shewhomust | Happy New Year

New Year's Day saw better weather: sunny, breezy, and, with a high of -24 degrees Fahrenheit, almost balmy. After an excellent breakfast of fat venison steaks, the men spent some hours at yet another spirited game of football. The snow was hard and slippery, and again the players fell often, roaring and laughing and threatening each other with revenge. After dinner - hare, venison, and reindeer tongue, with a currant pudding for dessert - the non-drinker Rae served brandy. On the whole, he wrote, "I do not believe that a more happy company could have been found in America, large as it is. 'Tis true that an agreeable companion to join me in a glass of punch, to drink a health to absent friends, to speak of by-gone times and speculate on the future, might have made the evening pass more pleasantly, yet 1 was far from unhappy. To hear the merry joke, the hearty laugh and lively song among my men, was itself a course of much pleasure."

Fatal Passage, Ken McGoogan

Meanwhile, here in Durham, another couple of inches of snow have fallen, but the council has replenished the salt box, and we feel quite intrepid about risking the seven-mile journey to Brancepeth Castle.