New year makes me nostalgic.

Not for new years gone by – I’ve not had a stand-out new year’s eve for years now.

Indeed, the last couple of years of have done little to inspire new-year cheer. I’m relieved in many ways, frankly, that 2013 has shuffled out the door at last.

But, as I take down the decorations and put out the detritus of the holidays for recycling, a nostalgia for childhood still brings a warm glow.

It’s a yearning, I guess, for a time when life was less complicated and new year was a time of purely innocent expectation.

The horsey in the playground at Rossett (pictured above), North Wales, still brings me that nostalgic glow.

I was back there again over the holidays with Maya and Olivia, working off some toddler energy after lunch in a nearby pub by pin-balling between the slide, the swings and the rocking horse.

I’m pretty sure this is the very same horse I used to clamber upon as a child when we lived nearby and used to visit the village for lunch with my granddad.

It looks, after all heavily weathered and probably hasn’t seen a lick of paint since the mid Seventies.

These days, my horse has become the preferred rocking horse for Maya and Olivia.

On a dark winter’s day, seeking signs of light as I gather my resources to square up to another year, something about passing on the innocent joy of Rossett’s stoic stallion still brings me a sense of comfort.

Times change but the horsey rides on.

How do you feel at the start of a new year? Post below.

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