jean-Pierre Léaud appears in it and plays a character very like Doinel.

So 2022 has arrived, not before time given all the crap that 2020 and 2021 have dealt out.  According to something I heard on the radio recently the human brain has a built in optimism bias.  80% of us when asked proclaim that things are going to get better,  So there.  I fall within the 80% and hope you do too.

After the heady excitement of my trip to the Highland Widlife Park life got back to normal with an online reading of a play about witchcraft. and Ewan's arrival from the States for Christmas.  Neither of these is actually normal but in these pandemic times anything untainted by Covid seems normal.

The following weekend I watched rugby at Goldenacre and via the telly the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix.  I don't normally find F1 racing terribly interesting but I enjoyed this race a lot and as a knife edge finish to the season it could hardly have been bettered.  Mercedes were very grumpy but Hamilton although clearly disappointed was not at all backward in congratulating Verstappen.  If all the races were like that I might watch more often.

The pantomime at the Gaiety theatre in Ayr was streamed to the world and some of last year's Thursday Theatre group watched it.  I enjoyed it and straightway recommended to Andrew that being a resident of Ayr he attend in real life.  It turned out that he indeed planned to go with family including his young grandson but Covid cancellation scuppered the plan.

We, that is the Dunedin Wind Band, managed to hold a Christmas concert.  We had strict free from Covid entry criteria for both band and audience.  Despite my sending out around 120 emails advertising the gig the only friends who turned up were those I already knew were coming plus Steve the fireman who generally makes it.  Sarah Naish who founded the band and who was our musical director till early last year played percussion and her husband Johnny was there with his tuba.  It gave us an opportunity, denied by the pandemic at the time Sarah left, to make a little presentation and thank them both for all their work over the years.  Afterwards said friends repaired to Siobhan's for fizz and festive chat.

A couple of days later I went to the Queen's Hall to a SNJO concert.  The music was good and Tommy Smith was his usual entertaining self and we all got a free CD of Christmas jazz as we left.  Shame the audience was so sparse.

Then I went down to Keswick for a week of Christmas fun and games.  We did actually play a board game one evening that was rather fun.  Cranium involved, inter alia, drawing with your eyes shut and sculpting plasticine.  I visited the pencil museum for the first time and recommend it highly. 

I did some limited walking about, making my first ever visit to the far side of the lake but not venturing down past the theatre to the spot on the lake where I usually go.  We had an outing to Hebden Bridge where Ben has recently bought a house with a great view though thanks to the mist we weren't able to enjoy it.  But it looks great in photos.  We had a festive feast in a jam-packed unmasked restaurant in the town with various Blincoes.  We were 13 at table but thankfully no misadventure arose.

As soon as I got back I was eating again.  This time in the tiny Cafe Konj under Scotland's stricter rules.  To comply with the spirit of those I fitted in a lateral flow test in the brief interal between getting off the train and hitting the cafe.  Persian grub, friendly service and convivial company providing a splendid welcome home.