Things I did in 2011

Tis the season for reflecting on the year that's just passed, and looking forward to the year to come. 2011 was a pretty fantastic year, even if I didn't get to all the things on my To Do List. It's hard to be disappointed with not checking off everything on the list, when so many other fun things were added to it throughout the year.

Here are the highlights:

Some of my pots, pre-firing.

• I took a pottery class (first time at the wheel since my first foray into pottery in 2003) and made a dozen little pots to show for it....and then gave most of them away. (Because what am I going to do with a dozen little bowls anyway?). I'm really happy with the glazes I used on bowls and hope I'll be able to replicate it when I glaze my next round of pottery pieces. I still have 3 bowls that need their bottoms trimmed and then to be fired, and will tackle those first when I start pottery again this winter.

• I made sushi, twice, early in the year. Both attempts were declared a success! For the record, 10 sheets of nori + a bag of PC brand sticky rice makes a whole lot of sushi. The cream cheese and smoked salmon sushi was my favourite. The "Little" and I even came up with our own signature sushi roll - the "C" roll - carrot, crab (imitation), cream cheese and cucumber.(5b on the 2011 To Do List = check!)

• I gave up paper napkins. This was my ecological challenge for 2011. Thanks to a generous donation of cloth napkins from my grandmother, and the closing sale at The Bay in Halifax, I am well-stocked in cloth napkins and have been using them instead of paper napkins for well over a year now. I'm pretty thrilled with the change and have no plans on going back to paper napkins. I'm now paper-free in the kitchen/dining area of my home, having given up using paper towels long ago for reusable rags. 

• I finished Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and I'm nearly finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, thereby completing a trilogy of Bronte Books.Granted it's been awhile since I've read Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (in high school) so I'm probably due to re-read that soon. Still, it's nice to have read something from each of the sisters. I only completed half of my Victorian Literature challenge (to read 4 Victorian novels), but whatever... at least I read a couple Victorian novels. I had planned to try to finish Rudyard Kipling's Kim, and then read Dicken's A Christmas Carol during the holidays, but sort of forgot during the quiet part of the season. (No.2 = half a check!)

• I got lots of kayaking experience in over the summer, and now consider myself relatively skilled, or at least confident enough to stay afloat and get from point A to B.(No. 10 = check!)

Smallest cache I've found yet.

• I found about 20 geocaches this year, putting my total up to 34. And a number of those were found on what I would call geocaching "adventures" (read: mishaps). One involved taking my car down a treacherous road with my grandmother, and the other involved me falling into a lake during an all-day work meeting with my colleagues standing by (I was wearing a skirt and tights at the time). Oh yes, much hilarity can happen while one is geocaching. I had planned to write a blog post about at least one of these adventures, but that never happened. Perhaps later.

A 1lb hake, before filleting.

• I learned how to fish, and caught my first fish (3 tiny speckled trout) through BOW (Becoming an Outdoors Woman), and how to fillet fish courtesy of Off the Hook. And, best of all, thanks again to BOW, I have the basic equipment (a pretty pink fishing rod) I need to go on my own fishing adventure. My grandfather even contributed to my fishing gear, by giving me bobbers painted pink to match my rod. :).  My mother is insisting on mackerel fishing trip in 2012, and I think it's likely to happen!

• I did get my files in order this year, but as it turned out, once I had culled and shredded documents I didn't need anymore, there wasn't enough to justify getting a file cabinet. I have a few file folders organized on my desk for bills/frequently accessed documents, an accordian file folder for important documents (to grab and go in case of emergency), and a file box for the rest. (No. 7 = check!) 

• And lastly, I've finally become more involved in my church. I'm helping with the children's program during half the service a couple Sundays a month. It's been fun and best of all, I'm getting to know more people in my church! (No 6. of 2010's To Do List)

And there were many other highlights of the year:  a trip to Toronto in June for a conference and for visiting friends, biking around Berwick with the Little (20 km in total + 2 soft-serve ice creams in one day), diving for sand dollars at Sand Dollar Beach (we found 7 sand dollars!), a proper week-long vacation at the cottage (complete with my first, and likely last, pedicure), going to the gospel concert at the Lunenburg Folk Festival, apple-picking in the Valley, and exploring new places - McNab's Island and Sambro Island.

Needless to say, all this made for a very fun year.

Now on to 2012.