Whem it's dark and the snow is blowing..

On mornings like this, I like to do a spot of holiday planning.

This year we're doing a road trip. It's similar to the one we did a couple of years ago, but we're missing out Yosemite and Death Valley.
So:
San Fransico
Carmel
Las Vegas
Palm Springs
Los Angeles

I enjoy the forward planning and reflecting afterwards as a significant part of my holiday. I love guide books and websites and other people's photos.
Trips like this take a lot of planning!

Walking the walk

We're taking steps, literally, to increase our fitness. (As per post of 1st Jan) As we like gadgets and need some motivational kick-starting, we have Omron pedometers.
It's very childish of me, but I keep sniggering about alarms going off to tell me Jimmy Saville is around. Glossing over that, mine is purple, J's is green.

I'm working up to 10,000 steps a day. I'm not quite there yet. J is. We took a reasonable walk around Saltholme this afternoon, but afterwards, I was waylaid by ironing, sorting out a cupboard and cleaning out the fridge to track down what that strange, cheesy smell was. Plenty of moving and bending, but not as many steps as J managed while planting up his bargain flowering bulbs in the garden.

I like the new wooden installation at Saltholme. Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

There are lots of hares around, too. 

In knitting news, I finished a test cowl, 3 days late, but I didn't think I was going to manage at all. It's a test for Brenda  of Artemis Adornments.  I'm going to send it to my brother, P, but persuaded a p-ed off j to model it for a photograph.

The hawk's deliberate stoop in air

Unseasonally warm at 12 degrees C today.

We walked at Saltholme and watched a Marsh Harrier hunting. She was too fast to capture on the wing with my camera, but posed at rest in the tallest tree.

Last week we saw Waxwings there, but they seem to have moved on, having stripped every tree of its berries.

2013

Happy New Year!

I didn't make any resolutions last year and don't intend to this year, either. I do have a few plans and some goals, however. Goals aren't the same as resolutions. Don't ask me how or why.

Goals:

1. To increase my general fitness. This has dropped off significantly as my activity was curtailed by my abdominal surgery in the summer. I need to pick it up a bit again now that I've had the all-clear from my surgeon. I shall start by walking more, then I'd like to add some swimming and some running.

2. To reduce household expenditure on food. We spend far too much and still throw too much away. I need to plan ahead more effectively and engage J and j in the process a bit more. Sometimes it's overwhelming to carry such a large proportion of the responsibility for shopping and meal planning and cooking alone.

3. To save a reasonable amount of spening money for our holiday. We're off to California and Nevada again in July.

4. To knit from my stash and get it down a bit.