At the setting of the year

I've been reading Alys Fowler's rather lovely list of things she wants to do this year (and rather envying someone who is still young enough to use words like 'moxie' and still be taken seriously).

It inspired me to make my own list: a little shorter but nonetheless one I hope will help me give myself a little direction in the months to come. In the interests of avoiding any mention of the word 'resolutions' - here it is.

1. Crack the secret of getting strawberry jam to set
2. Take my gardening to another level by going back to school again
3. Spend more time just being with my kids
4. Breed my first little bundles of fluff (chickens, in case you're wondering)
5. Acquire some sheep
6. Cook more muffins
7. Finish the never-ending rabbit fencing in the veg garden
8. Grow and eat something I've never tried before
9. Keep at least a few square inches of my desk free of paper
10. Make the time to stop and stare
11. Plant the beginnings of an orchard
12. Find out what disaster they're inflicting on Ambridge on Sunday
13. Join my local choir
14. Finish that book synopsis lurking in my computer for two years now
15. ...and send it off
16. Tackle the scary Kaffe Fassett pattern my husband wants for a sweater
17. Put down more and stronger roots in my adopted county
18. Get back in a boat and start sailing again
19. Harvest some elderberry flowers for making cordial
20. Find a little more space for people as well as plants

Happy New Year everyone and I hope your 2011 is everything you hope it will be.

We have a winner!

The answer, as many of you realised some time ago, is of course 'The Curious Gardener' by Anna Pavord - one of the most thoughtful books to come out this year and one of those lovely gardening books you can pick up just before you go to sleep at night for a little nugget of gardening lore or a beautiful picture with which to drift off with a smile on your face.

The lucky winner is Su Harris - so congratulations Su and I hope you enjoy your in-between-Christmas-and-the-New-Year present!

The 2010 Garden Bloggers' Advent Calendar: December 24

Happy Christmas Eve!

Here without further ado is the very last of the windows to open in your lovely sparkly Garden Bloggers' Advent Calendar for 2010:

So: the first letters gathered from the cultivars of each plant will give you an anagram which unscrambles to reveal the title of a recently-published book, plus the surname of the author.

All you have to do is send the right answer to sally (dot) nex (at) btinternet (dot) com as fast as your fingers can type, and the first one to get the correct answer to me gets a shiny new copy in the mail to put under the Christmas tree (or if things carry on the way they're going, you can open it along with the champagne on New Year's Eve).

I hope you've enjoyed meandering through my favourite garden blogs and posts of the year as much as I have. Happy Christmas to all, and may all your snow-bound gardens melt in time for a spectacular New Year!

The 2010 Garden Bloggers' Advent Calendar: December 23

If none of this makes sense to you: read the first day's post and hopefully all will become clear.