100 Things that Made My Year

Stealing this idea from Austin Kleon

1. Moving into our new partment.
2. Being back in a well-designed kitchen.
3. Making plans for the garden.
4. Our new easily installed pond. Buy it. Get it delivered. Put a level paver in the garden. Put the pond on top. Fill it with water. Plug the pump in.
5. Celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to Tasmania.
6. Hiking the Overland Track. Six days, total of 85km with 2.5km elevation gain.
7. Summitting Mount Oakleigh and Mount Ossa on days 4 and 5 of the hike. Overcoming my fear of heights to make it up the boulder field on Mount Ossa. Our cheery guide who made it possible, although I did not enjoy hearing him say “The next bit is a bit more technical. Just follow the person in front and make sure you have three solid points of contact before moving” and “it’s worse coming down.” (Luckily I didn’t find it worse coming down except my quads were shot by the time we made it down and to the hut for the night)
8. Absolutely spectacular beach scenery in Tasmania at the Bay of Fires and Rocky Cape.
9. Seeing a Wedge-Tail Eagle at reasonably close range in the wild.
10. Finding and settling into our new church.
11. Leading a new small group at our new church.
12. Seeing in the New Year at Falls Creek with our running group.
13. A weekend away at the Lake House in Daylesford. Fabulous food, a hike, a visit ti their farm.
14. No lockdowns!
15. No cancelled races … although it was close for me as I caught COVID 10 days before the Gold Coast Half-Marathon. I still ran it, just very badly.
16. The amazing colours and shapes of fungi after the rain in Tasmania.
17. Realising how much I enjoy visiting exhibitions by myself. I went into the city and saw three art exhibitions this year. Picasso at the NGV was the highlight.
18. Five weeks away in Noosa. We worked remotely but enjoyed the warmer weather and some weekend activities.
19. Sunsets over the Noosa River.
20. Finally, making it to Sum Young Guys. Our 2020 booking was cancelled due to lockdowns.
21. Kayaking in the Noosa Everglades.
22. Seeing a pod of dolphins off Elwood beach on a morning walk.
23. Elsternwick Park, great off-lead runs for Riley.
24. Finding a fantastic little apartment for the girls.
25. Half-marathon PB at the Melbourne Marathon Festival: 1:55:56.
26. Rone exhibition and lunch Osteria Illaria for my birthday.
27. Weekend at Moama for the Pop and Pour Festival.
28. Tortoise and Splendid Fairy Wrens on a long run.
29. Reading poetry after making my bed each morning.
30. Reading theology over breakfast.
31. Lectio365 app as soon as I wake up.
32. Getting back into putting together some photobooks.
33. Having three children that have finished school.
34. Going to our oldest’s graduation from university.
35. Learning a little bit about the flora and fauna in our area.
36. Eating strawberries from our garden.
37. The rhubarb surviving its year in a pot.
38. Giving our son permission to do something other than uni. Not that he needed our permission but sometimes you just need someone to say it’s OK to take a different path.
39. The Brighton library, providing the majority of my reading material this year.
40. Walking to the library, church, shops … to most things we need.
41. Gum Tree Good Food opening 450m from our house. Popping around to pick up what I need for dinner.
42. Taking Riley to Elwood beach for a swim.
43. ROAM research.
44. How to Take Smart Notes. Changed the way I read non-fiction.
45. Starting to build up a selection of permanent notes in ROAM.
46. Unpacking my books.
47. Sunlight sparkling in the trees as I walked home from church in spring and autumn.
48. Seeing the sea as we drive down our road to home.
49. Moscow Mules made with chilli ginger beer.
50. Moulin Rouge when it was in Melbourne the first time.
51. Fish and Chips on the beach.
52. Dune at the Outdoor Cinema.
53. Celebrations with the extended family.
54. A Tawny Frogmouth on the powerline when we arrived home one night.
55. Starting a new blog.
56. NaBloPoMo
57. Selecting a variety of citrus for our fenceline.
58. Watching our kids grow in independence … getting jobs, moving out. Happy that they are very decent human beings.
59. Oat lattes. Creaminess without the downside of dairy.
60. Taking our keep cups to our local coffee place. Getting to know the staff there.
61. Hosting again.
62. Doing it the easy way with take-away.
63. Being able to hangout and build friendships again.
64. Long phone calls.
65. A gin and tonic on a hot day.
66. Reading more non-fiction.
67. Substack newsletters.
68. Watching movies at the cinema. Top Gun and Avatar.
69. Reading a book and being surprised that you know one of the people in it.
70. KX Pilates. Getting stronger.
71. Goping to the Osteo. Finally dealing with my stiff neck and shoulders.
72. Waking up without a headache after he showed me how to sleep properly.
73. Re-reading Coming Home. Such a great book.
74. Learning more about how female hormones affect training and recovery in ROAR.
75. Rise & Run for great food to fuel my running.
76. Home-delivered veggie boxes.
77. More great non-fiction reads: Public Missiology, The Hidden Life of Trees, and How to do Nothing
78. Memorable fiction: Sea of Tranquility, Homegoing and Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone.
79. Family birthday celebrations at Donovans, Mya Tyger, Bounty of the Sun, Bistro C
80. Running 1700km for the year. My biggest year yet.
81. Squeezing in my longest run ever, 26km.
82. Hilarious TV dance scenes in Wednesday and The Umbrella Academy.
83. Discovering a TV series late so you’ve got three seasons to watch. But also …
84. When the next season drops on one of your favourite shows.
85. LIstening to podcasts on my long runs … Drink with a Friend, Team Strength Running, Best of Both Worlds.
86. The Bible Project App … total bible nerdiness.
87. Expanding my vegetarian cooking repertoire.
88. Homemade naan bread.
89. Finally getting the glass in our Japanese cabinet fixed. It’s been waiting since at least 2008.
90. Driving to Queensland. Overnighting in Orange.
91. Making it home from Queensland despite some flooding.
92. Running the Noosa National Park loop.
93. My new AirPods. A combined birthday and Christmas present.
94. Putting our finger lime into the ground again. Hoping for a future harvest.
95. Dresses with pockets.
96. Wide-legged summer pants … cooler than jeans.
97. My two Solidteknik frying pans.
98. Irrawarra Sourdough Sandwich loaf. Allways fits in the toaster.
99. Homemade jam, relish and canned peaches.
100. Discovering again what it’s like to be mostly just the two of us.