Happy New Year - in like a Lion - Outline Plans for 2025

Happy New Year Everyone.  It was a wet and wild one here last night with a right old "Hooley" blowing until early morning.  Also an escalation of Fireworks at midnight to what we normally get.  There is a lot potentially to achieve this year, but any move forward is a gain no matter how small.

Christmas did not pan out well for me this year.  I had lots of plates twirling on sticks, and then I had a bad fall which basically crippled me up.  So I just gave in gracefully and dealt with what I had and the situation as it was.  We ate well but some of the things I had planned just did not get done.  Never mind.  Nothing has been wasted though.

Was just getting back on track and I fell again and in the same place.  To enter out study/craft room/computer room we have to go down a step which is on a lower level than the rest of the house.  It is this step that I seem to fall on.  We have put some rubber matting down just there as I do not want to repeat the performance.  Twice is quite enough and it smacks of me not learning a lesson if it happens again!  Fortunately this time the fall was not as hard and I did not hit my hip and back this time around, but it did rick my body and a few more aches and pains for another few days.  Now getting back on track again. 

It is as a result of unforeseen things that have happened that has really as a result decided me on my plan of action this year.  I would rather have something prepared done and dusted and waiting in the wings rather than nothing at all.  Fortunately all my planning on the food front worked and I will be repeating this pattern again.  Buying in things weekly and before prices started to hike up, stocking the freezer with the main meat items like the Turkey Breast, Lamb, Beef, Prawns, pastry etc.  Now of course the problem is that I really could do with a bigger chest freezer.  There is no way I will squeeze anything else in though.

However first off a recap on 2024 which was not the worst of years but also not the best.

For me this last year, has been all about reclaiming my Pantry and other areas of my home.  The Pantry will now be focused on keeping it well stocked and buying in bits at a time to re-stock when there is a good offer on, that sort of thing.  The bulk of the major re-stock, has been achieved although there are a few items still to obtain out of the re-stock budget.  There is also the time management element and stock-taking aspects that need to be taken into consideration as well.  I am going to aim for a weekly inspection going forward.  There are then the aspects of keeping it clean on a regular basis.  Traditionally kitchens were always given a good going over in Spring, hence the Spring clean and were often given a fresh coat of paint (known as distemper) at that time come Spring to keep it fresh and tidy.  At the beginning of March therefore, (I have made a file forward/diary note already in my brand new page a day diary).  I will probably start dealing with the cleaning and re-painting of the Pantry or at least plotting it then.  So already a things to do list!

This year, the focus is going to be on the Preserving and the Garden.  I need to do this in order to supply my Pantry and food storage as best as I can with fresher items rather than just from the supermarket or preferably the Farm shop.  I did not get to any gardening last year, which was a mistake, but this year, I intend to do better shall we say.  We all need a bit of a fresh food source rather than relying totally on someone or something else.  I will therefore concentrate on herbs and salad items as well as root crops to start with.

There are plans to get into the garden in any event to strip it out and get rid of that which is no longer needed or is wrecked.  A clean slate is needed for the garden for me to be able to do what I need to do and work with what space I actually have.

However, for me the year will kick off with preserving items, using those items already in the house i.e. some marmalade from left-over oranges, chutney for dried older fruit (which was found on the Pantry sort out) that sort of thing so that you get all your pennies and more out of your initial investment.  So if you cannot eat up the fresh in time preserve it.  

Last year was a bit tight on the pennies at harvest time for a lot of items that I use and I therefore did not get to put away a lot of items that I usually make. This year I hope to be using the Wild Larder that bit more than I have to date. No matter, I am selectively buying items from where I locate them and I am turning them into preserves to make sure that I have a small stock of items to be going on with and using and possibly some left for later in the year.  In particular I want to get some chutneys done and dusted and out of the way with, as well as a lot of heat processed bottled stuff like soups, meals in jars and vegetables into jars as well.  There are also a lot of Pantry mixes I want to get made up as well, especially in view of what I found ingredients wise in the Pantry when I sorted it out.

Food is always a priority around here and Preserves always top of the list.  You have to prepare in contingency planning for "rainy days" when your Pantry can and will help you move forward if you have one that is.  I will also make Preserves moving forward for my Pantry shelf, and the drinks cabinet (my Blackberry Whisky is very warming and delicious) and is something that I will be making again.  However, I need to start planning on buying in specific ingredients such as base spirits where I can i.e. Gin, Vodka, Rum, Cotes de Rhone Wine, Green Ginger Wine, Whisky.  Even if it is only buying where I can one bottle of something a month it will all add up and give me the opportunity of adding in new items to The Still Room Repertoire.  I also want to start to get some more Wine on the Go.  I want to make the most of these quieter mostly indoor months and also stock up and plan for next Christmas in the process.  I want to preserve so much more than I have already done to date.

However, I am also plotting and planning around Christmas 2025 already.  Some of the plans I have involve making things for which you need time.  I need more time to do certain things than I did when I was younger and therefore out of necessity I need to start in January 2025 to actually achieve some of these aims. There will be a dedicated post/posts in this respect moving forward. Its a way for me to track what I am doing moving forward but I thought it might also encourage some of you out there to do the same.  It is always "wheels within wheels"!  Oh no not Christmas again you cry.  In reality this is the only way I see forward for me in being able to achieve Christmas for my family.  Not over-commercialised but making nice things whether that be crafting, cooking, macerating, wine making etc.  It all helps bring a different element and/or variation to my Pantry shelf and my table.

So moving forward for me is really carrying on from where I left off in 2024, but this year making sure that the garden gets sorted and planned so that I have some homegrown stuff even if it is only just for preserving at the end of the day; in order that you can pick and cook without losing too much of the vitamin element and it is straight from plot to plate that way on.  It will also save pennies in the supermarket.

However, there will be lots of crafting, lots of playing and more doing where I can rather than getting things strategically planned in my head and then have nothing to show for it.

I will also be trying to focus on my own self-care as well.  This is something I am not good at, but I know that I have to give myself some kind of focus particularly to the cycles the fatigue seems to be taking and I am going to be looking for solutions to try and limit this as much as I can.  Last year I had made some tweaks and it helped, but I can do better.  It is the fatigue that I do not cope well with because it is so unpredictable.  I can go to bed one night feeling on top of the world and the following morning wake up with no energy, lots of pain and not able to accomplish much.  I will therefore see what I can do and see whether those changes will benefit me in the longer term.  I am continuing to exercise for my arms, shoulders, upper core and back.  I am trying to keep moving as once you lose the movement it is rare to get it back. For me it is the muscles surrounding everything that cause the most problems. So a struggle but I am going to keep at it.  The pain is a constant and I have a high pain threshold in any event which perhaps is not a good thing.  It is not always the pain that gets me down although it contributes but the feeling of being fettered and not being able to do anything does not do internal morale any good at all or my inner Butterfly which wants to fly.  So I am fighting in my corner to make it better for me as best as I can.  One of the things I am trialling at the moment, and it still is only early days is that I am trialling for myself a green Hemp Powder which I add to my bowl of cereal in the morning.  I am currently on Jordans Granola love the Honey & Nuts one and also the Strawberry one.  I mix in the milk, then add the hemp powder, a sprinkling of sugar and a good three tablespoons of my homemade yogurt mixed in. Things seem to have been a little better for me since I started adding this in to my diet. It is supposed to be good for supporting the system generally and to help with digestive issues which I do have.   It could just be the placebo effect, but I am trialling it to start with for the month.  I feel brighter in myself of a morning and have a marked difference in energy, my digestive issues have settled down a little bit.  I am proceeding with caution however.  I am not a Doctor, this is something I have chosen to do for myself, mostly to try and help with the fatigue issues, which I have from at least a couple of the medical conditions I do have.  I also have vitamin D deficiency. The hemp powder I bought is from Waitrose and costs £4 a sachet.  I am using about 1 teaspoon of the powder mixed in with my granola of a morning.  It shows up green in the milk, but no strong flavour and soon mixes in.  You could also use it in a smoothie. Yesterday before I left the house I did not have time for my Granola or powder.  I felt the difference by the end of the day and have had again this morning. I just want my life back on an even keel a bit more than it is at the moment.  It is also supposed to help with sugar cravings that sort of thing so will see how things go.

For more information on hemp powder generally, this is one article that I found on the Internet:

Benefits of Hemp Powder Article

So lots to do, lots to achieve this year we have to move forward this time slowly and with purpose.  

Next year I will have my Christmas decorations put up together with a load of new decorations which have been acquired and/or made.  A way of getting crafting again and getting things done which in turn leads to being in the moment.  I can see several potential benefits of my proposed plans on all levels.  Fingers crossed that these tweaks will help me longer term.  I can but try.

There will be a few more detailed posts on some of the things planned to follow in the coming days.  I am not really making resolutions as such, just finding a way to move forward with what I have available to me at the present time.  So we shall see how things pan out.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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