Not resolutions, but goals

As the end of January approaches, it's getting abit late for New Year resolutions. Anyway I've decided that instead of  'resolutions' which always seem a bit vague, I'm going to have 'goals'. Nice, comparatively easy goals, that are going to be attainable. Somehow it seems a more positive way of thinking about things. More 'I will do this'. Less 'I'd like to do this. Maybe. If I have the time'.

There won't be anything strenuous. The way forward is nice and easy - and fun. 

I want (need) to get not quite fitter but sort of more bendable. Not that long ago I was still able to touch my toes. I can't now. I can't crouch comfortably or get up from kneeling on the floor. I can't run up the stairs. My balance isn't what it once was (I nearly fell off this log last year, playing with my grandson) While there's still time to fix these things, I intend to. I've started improving my balance through yoga. Obviously nothing too hard, but my ability to maintain the tree pose has gone up from a very wobbly couple of seconds to about 30.  By summer I hope to be able to walk along that log confidently; assuming no one's watching.

I intend to keep a closer watch on my daily step count. It varies tremendously up and down, but ill with a cold after Christmas it dropped to 1500. Keep that up for too long and in summer I won't be able to go out walking. So, watch the steps!

It's not quite the end of the month but giving Veganuary a go for a second year has persuaded me that I should cut down on meat and (more importantly) cheese permanently. A quick cheese sandwich is always my easy fall-back for lunch so it takes a bit of planning, but too much cheese isn't good and I've proved I can manage without it. 

I've been house hunting for over a year and in the hope that I will eventually move I need to clear out clutter. It's not going to be simple as I don't believe in throwing anything vaguely useful away - from a saucepan with a loose handle to scraps of paper that might come in handy for crafting - but sometimes less is more. 

First - get knitting up the yarn stash. I found some odd balls of yarn that match a gloves and hat set I already have, and got busy. A nice and easy project to start the year, and it's nearly finished. Then I bought some more yarn to make a cardigan. I know, that's not really how decluttering works, but I'm hoping to use up lots of bits in a long cardigan, and needed a plain colour to bring them all together.

The material stash is in the same desperate, cupboard-filling state. Apart from using up large pieces of fabric for making clothes, I want to make that quilt I've talked about for years.

On Twitter #beatthebacklog is encouraging people to actually get round to reading all the books they've accumulated but not read. I still have a huge pile of sci fi/fantasy picked up from Freecycle years ago and not looked at., plus some competition wins which there never seems any urgency to read. So far, I've picked up one book, decided I didn't like it, and put it on the charity pile. One down, so many to go, but it's a start.

Resolutions can sound a bit like dull, hard work, but I believe they should also include the fun things in life, so I'm resolving to live more colourfully - from new gorgeous clothes (a risk but greatly reduced in the sales) and colourful tights to bringing garden flowers into the house I want to add a little fun to life. 

Slow January

January is a slow, nothing happening sort of month. After the rush of things to be done in the lead up to Christmas, and the bustle of visitors, there's an emptiness to the start of the year. There's no pressing hurry for anything to be done, in the garden or around the house, so for me, with no return to work or school vibes around, it drifts in laziness and apathy. 

The month got off to a particularly slow start with a lingering cold (tested several times just to be sure it wasn't anything more, because that's what we do these days), but I'm now trying to embrace this quiet time; to approach it with mindfulness not waste it in idleness.

I'm taking inspiration from various sources. Firstly a subscription which I won to Mud and Bloom children's natural activity boxes. Admittedly this is really for my grandson, but planting bulbs, making art and decorations with pine cone and twigs, and generally paying attention to the natural world are things we can do no matter what our age. 

So I pottered outside to see my Christmas roses flowering (a little late), set some sweet peas and pansies, and along with my groceries I bought a pot of mini-daffodils which are now brightening up my kitchen windowsill. And when I can find some alder cones, I'm going to make some bees like those featured in the 'January' box, probably for Easter decorations.

Second, is a publication with a very similar ethos, but aimed at adults - the Simple Things magazine. I've been considering a subscription for a while but with a New Year offer decided to treat myself. The actual magazines haven't begun to arrive yet but an anthology (or compendium/compilation/call it what you will) of previous articles has. It takes the reader on a journey through the year with seasonal things to do, cook, grow, plus a range of loosely related articles. 

Copying an idea from the winter section, I retrieved some sprigs of fir from the Christmas tree, an old hessian bathsalts bag, and made a pine (with lingering lavender) -scented drawer sachet. 

Following with the idea of slow, simple, but great tasting food, I've started a new sourdough - which has already led to homemade naan, focaccia, and cinnamon apple rolls, and hopefully sometime soon there'll actually be bread!

Taking part in Veganuary also helps me think about what I eat, instead of just filling myself with junk food. So, although some days I've gone for 'vegan alternatives like fish-less fingers, most evenings I make something from scratch - curries, chillies, stir fries - trying to use last summer's homegrown veg - so many runner beans and tomatoes in the freezer, and several pumpkins, including these huge moscade de Provence with amazing orange flesh. 

Although coughing and sneezing has kept me at home, I've tried to spent at least a few quiet minutes outside each day watching the sun set or spying the full Wolf moon hiding among the birch branches. 

I'm now starting to feel ready to take on the New Year, with plans hatching for busier warmer days ahead.

A look back over 2021

 The end of the year is always a time for casting your mind back over the last twelve months, at the highs and the lows.  At the moment though I feel there are just too many 'lows' in life, so I'll focus on the highs.

Last January I was looking back on 2020 and saying it wasn't a year I wanted to repeat. Err ... guess what? 2021 didn't honestly seem a lot better, did it? In part, I feel the shock of living with a pandemic had started to wear off but to end 2020 with a lockdown and no seemingly reliable way out of covid was depressing. So 2021 started off on the footing of 'make the best of things'. And I tried to.

Through the post-Christmas lockdown I kept myself occupied by trying to go vegan for a month, and with my new friend Dodo the sourdough - from naan bread to pizza base, and even bread it kept me busy with something that needed to be done almost every day.

Throughout lockdown there was talk of police monitoring local parks and beauty spots and fininf anyone who'd traveled too far so we played safe rather than sorry and stayed home but eventually, at the end of March we were allowed out and about again.

Kedleston daffodils

Days out started with visits to see daffodils - at  Shipley Country Park , and the first of many trips to my regular haunts, Chatsworth, Kedleston and Calke - and soon it was time for a longer trip to somewhere new, near Malham in Yorkshire. 

Malham

We were only away from home for a few days but managed to pack a lot in - a visit to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr, walks around Malham to the Cove and Janet's Foss, a walk along the river Skirfare, and to see
waterfalls at Aysgarth and Grassington.

After so long being forced to stay home, it was amazing but a little scary to be somewhere different - and we always remembered to keep our distance!

Before I knew it, we were off again - this time to the Lincolnshire Wolds, another new-to-me area,
visiting Doddington Hall Gunby Hall, the castle ruins at Old Bolingbroke, actually completing a 5 1/2 mile walk (!), and calling in at Tattershall Castle and Belton Hall on the way home. I didn't really get to see the sea though - there always seemed to be miles of dunes and mus flats between me and it.

Through the summer months I mainly stayed home fearing that anywhere remotely seaside-y would be dreadfully busy but close to home I discovered stunningly beautiful wildflowers growing along the edges of farmers' fields in Shardlow in June, the village of Barrow on Trent, more wild flowers at Kedleston, magnificent views from Curbar Edge, heather in full flower near White Edge during August and wandered back in time to the gardeners' sheds at Calke and to  a hermit's cave at Dale Abbey

As everyone else settled back into autumn, off I went on holiday -  to Argyll  but stopping off on the way there and back with our youngest daughter in Manchester. The weather wasn't great (I'd hoped to go swimming) but we walked through forests, round gardens and seaside villages, and along the Crinan canal, ate overlooking the sea at Melfort Hotel, then a bit more casually with fish and chips in the seaside park at Lochgilphead.

Back home the weather improved for an autumn visit to Chatsworth  and another to Derby's hydrangea collection

I'd rather hoped for another short break during autumn but that didn't work out. In November though we went with family to visit dinosaurs at Thoresby Hall, and this visit to the Dukeries inspired me to visit Clumber Park  - an almost adjacent National Trust property - the following week. 

I also took part in an online art initiative with the Helen Hallows FB group. Making time to play with drawing or collage is always something I intend to do, but I rarely do without an outside push.

With December thoughts turned to Christmas with two trips to Chatsworth to see their magical illuminated garden, and a great deal of keeping fingers crossed that everything would work out for the holiday itself - no illnesses, no lockdowns. Fortunately everything worked out, though somebody (possibly the toddler super-spreader) picked up a cold and passed it among us all, and I missed the glorious warm weather that ushered in the New Year.

It's been a time of up and downs. Busy phases interspersed with idleness. Sometimes the year feels like it flashed by; at others it stretched on forever. Fingers crossed that 2022 will be better.