On the shortest day of the year one should take a long look around. It’s the inventory time of year, a bit of soul searching. That requires a little looking back and some looking forward, which is why January is named after the Roman god Janus, the god of gates, which open both ways.
Why the beginning of the year, or the end of the year, is not on the shortest day of the year eludes me. It would make some tidy annual sense. For six months more daylight is added to each day then for six months substracted. We may celebrate the beginning of the year on January first, but nature does it Dec 21, 22 or 23. If I were dictator of the world I would have the year start on the shortest day, and I would totally eliminate Daylight Saving Time. Actually Pop Gregory XIII tried to do that but was several days off whch is why we are several days off.
As I look back it was quite a solar year. 
I manage to add more edible plants to my website and several videos. I now have a total of a full day’s worth of viewing, the largest resource of foraging videos on the internet. Indeed, this site and related videos are the most views site and videos on the internet about foraging well exceeding 1.5 million hits. That’s not a bad accomplishment. Many of my inovations have been copied which tells me I’m doing some things right. One huge change recently was creation of this new website.
Looking back there are also many things I would have done differently. Some of those early videos are amateur. Little mistakes do creep in. Too often I talked too fast, or could have done better camera work. And I’m still finding typos on the website. Some day there will be none.
As for the year ahead: The website will be expanded dramatically. Speaking engagements will go up and I’d like to get the DVDs made. And of course, I have a long list of plants to add to the site — hundreds in fact — and people are always asking for more videos. It keeps one busy. But mostly I’d just like to enjoy the work, and I hope you do to. This past year has been quite challenge, but then, again the measure of a captain is stormy seas.
So on this shortest of days the long view is good. May yours be good, too.
