Hats Off To The New Year

I was up very early this morning to prep and start cooking my 'legendary' (only in my own mind!) aromatic slow roasted shoulder of pork that has now become a traditional part of our New Year's Day. It takes 6 hours in total - it involves making a spice rub and then roasting it 'low and slow' until the meat is lovely and tender. 
Once it was in the oven we still had to go out to get a few more ingredients for our dinner and luckily the shop attached to a nearby service station was still open. On the way back we also managed to sneak another pint in at The Horseshoes. We had a lovely chat with one of the managers when he came over to wish us a Happy New Year. He admitted that he was quite glad the festive season was finally over as he'd worked all through Christmas and past midnight on New Year's Eve and was very much looking forward to a few well deserved days off.
By the time we got back the roasting process was halfway through and I had to do some basting and turn the meat over. With another couple of hours to go I thought I should head out and get my first shot of 2024. It was yet another unremittingly grey day and I wasn't holding out much hope of getting an image. I'd literally only walked a few hundred yards when I came across this lost child's hat and then I realised I'd just combined two of my existing blip series - an abandoned item on a fence and a smiley face! :-)
Thankfully the roast pork turned out well and we had a lovely meal whilst toasting the New Year.
I came across a great article in the New Review section of the Observer today by the art critic Laura Cumming. It's called "The art diet : 31 days of food for the eyes and soul". You click on to their website for a visual artwork treat each day to brighten up dark January where she introduces and selects artistic creations from a single Van Gogh star to peaches in outer space or a noble head held high to a double hangover - it's intended that a few minutes' looking every day will get the new year off to a flying start.
Today's artwork is The Skating Minister painted in 1793 by Sir Henry Raeburn and is his celebrated picture of the Reverent Walker which Cumming describes as showing him "gliding across (a frozen) Duddingston Loch poised on one red-ribboned skate, the ice incised with his elegant arabesques, absolutely still and yet in full swing."
I'm determined to follow this diet (unlike most New Year diets) as it promises to be both fascinating and enlightening.

To all my fellow blippers Happy New Year and all the very best for 2024!