Adieu, adieu to last year as we look ahead to 2020

Country Living with Francis Farragher

Well, the seasonal festivities have been well left behind at this stage, and maybe without seeming to be too vinegary, it could be a case of good riddance. Anyway, it’s time for the second half of the whimsical, alphabetical guide to the nuances, moans and highlights that may lie ahead for us in 2020.

N is for the New Year resolutions that you’ve made so piously through the latter days of December while being racked by the guilt of eating and drinking your way through the holiday period. The resolutions should at least survive until now – if they can be sustained into the first week of February, then they actually could become a habit.

O is for all the official red-tape that’s trying to turn us all into subjects of a nanny state. Like not smoking in your own car; like not being to buy a bottle of wine at 11.30 on New Year’s Day; and like being told we shouldn’t burn turf or coal in our own stoves.

P is for all of us who like pottering about in our gardens, farmyards or fields, often without a great purpose as to what we’re about. It’s just that sense of freedom about being in the great outdoors where a little bit of isolation and space can be therapeutic for mind and body.

Q is for all the questions you should have at the tip of your tongue when the date for the Spring General Election is called. The queries could vary from hospital waiting lists to homelessness to the day when we’ll be stopped from putting diesel and petrol into our cars. So have your list ready.

R is for the rain that we all moan about from one end of the year to the next . . . the rain that gives us our lovely green isle with lush fields of natural grass that puts in such a good position to produce the finest of food with a minimal carbon footprint. Yes, we can get too much of it . . . but without it, we’re nothing.

S is for Springtime, which in my little head, will always start on the first day of February as the Franciscan Brothers taught us so fervently at Annagh Hill National School back in the 1960s. We expected every crow to start work on their new nests that day. February though can be a lovely month of seasonal change.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.