Last year was a decent year on some levels from a personal perspective but with the depressing political situations at both home and abroad I’ve struggled to find positive things to blog about and sadly I didn’t get nearly as much done on the allotments as I would like. But 2017 is now gone…and the turning of the year is a good point to review and plan to do some things differently.

So here’s to 2018 and new opportunities. My only resolution the the last decade or so has been “have more fun”  but I’ve decided on a few guidelines for the coming year. There’s also a word for the year – GROWTH – which neatly encapsulates a lot of the things I’d like to do.

1. Personal training – continue training with my lovely PT but set some better goals for this month and year.  My fitbit helps me keep track of fitness goals and I’m aiming for 14k steps a day (over goal of 5m steps for the year) plus improving my sleep habits.
2. Yoga – complete the Daily Om 21 day Beginner Yoga programme – something I can do at home to improve flexibility and mobility.
3. Vitamins/healthy eating – I’ve noticed a real difference when I take Vit D so need to get back to it, especially at this time of year.  Also I lost focus on food prepping/healthy eating last year. I didn’t go off the rails but I wasn’t planning as well as I could – which meant a lot of Itsu, Eat and Starbucks lunches and dinner purchased on the hoof on the way home (leading to less than optimal nutrition and a significant increase in spending on food).
4.  Allotments/garden – these also slipped a bit last year.  Though a sudden burst of activity at the end of November and early December means I now have a lovely shed on one of my plots – and an incentive to spend more time down there now I have somewhere to shelter from the rain.
5. Finances – I’m starting 2018 in a good place and want to end it in a better one – which means paying more attention to day-to-day spending and growing the retirement fund.
6. Nesting – I spent a lot of last year looking away from the chaos in my living space.  I’m too much of a pack-rat and have too many interested (all requiring stuff) to ever be a minimalist – but I can continue to review, clear, declutter and generally make my home more of a comfortable and relaxing nest.
7. Creativity – finish some projects! I have half-knitted items and half-stitched quilts, and bit of half-made jewellery as well as unfinished writing projects and far too many unread books.  Time to dust some of those off and feed the soul. Also lumped in this section is a renewed interest in activism. I’m done with feeling helplessly pessimistic about the way things are going – time to take action,

In between posts about the allotments (which will be more regular) I hope to post a monthly update on the above – if only to keep me accountable!