Red sky at night

I hope you all had a pleasant break over Christmas and now its back to work, nose to the grindstone etc. We (that's me and himself) thought that this month's title , which was based on a sunset at the end of December, might help to take our thoughts away from the unceasingly dismal and damp end to the year which we've all "enjoyed". If we were to award an official colour to the end of the year then I vote for brown – leaves, mud, water, mud again, and did I say mud?

The trouble with mud, along with another hundred and odd reasons, is that after being in it, on it and through it on my morning walk I then have to be hosed free of it with water from our "fresh" outside tap.

So on our morning walks recently we have been thinking about the weather, global warming and the general mucking up of planet earth by mankind. I had to remind himself that it was man-kind not canine-kind that is in the firing line (sorry, bad Australian pun). The amount of plastic and other waste created at Christmas, in excess of our usual profligacy, is staggering – read this article if you can stomach it – so I'm pleased to report that my gift to himself was a bar of chocolate (not reciprocated I may add!) and his to herself was a pair of slippers made out of plastic bottles. Fortunately for his health this gift was actually slightly better than it sounds. She gave him a torch and reusable batteries, ostensibly so that he can see in the dark when he's on his boat, but like you I suspect its a warning – any more duff presents and you're outside on your own, mate!

So what's your resolution for the New Year? Same old, same old or do you too want to try and contribute less to the problem and more to the solution? On which note a Happy New Year to you all!

Madai, your rovering reporter

PS: for no other reason than he likes the tune and song, and it has the word "Red" in it like this month's title, himself has asked me to postthis link to Red River Valley sung by the Abramson Singers from British Columbia where his grandfather used to farm. (In case you were wondering its not the folk/cowboy/country and western song recorded by many singers of that genre)