Planning for a good year

The beginning of any year is a great time for changing and making new plans. There seems to be endless possibilities at the beginning of a year; anything is achievable. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that I was thinking about what worked and what didn’t work for me last year, while making plans for next year. If you don’t want to stand still, or worse, go with whatever comes along, you have to grab your life by the collar and decide what it is you will do during the year. If you make definite choices you are in control and you can steer your life in the general direction you want to go. You’ll still have unexpected things pop up, but if you’re in the general area you wish to be in, the unexpected won’t take over and steer you away from your chosen path.

I’ve finished thinking about my last year’s list. I have a few things to do to finalise everything, but it’s all under control and I will do what I have to do in the next week to complete my 2007 work. I’m severing ties with a few things that haven’t been what I expected, and developing others that were better. I’m putting last year behind me so I can concentrate on what’s ahead. I’m really looking forward to everything that will come my way next year. I’m looking forward with optimism and the feeling that 2008 will be a good year. I turn 60 in April, how can it not be a good year!

In 2008 I’m going to teach myself how to crochet. I want to make some more jug covers, both for myself and for giveaways and gifts. I also want to make a couple of fiddly crocheted things that I’ve seen in books. I will teach myself to knit on circular needles so I can knit socks and mittens. I will write more.

I will also push the envelope and keep growing the vegetables we’ve been told we can’t grow. Yesterday we harvested the best crop of kipfler potatoes we’ve yet grown. We’ve been told we can’t grow potatoes in our climate in summer. Wrong! We grow potatoes all year long now. I’ve also planted 20 rosella bushes in the front garden so I hope to be harvesting rosellas right through till April and maybe May and will be freezing the juice and pulp for concoctions later in the year. I’ve been told I can’t do this. We will see. If someone tells you that you can’t do something, don’t listen. Just do it; about 90% of the time you’ll find they are wrong.

And that reminds me. We will also continue to grow peaches and nectarines. A while back I said we’d have to cut down our two trees as the fruit were wiped out by fruit fly. Well, on reflection, we’ve decided to keep those two trees. The reason – when we picked the dozen or so fruit that weren’t stung by fruit fly, they were simply the sweetest, juiciest and peachiest fruit we’ve ever eaten. We have been told we can’t grow them here as the fruit fly will get them every year, and while that may be partially true, we WILL find a way that will enable us to eat some of them. Those 20 fruit make the growing of them worth every peach we give to the chooks. Maybe in 2008 we’ll have 40 fruit.

So, that’s me in a nutshell. I hope to squeeze every bit of pleasure that I can out of next year. I hope to learn more, become a better person than I am right now and I hope I can encourage more people to slow down and live simply. I want to look back at this time next year and know that I did my best and I took every opportunity that came my way.

What are you doing with your year? I have a couple of copies of the next edition of Warm Earth magazine to give away. I’ll post them to two readers who comment here about the plans they have for next year. Both Australian and international comments are eligible.

THE WARM EARTH GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED NOW. Thanks to everyone who commented. It's been wonderful reading about your plans.