had a wonderful old year

[Rosendula]

It's so easy for the stressful events to overshadow the good. I want to look back on the good things that happened in 2010, so here are some of the wonderful things that happened to me (in no particular order)

my grandson was born

I learned to knit socks on a loom

my son passed his driving test

my little girl continued to give me cuddles and tell me she loves me

I saw some of my favourite performers live on stage - Tim Minchin, Derren Brown and Stewart Francis

We got chickens

I grew my best ever cauliflower and garlic

I was given some wonderful Christmas presents

[Green Aura]

You're right. This year has been a busy and stressful but after a few days minus the Christmas sugar rush and a few sessions with the light lamp I'm feeling much more positive about things. So

-My daughter came home (that was on my down list too but because of her problems not her presence )
- She's getting through the aforementioned and is currently a much slimmer, happier and nicer to be with young woman
-We're in the throws of buying her a property in the village which will not only house her but provide her with an income (you won't believe how little it's costing - although it will need a lot of doing up)
-We planted lots of trees and our forest garden is started
- Our back garden has been transformed from a horrible grassed area to a (nearly) functioning kitchen garden
- I've spent the last week watching The Good Life (may have mentioned that elsewhere )
- I did a commercial baking course (with my daughter) and we plan to open a vegan deli in her shop (hopefully in time for next season) and also a small holiday let if space allows
- I've made enough money through Green Aura this year to fully stock the kitchen for the above (next year I'll get a wage from it!!!!)
- I got asked to become secretary of our local development trust at a particularly exciting time (we're hoping the village will get a couple of wind turbines and a small hydro scheme in the next year or two)

I'm sure there are other things too but those are the biggies. And thanks, Rosey, that's cheered me up even more just having to think about them.

[Rosendula]

I just remembered something else good about 2010.
After 2 years of digging up fruit bushes and other shrubs, I finally got my front garden finished, with 6 raised beds, all of which produced some lovely vegetables (no carrots, but lots of everything else).

[Millymollymandy]

but after a few days minus the Christmas sugar rush and a few sessions with the light lamp I'm feeling much more positive about things.

My mood's been up and down like a yo-yo the last few days (poss. weeks) - need to remember to take this Vit D! - so keep up this nice positive thread please people!

I hate to say but I bought some new clothes yesterday - now I really HATE clothes shopping! but it cheered me up no end! So a good end to a year that was fairly OK in a routine sort of way

[Puddleduck]

Ooo I like this kind of thread. Let's see what happened:

My cousin had a beautiful baby girl;
I turned 30 and had the greatest night ever (and possibly the worst morning after...)
My daughter continued to grow and blossom;
My husband finally got a job he feels fulfilled in;
Stopped taking the anti-depressants and have been fine since June (wooo go me!!);
I lost around 2 stone and feel hugely better for it.

So goodbye 2010, bring on 2011!!!!!

[Alice Abbott]

Good things for 2010? Let's see...

We managed to put a whole new oak floor upstairs, doubling our living space.
We discovered, despite not imagining it for a moment, there actually was a potentially fully working septic tank on our property, saving us thousands of euros. We had it all "blown through" and emptied and it works!
We had electrics and water connected - what a luxury after two years of buckets of wter and the loan of a single cable supply from our lovely neighbours. And a shower, a bath and a flushing loo or two.
We had extensions to the animal family:
1) A pet loir (edible dormouse) brought in by the cat, nursed back to health after a good chewing and now living in an old birdcage as he more or less refused to leave when we offered him his freedom.
2) Same cat Nobu who had been feral, now aged about three apparently. After the trauma of being caught, bundled off to the vet, castrated and jabbed he decided he had to stay too, gradually moving from the barn to the porch, then in front of the fire. He refuses to be picked up but other than that he's a good boy.
We had an extension to the human family - two beautiful baby girls, Vivi and Ginny (after my little sister). Real names Vienna and Geneva, born in September.

Thanks for making me think of all the good things, it's so easy to dwell on the bits which went wrong...

[Millymollymandy]

We had our first real holiday in 10 years with not a parent in sight!

Had a seriously bumper tomato crop

Put down our first chicken and discovered it was nowhere near as awful as we had imagined, and have done another sick old one and a friend's sick one all in the last 2 weeks with no qualms whatsoever.

Discovered that facebook is not a load of rubbish as I had previously thought (it kind of helps if you have friends otherwise you don't really understand the point of it ) so have got in touch with cousins and old friends who I normally only hear from/write to once a year at Xmas - plus others - and I get to nosy at other people's photos, which I love.

My cousin from Queensland who I hadn't seen for 13 years came to stay for a weekend; ditto another friend who we hadn't seen for about 4 years.

Our cat was diagnosed with a tumour on his spine back in May and went very wobbly very quickly and we didn't think he would last very much longer - but with medication he is miles better and seems to be a lot better now than he was even several months back!!

Haven't got quite such a case of SAD syndrome as I got last winter!

Oh and I've finally mastered the art of pastry/baking blind (in my particular oven) and no more soggy bottoms on pies and quiches!!!

There may be more but yes it is really good to look back at the specially good things - it wasn't a bad year in any way but one can get in a bit of a rut with the mundane day to day sameyness which seems to be my life!

[Millymollymandy]

We had extensions to the animal family:
1) A pet loir (edible dormouse) brought in by the cat, nursed back to health after a good chewing and now living in an old birdcage as he more or less refused to leave when we offered him his freedom.
2) Same cat Nobu who had been feral, now aged about three apparently. After the trauma of being caught, bundled off to the vet, castrated and jabbed he decided he had to stay too, gradually moving from the barn to the porch, then in front of the fire. He refuses to be picked up but other than that he's a good boy.

Everybody loves you Alice, even the wildlife realise you have such a lovely fun home they don't want to leave! Now write that book!

[Amateur]

Some lovely 'good' things above so I thought I might share a couple of mine.

My sister had a baby so now I have a lovely new neice.

I managed to cycle all the through this winter with only a one week break when the roads were too dangerous due to the ice which saved me £572 last year

I got a couple of new jobs (basically being paid for stuff that I was already doing on a voluntary basis) which has meant giving up my full time job (if I can find a 20 hour or so a week post to fill it) might be a possibility.

I paid off my credit card and my overdraft and managed to save over 5k

I learnt bags more about gardening and growing (much of it from this lovely form) and ate my first all home grown meal

Roll on 2011 I'm ready for you!