Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Start as you mean to continue

The word of this year will be FUN!  I want it to be a year in which creativity, spontaneity and good humour can find room.  These lovely fabrics are new to the Sewing Room, thanks to Christmas and  a birthday soon after. I always find new fabrics inspire new imaginings. 



I spent today doing a much needed tidy-up of my sewing room. DH has put up a pin board for me, and I have rearranged some things. I have completed one of the two community quilts I need to complete this month, and the other one needs to be pinned together.

A year for gardens, and walks in nature.

This montage was a result of a walk around Yellagonga Regional Park -Lake Goollelal on New Year's Day. This lovely lake is right in the middle of our northern coastal suburbs, and a real gem. The 4.5km trail is just challenging enough to be done in about an hour, and full of views and birds and flowers to enjoy.

One of the things we want to do is to visit Walyunga National Park  a few more times per year. We usually get there in winter/spring but the indigenous Nyoongar people recognise  6 distinct seasons -wouldn't it be great to visit a national park in all 6 and try to notice the differences?

We love to walk on the beach too. Now that we don't have to be here to let tradies in, we can walk more often there too.

I have further plans for the garden here at home. Looks like the passionfruit will be coming to the end of their natural life soon, so they will need replacing. I also want more flowers on my roses!



A year for risk taking -because when I am stretched a bit out of the comfort zone, the payoff is often an increased sense of being in the present - really living the moment. That means that I will be trying to improve my quilting skills, my cooking skills and more.

In 2018 I got a bit better at making shortcrust pastry from scratch...but I wonder if I could also do choux?  I have made pasta from scratch a few times -either lasagna or hand cut fettuccine but what about if I expand to include some filled shapes like tortellini? There is also more potential in working with shop bought Filo pastry too . Then there is the whole bread thing. I enjoy making bread, and there are skills to develop here -for instance I would like to make herb scrolls.

This is one of the pay-offs for being retired- having the time to play in the kitchen more.




A year for travel

We love opportunities to travel in Australia. We have plans to visit our other favourite place, Melbourne to see DS and his lovely wife graduate in March.

We are missing visiting our favourite WA country town of Albany - it has been altogether too long since we visited and would like to visit Geraldton too this year.

A year for decorating 

We enjoy freshening things up around here. With the kitchen reno behind us, we have plans for the master bedroom. We also want to sell a park home that DH has been managing as executor for a family member. It hasn't sold and has been a problem, so we are going to take it on as a project to try to make some changes to make it more attractive for a buyer. It has quite an ugly exterior..so watch out for posts soon which will show what little we have to work with, and how far we can get to make it better with very little in the way of a budget.

A quietly fun life 

Really, the life we love is one in which we are quietly enjoying things around here. Dinners with friends, reading books after lunch, growing as much as we can, contributing to our community. Hope your new year is full of good things too.



2 comments:

Nil @ The Little House by the Lake said...

A great list of goals for the new year, Earthmotherwithin.
Hope you will fulfill them all!

earthmotherwithin said...

Thanks Nil!