2015 will not resound as a success in the blogging scheme of things. And only slightly more gardening has been done than blogging. One or two garden visits, but only to places I've been before and now with a small child who isn't interested in standing still while I photograph plant combinations.
The garden has been slightly neglected - the summer seemed so dull that I lost my mojo. It looked well enough though; it's starting to mature so most things in the back garden just get on. I will need to divide herbaceous perennials in the spring, though. This year's heleniums were rather poor. The front garden needs rethinking and retaming. It looks good for a while in early summer, as it grows in wild abandon. Then it looks untidy, and misses some flowering time before late summer flowers make their entrance and stretch through to autumn. I'm hoping some of the information I learnt from the MyGardenSchool course with Noel Kingsbury will help with that.
I did go to the Gardeners' World Live show in June and Tatton Park in July. Tatton was great, GWLive tired.
So what have I actually done in 2015? Well, it's been a year of sorting myself out, I suppose. I've lost 4.5 stone. I've started running again - furthest so far is 10 miles. I've enrolled on a part-time Doctorate in Education - it'll only be 5 or 6 years and around 100,000 words before I (hopefully) get to call myself 'Doctor'. Because of this, I've learned how to say "epistemological", though I do still need a bit of a run-up at it. I've also tried to be a good mum. I've given up on the long-held vague idea of a career in horticulture. Far better to concentrate on enjoying it as a way of relaxing, though I'm also still learning to share the garden and not worry when footballs get kicked into prized perennials. I'm not sure I'll ever lose the pang I feel when this happens, but I'm gradually learning to ignore the pang and kick the ball with abandon myself.
As for 2016? Hopefully blog a little more. Maybe photograph a little more. Get round to replanning the front garden. Run the Chester Half Marathon on 15th May. Take time to smell the lilac. Learn to chill. Try to be nicer. Be more patient. Enjoy the moment.
I wish you all a happy and healthy 2016 x
3 comments:
Sounds as if it has been a memorable year HM! Congratulations on all that you've achieved. Season's greetings to you. I hope that the new year treats you kindly xxx
I haven't done nearly as much blogging or gardening as I'd have liked this year either - let's hope 2016 is more productive for both of us! But it sounds as though you have had plenty of other things to occupy you: the EdD sounds fascinating (have just had a quick look at your blog about it, and goodness it takes me back - before I became ill I did a Postgraduate Certificate in the Education of Adults, doing my teaching practice in HE when nearly all my fellow-students were doing it in FE. I also live with an academic, and although his work now is in research rather than teaching he has taught for the OU, helping students with exactly the transition which interests you).
Oops, sorry, that was a rather long parenthesis - I really looked in to say happy Christmas!
Hi Anna, thanks for your good wishes. And the best to you, too. I hope to squirrel some time away to visit blogs at times, so hope to catch up with everyone's garden news.
Hi Juliet, glad it's not just me with a bloggage blockage. My background is in FE and HE within FE, so that's why I'm interested in this area. Wishing you a happy new year!
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