New Year's Day traditions

As New Year's Eve was a late one,  I wasn't keen on the earlier Shandwick swimmers' dip for sunrise, although it was probably a better option in terms of there being more swimmers and fewer silly buggers. One of the Stoltman brothers (the naughty one) had put a dip on his Facebook page, which inevitably meant that the scene at 10am at Shandwick beach turned into a full scale "loony dook". (Not as many people as Dornoch, though, and certainly not as many as Porty). The parking was also chaotic. L and I, along with P, who barely ventured in, found a reasonably quiet part of the beach to do a bit of wave jumping (human skittles in the sea was how someone earlier had described it, which was enough to put A off a New Year's Day dip) and not-swimming. Never mind, it was fun, and there were a few acquaintances at the beach whom it was good to see. A lot of men in budgie smugglers went in the sea.... I averted my eyes......

Back here, Mr A was finally up, and once we were showered and I had done my New Year's Eve blip, I reminded him of our now traditional visit to the Tarbat Ness lighthouse. I've added a couple of exceptional pictures of the lighthouse buildings (exceptional, so far as concerns the light, not the photographic excellence) in the newly replenished extras.

By the time we were back in Tain, and I was back under my blanket with the hot water bottle I had prepared for myself as soon as I got in from Shandwick (which I later replenished, so it's still with me in the evening), there were a few snowflakes falling. No proper snow shower, though. Our neighbour was on the phone, keen to invite us round before we leave again. We settled on tomorrow, as I wasn't keen to leave the sofa again today!

This evening, we had the second half of yesterday's gallette, along with duck legs, which are a standard favourite for us.