So Far, So What?

I have been remiss in posting updates to progress on my New Year to-do list. Ha! Thought I’d forgotten and let it all fall by the wayside, as such things usually do, eh? Not so, Mes Amis! You don’t get off that lightly, (though I’ll keep it brief).

1. Diet

Hmm, still not eating enough fruit and not too many new additions to my repertoire, but the boy child cooks (almost) every Friday and the girl child makes epic cakes, including a Black Forest Gateau to die for (or from, given the amount of cream). We are eating lots of fish too, but it’s easy to fall into bad habits when you are working away from home and the burgers and pizza are the quick and easy option.

2. Work

*Cough* Ummm, move along, nothing to see here, just ticking along! The Events season is well under way and it will be a busy couple of months. I’m at Eltham Palace this weekend, which I’m really looking forward to as I’ve been meaning to visit there for years. I’m torn between hoping I’ll be too busy to have time to look around and being able to squeeze in a quick shufty – Medieval and Art Deco, what a treat!

3. Creativity

The Tarot Deck is most definitely underway and has both a Facebook page and a website  (which I’m still tinkering with but is mostly there now). Do check out the website for the latest cards and a chance to vote on some of the images on the blog!

I haven’t been doing much knitting lately and, if anything, my yarn stash has grown *looks down and shuffles feet in embarrassment*. I will be starting a wedding shawl for my niece shortly, and it’s a pattern from my queue, so that’s a good thing, right? *looks pleadingly*

I’m writing more (sometimes), with this blog, the Tarot one and a new one I just created here, though I have, in fact, found some time to read and my virtual stack has gone down by one, which I highly recommend if you’d like to add to your “To be read” stack.

4. Home

Largely, see point 2. However, spurred by guilt at allowing Edmund, the lovely apple tree gifted to me by my Good and Eviller Twins, to be overwhelmed by competitive weeds and other growth, some efforts have been made to hack the jungle out back into submission, but it’s a long and dangerous* road. I have survived with only minor wounds thus far.

* the brambles have thorns THAT BIG!

This was Edmund 3 years ago, newly planted:

Edmund 2012

Look how he’s grown!

Edmund 2015

Ah, OK, let me help with that:

Edmund Highlighted

The white lines are roughly where the main branches are and the red line is the orginial cane to which he was staked. As you can see, he has grown rather a lot in the last 3 years, although, as yet, there have been no flowers and thus no fruit. I am confident that the day will come though – the Cox’s I planted nearby a few years previously has only just started to fruit (last year the three apples all fell off , but this year there are many more, so here’s hoping they make it). You time will come, Edmund 🙂

It may not look it, but there is quite a lot more space around our Ed than there was last week. I was going to include a picture of one of the mounds of detritus resulting from my efforts, but it suffers from the same surfeit of green as the above pics and you can’t really tell what’s rubbish, lawn or growth, so you’ll just have to take my word for the hugeness of the heap.

So, are your resolutions just a dim and distant memory or are you still plugging away?