New Year - New Beginnings - Resolutions etc...

Usually in the UK I am feeling quite shell shocked by now, fed up of Christmas and New Year festivities and so glad that it's all over with for another year.  I don't feel like that this year.  Christmas came and went so fast and we didn't get the same hype and build up that starts in November in the UK.  The decorations in the village didn't appear until 17th December.  What a pleasant change that was.  And then it was all over the day after 12th night with everyone back at work.  The best thing about it was that we barely spent any extra money at all!

We took a break from the olive harvest for family visitors and started again on boxing day after our visitors left.  A bout of heavy rain meant another enforced rest and then more family visitors forced us to offer the remaining olives to a neighbour.  It was a bit sad to have to accept defeat but we reckoned over 1,000 kg was pretty good going for our first harvest and it just being the two of us.  We really do need help next year and we will have to plan our visitors accordingly (able bodied and willing to help - or at least cook - during December and early January!)

Blue skies replaced by grey.  And it lasted a good week - so rare and the rain so welcome after the long dry autumn.  So different from living in England.

Here we sit with the last of our seasonal visitors ready to leave tomorrow and all our projects for 2014 about to start.  Top of the list is getting all our rubbish left over from the removals to the dump, closely followed by preparing the ground for the veggie patch, and fencing for the water meadow, which will hopefully put paid to the geese coming up to the house to sit in the bird bath.

The house still needs internal and external painting but is pretty much how we want it. I have sewing projects backing up and lots more craft and knitting projects to finish but top of all the lists is LEARNING SPANISH!  We have neglected our studies recently and our Spanish has taken a backward step.

Its great to be so busy, to have so many plans and yet not to feel any anxiety about completing them, if we get it all done great... if we don't... hey ho... tomorrow IS another day.  Goodness I think I am turning Spanish!  Have I finally taken it on board...that the destination is not important, it's the journey that counts!