Dear Friends,

Hope this edition of “On the Beaton Path” finds you all well and safe. It sure is turbulent times with the Corona virus breaking new daily records and death tolls rising quicker than ever. What a strange world we live in now. Even with a vaccine forthcoming, a vast number of people will refuse to get inoculated. My personal feeling is that it is going to take quite a while before our normal way of life returns.

With Christmas drawing near, this is my annual drive for sales of my CD’s. One of my friends in North Carolina purchases a sizable number of Christmas CD’s every year and hands them out as gifts to his friends and family. Please take a look at my selections. You will find them in the Store page on my web site, www.alexbeaton.com/store/.  There is a nice selection of CD’s ranging from traditional and contemporary Scots songs, songs for a Saturday night with a PG-13 rating (Daft Ditties), songs for a Sunday morning (Songs of Praise, Pipes of Peace), a CD of original and well-known country songs (On the Beaton Path), my Christmas Classics CD and my children’s CD (Kidding Around).

Linda and I stay fairly isolated as it is and, like most of you, even more-so this year.  I spend a large part of my day binge watching shows on Netflix, Prime and, my favorite streaming service, Britbox.  Some of the series I have enjoyed most recently are “Queens Gambit”, “Midsomer Murders” and “MI-5”.

When we do have a visitor, it is usually our grand-daughter, Maggie, who continues to fill our hearts with happiness and joy. We picked her up from daycare last week to take her to the Zoo for the afternoon and the Director said Maggie was “perfect”; of course, we already knew that.  Aren’t all grandkids perfect?

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you of a lovely Surprise I received this past summer. In talking with a dear friend from Virginia about our mutual love of birds and ways to attract them into your yard she, who is inundated with them on her property, extolled the beauty and usefulness of dogwood trees.  Subsequently, she purchased a dogwood tree for me and I am very grateful to her for the wonderful gift.  It has beautiful white flowers and I can’t wait to watch it grow.

Thanksgiving will be different this year with families not gathering together because of the pandemic. I fear that Christmas will be the same as well. Boy, do I sound gloom and doomy but I am not really because I believe we will get through this and be a better country.

Hope your holidays will be as pleasant as they can possibly be and that our country can come together again.

As always, please wear a mask, wash your hands and practice social distancing.

With love,

Alex