A Fresh Start

our edible salad walk garden

We are zooming away from the starting blocks of 2017 and it seems like all of a sudden it's almost February.

We had a really relaxing Christmas and New Years break with lots of family and friends in the house and we kept things pretty low-key and simple.  Christmas was a BBQ and salads with pavlova and berries for dessert.  Everyone pitched in and it all worked out without too much stress.  The weather was rubbish but that didn't matter too much.

For New Years, we had some friends staying and we went to the kids countdown concert in the square, getting there just in time for fireworks. Then we went home and put the kids to bed and stayed up past midnight, playing records on the turntable and cutting up magazines to make vision boards.  It was a very satisfying start to the year.

After New Year, my Mum and her partner came back to stay for a week.  They looked after the kids while we went back to work and Mum's partner did an amazing job in the garden - clearing all the weeds, mulching and doing the lawns.  He cleared the garden near our living room and I have planted it as a edible salad walk with greens and herbs and edible flowers.  I'm very excited about it.  Our vegetable patch is finally cleared out and we are going to cover it in straw over winter and plant it out next spring.  He achieved in ten days of hard yakka what I have tried and failed to do all year.  I guess sometimes I do just need a bit of help actually getting stuff done because try as I might to stay on top of things, I often can't keep up. I feel like just as I'm getting somewhere I get a spanner in the works, like a child who won't settle until late at night or someone is sick, and all hopes of progress go out the window.

Work is starting to get busier and I feel like I'm making progress.  It really is my dream job and I feel very privileged to have the opportunity.  I love my office.  It feels like a real sanctuary as it's quiet with a very green outlook.  I have a standing desk and a table and chairs and a couch so I can curl up on the couch and read documents in comfort, or have a coffee at the table while I check my emails.

House maintenance is going to be a theme of 2017, I think.  We have discovered a leak that needs some quite serious repairs and there is general painting and fixing that is overdue.  At least I have a job so we are in a position to do something about this, although it will set us back a bit.  I'm trying not to stress about it and to just put one foot in front of the other - do the next step as it needs to be done without getting into catastrophic thinking.

I thank the goddess for our peaceful, mundane existence at the bottom of the world.  Especially against the backdrop of an inauguration happening tomorrow that defies belief.

Wishing the world a Happy New Year and may we find hope amidst the madness!