Endeavours…

I was so impressed with the Crafty Creek today.

She has a list of things she’d like to accomplish in the year. It’s not New Year’s Resolutions or anything so trite, it’s a functioning list to check in with on a regular basis.

So I decided to make my own list:

***Finish Passage and launch by end May.

***Start research for the Transportation/Convict saga that is a collaboration between myself and the great and prolific SJA Turney.

***Start my part of said novel, which is the Van Diemen’s Land part.

***Return to Embroidery group in April (which means either beginning a new project or continuing with a current project), having been on the coast for the summer.

***Complete the reorganisation of my embroidery stashes – I am quite anal with my house. Marie Kondo would approve.

***Sign up for a couple of embroidery masterclasses this year.

***Embroider a rug to replace the ones I have given away.

***Return to ballet class in April with low impact ballet slippers.

***Gardening: dig over, fertilise and plant green manure crop in veggie garden, prune EVERYTHING in coastal garden including all the trees in the orchard. Even grub out declining trees and replace with olives and nuts. Plant bulbs and replacement shrubs.

Cut back everything in the Matchbox garden and plant autumn and winter annuals, plant bulbs and replacement shrubs and introduce more tubs and also a rusty setting for the gravelled lower terrace. This almost takes me to September.

***Walk longer distances with dog. Currently I walk about 42-56 kms a week with him depending on the state of my feet.

***See at least 5 or 6 movies in the city with my closest friend. If no movies, we have to at least meet, greet and pull our worlds apart and then put them back together again through the winter.

***Every Wednesday with my swiftly growing grandbaby. A privilege to mind him as his mum returns to work as a pharmacist. No writing on Wednesdays!!!!

***Winter boat trips for the calmly magnificent days that come our way. Don’t be afraid of the cold on the water. Brrr!

***More winter kayaking.

But all those things aside, this summer and its progression has taught me that family means everything.

***Thus I want to spend even more time with OH anywhere and everywhere.

***Time up north with my daughter.

***Time on farm with son, daughter-in-law and precious little grandson.

I also want…

***Time out for solitude and reflection

Thus is my year filled with attainable things…

…but mostly with my family.

By September we will be lambing, the gardens and lawns will require dedicated attention as they spring into action on steroids (I love gardening – it’s a deep interest, so I don’t mind at all)  and I begin to plan summer veggies and summer writing.

Transportation, the working title of the convict novel, will hopefully be well underway.

It may also be that Passage (e-book, print and audio) leads to another contemporary fiction. Who knows? But first, we must see if Passage makes any sort of headway in a choc-full market place! So I’m relying on you, dear readers, to tell the world that this is a poignant book along the lines of Rosamunde Pilcher, Maeve Binchy,  Cathy Kelly and Joanne Harris.

Meanwhile, I’ll check back again in June and see what this list looks like then!

Oh, PS! :

Apart from my friend, Brian, in France, who will check my French, I need two or three beta-readers for Passage please, who will tell me where I need to improve the story to sell it. I’ll send you a PDF. Any takers? You can email me though the contact button on the website.

Thank you!