Reflecting on 2015, looking forward into 2016

A year ago today I set out to have a year of learning and creativity - instead of making resolutions I decided on a focus for the year. I imagined a great deal of photography, craftiness and self-motivated learning with a professional focus. The year started off much as I'd imagined it, while I was searching for a new job I had a lot of control over how I spent my time and fit all sorts of wonderful things in.

Then, in June, I moved across the country with a sudden and radical downsize in housing arrangements and several months of general life turbulence while I tried to settle and establish myself first in a share house, and when that didn't work out, in a flat of my own. I've established - or at least started to - a new network of social contacts and am finding my feet, though some days I feel more certain than others.

Even after the move I found the opportunity to attend training in professional areas and on various topics that caught my interest including origami and cryptic crosswords. Learning how life in general and libraries in particular differ between states was especially interesting with more differences than I expected, a lot of them very fundamental things.

Asides from a bit of origami I feel like I dropped the creativity ball in the second half of the year - and in the last two or three months the learning activities I did do were mostly incidental rather than motivated by my year's goal. I've been pushing myself very hard and taking on a lot of extra things, which has led to extreme exhaustion a few times and has meant that activities I enjoy like photography and blogging have been neglected. I've been reflecting on this today and have come to the conclusion that despite being overwhelmed at the end of the year 2015 was a very successful year - one in which perseverance and adaptability were needed in large volumes which I managed to produce.

This reflection leads me to my decision of a focus for this year. 2016 is going to be my year of balance. When I have decisions to make from little everyday things to the potentially life-changing I will be considering them with balance in mind. I hope that it will take many forms from spending my time more wisely to not overloading myself and taking better care of my body and mind.

One thing I'm starting right away is a challenge to move and be active every day. One of my friends has been encouraging people to take this on - I'll be using the hashtag #move366 on Instagram (find me here if you wish) to track myself and make myself accountable in some way, if mostly to myself. This doesn't mean I'll be spending hours in the gym or cycling through mountainous terrain every day - I'll just try to do something. On those days when I'm out of the house before 7:30 and return somewhere close to midnight I might only have a lunchtime stroll or a decent stretching session to report but it'll be something. Today I started off fairly gently by walking instead of driving when I needed to run some errands.

I'm feeling hopeful, and look forward to reflecting on this in a year.

Seeking out art and making my own

Week 20 (11-17 May)

At some point I got ahead of myself, this week is actually week 20...

With a whimsical photo of my fridge and onions at the supermarket, you can see that my week got off to slightly dull start. I did make a bookmark, at least. Thankfully things picked up toward the weekend, on Friday Cibo's offered free coffee for it's first day in Gawler so I took some puzzles and did a little people watching. On Saturday I visited the Art Gallery, which I'm slowly working my way through trying to see everything. I can only properly look at so much art in one day, and at the moment I've almost finished Gallery 3 - the first two galleries only took a visit each, but the third is much, much bigger. A third trip ought to be enough to see it properly. I also took time to check out the unofficial art around Adelaide. This week's feature photo is one of the coolest I've found in a while, if you want to see it for yourself it's behind the ANZ in Rundle Mall.

I'm really proud of the photo I took on Sunday too. It's the last of the small images, and was taken to the theme 'Home' in the photo a day I intermittently take part in. I've enjoyed it so far, but not really drawn any attention. There are some very talented people there. This photo, however, has been something of a success. I didn't really want to take a picture of my house - it's a nice place to live but not terribly photogenic. Instead, I just played with the idea and came up with an image captioned 'Home is where the books are'.

Craftiness (2015 photos)

Week 20 (4-10 May)

A couple of this week's photos are of cards I made in the past week. I like simple designs and precise techniques. I don't really have a lot to say this week, though it was a good week. I was especially pleased with my performance at netball this week. My fitness is improving rapidly (as one team member suggested, Netball is basically an hour of interval training) and I'm doing well in GK. I went a long because I love the opportunity to get out have a run on a team with friends, but I'm finding more than that. I haven't taken any photos, though, as I've been too busy on court.

Looking up (photo post)

Week 19 (27 April - 3 May)

Things started to look up a bit this week. Sure, some of the troubles I've had for the last few months are still hanging about (the job search continues) but things have happened that have relieved my stress somewhat.

One upside of this is I feel more able and inspired to take good care of myself. I'm cooking more and enjoying the delicious rewards of that. The photo I featured is a self-saucing lemon pudding that I made with lemons from Mum and Dad's lemon tree.

Other upsides of the stress reduction are a bit of an improvement in my creative output - the book title story in the last photo is one example. I've also started a clean up and out of the house - going through and re-ordering drawers and well, everything. I'm doing it a little at a time and aiming for the house to be a little better when I go to bed than when I woke up. I've only really had one fail day, and the next day I was right back on track. Seeing things improve bit by bit is enough to keep the motivation going.

So there's nothing earth-shattering in this week's post, but nevertheless, things are looking up. I still have some challenges, but I'm dealing better with them now that one of my big stresses is somewhat relieved.

A sort-of recipe (and week 18 of my 2015 photos)

Week 18 (20-26 April)

This is a highly disorganised sort-of recipe, because like many things I cook, I made it up as I went along. I follow recipes for things that aren't very forgiving but otherwise I like to experiment a bit. Quantities are vague or guesses, because I didn't use any measuring tools whatsoever. It's titled 'Apple Filo Dessert' because although it's somewhat strudel-y I don't know what else to call it.  Presentation is conversational and informal, because.

Apple Filo Dessert

First, make cheat-y stewed apples. Take one apple, peel if you wish (I didn't), remove the core and chop into small, flat slices. Put in a microwave-proof bowl with a tiny bit of water, a spoonful of brown sugar, a handful of sultanas, a knob of butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Stir. Cover bowl with a plate/lid/whatever and microwave for a minute or two, however long it takes for the apple to go soft.

Next, prepare filo pastry. When mine defrosted it turned out to have split into quarters along the fold lines. No worries. I can work with this, just a bit of a jigsaw, and small serves instead of one large one.

Melt a couple teaspoons of butter in a small dish. Lay one piece of filo pastry on a board and brush it with butter. Put another on top, and brush with butter again. Repeat until the pastry is at least five layers deep. Tidy up the edges if you want. Place slices of apple, overlapping, along one edge of the pastry, make sure some sultanas get in there as well. At this point you can choose to either fold or roll the pastry - I made three, and the one that's shown is rolled but really, be as creative as you like here. Once that's done, put in a baking tray on baking paper and brush with butter again. These were baked at 180 degrees celsius for half an hour, but if you make something larger you might need to wing it and guess the time...

Enjoy hot, or let them cool. They're pretty darn good either way.

Here are the rest of the week's photos - this was the last of the catch-up weeks I started in the last post but I left this one as the week hadn't finished yet - and then I woke up on Sunday to find the internet was out across the area, and it just came back a few hours ago.

The rose has been edited minimally, Mum has one variety 'Jubilee 150' which is so bright you'd swear it'd been photoshopped when you look at it. The autumn leaves are also in Mum and Dad's garden, it's putting on a very colourful display at the moment.

2015: A photo odyssey, part next

This is a catch up post, I'm just going to give you a few photos for the weeks I've missed posting for rather than worrying too much about having one a day. When I set out to take these photos, I promised myself I wouldn't let it get too stressful. It's a personal project taken on for the fun of it. So next month I'm going to try using prompts again because I find them a good source of inspiration - and in the cooler months I find photographic inspiration in much shorter supply than usual.

Moving right along.

Week 13 (16-22 March)

The highlight photo is from the chocolate walking tour I went on - a birthday present from Mum and Dad as this year I decided that I was more interested in doing things with people than coming up with a list of stuff. It was amazing! We stopped at seven venues, tried an amazing variety of chocolatey things and learned quite a bit as we went! This mint iced chocolate from Steven ter Horst was absolutely wonderful.

Week 14 (23-29 March)

 

The most significant thing this week, was that with incredibly inconvenient timing, my phone completely failed. Attempts at bring it back failed, and a new phone was ordered. After a phoneless week, I got the new one... which has a fault with the aux out. So it's gone back for repairs and as I write this I'm using a temporary very cheap phone I bought. It's got an incredibly dreadful camera in it, and I'm eager to have the very nice new phone back.

The highlight photo I chose because I preferred it to the dead phone photo (which is the first little one, I was feeling silly that day). It's part of my back fence, though the gate is in the neighbours' section. It's a heritage listed stable wall and gradually crumbling but it is quite beautiful.

Week 15 (March 30-April 5)

The highlight this week was a camping trip - I spent the long weekend with a great group of people camping, walking, photographing and snorkelling. There's a much bigger album of photos on Facebook if you are interested. The highlight is a fishing boat on the beach at Pondalowie Bay, near our campsite. The oldest graffiti is from 2008, so at a guess that's roughly how long it's been there. It made an amazing photography subject (and backdrop)!

During this week I actually had my new phone, I had some important calls to make/take and hung onto it until I could arrange a substitute. The photo of my feet has a short story - I took a photo much like it for Instagram on my previous phone, but I wasn't able to send it out before my phone shut itself down for the last time, not able to connect to a computer for retrieval (thankfully all but that photo had been backed up).

Week 16 (6-12 April)

A pretty normal week, mostly, and one for getting things done. In the case of the first photo, with a chai and in the Adelaide City Library. After my  haircut, I had work to get done on a deadline. The library proved to be a great place to plug in and get things sorted out.

I also went to a Board Games Day event - and won the door prize! Otherwise it was a good but unremarkable week of getting things done.

Week 17 (13-19 April)

Bacon + Eggs + Pancakes + Maple Syrup is the love story that won me some movie tickets in a twitter competition. There really only was one way to celebrate...

Side note, I actually like this one highlight, other smaller photos format. It's far less time consuming to put together, and I think it looks better too. Just as well I decided to change format for the catch up!