Fridays Friendly Fill Ins

It's the end of another week and time for some fill ins that are set by Annie at McGuffy's Reader and Joyce at 15andmeowing.com - why don't you come and join us. The words in purple are the prompts that are provided and then the rest is me. Lets raise a glass of something fizzy for the new year.

1. My Chinese zodiac animal is the Rooster, and more specifically I am an earth rooster. A famous earth rooster is Jennifer Lopez and we're meant to be 'lovely, generous, and trustworthy. My beloved is a Monkey which sounds about right.

Today being Chinese New Year we're entering the year of the dog and leaving my year, the rooster behind.

2. My zodiac sign is Capricorn which is an earth sign and I have been told several times in my life that I epitomize the personality of this sign. A Capricorn's traits are; responsible, disciplined, practical, and grounded, with them also expecting the worst and being a tad unforgiving

3. Income tax season is not something I have to worry about.

4. In hindsight, there are probably lots of things that when I look back I wonder if I should have made different decisions or chosen a different path, but at the time I made the best decision with the information I had. Besides, Lady Destiny had it all planned already.

Do you know what your Chinese Zodiac sign is? We wish you all a fabulous new year with all good things.

Pamela & Ken
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P.S: Introducing our new furby, the very handsome Rocky. He joined our family yesterday and we suspect he's called Rocky because he's a bit of a fighter, having already given Bramble Jelly a whack that caused Bramble to bark and get upset, which has never happened with Princess Cookie Cat.

Hodgepodge Resolutions

The first hodgepodge of the year and of course the theme is what 2018 brings for us all and what we want to leave behind in 2017. The hodgepodge is hosted and questions set by Joyce at the blog From This Side of the Pond - do visit to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for their answers.

New Years Day - Happy 2018 from both of us.

1. It's that time of year again...time for Lake Superior University to present a list of words (or phrases) they'd like to see banished (for over-use, mis-use, or genera uselessness) in 2018. You can read more about the decision making process and word meaning here, but this year's top vote getters are-

unpack, dish (as in dish out the latest rumor), pre-owned, onboarding/offboarding, nothingburger, let that sink in, let me ask you this, impactful, Cofefe, drill down, fake news, hot water heater (hot water doesn't need to be heated), and gig economy

Which of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word not on the list you'd like to add?

I'd never heard of a nothing burger, and now that I've looked it up, that's the one I want to get rid of. The Urban Dictionary describes it as: something lame, dead-end, a dud, insignificant; especially something with high expectations that turns out to be average, pathetic, or overhyped.

One that I would love to get rid of is 'feel it in my water' - such an awful saying and I think it's a very British one as I'd never heard it before I moved here. My beloved would love to get rid of 'at this moment in time', 'cooking with gas', and all management speak like 'blue sky thinking'.


2. What's something you need to get rid of in the new year?

 I really need to go through my clothes and take the ones I don't wear to charity. There's not too many, but there are things in my wardrobe that I've either fallen out of love with, or they don't fit properly anymore, so I must motivate myself to do the dreaded cull.

3. Where do you feel stuck?

Sometimes I feel really stuck in my creativity - I think it's because I'm my own worst critic and tend to not be very happy with what I do.

4. January is National Soup Month. When did you last have a bowl of soup? Was it made from scratch or from a can? Your favorite canned soup? Your favorite soup to make from scratch on a cold winter's day?

Had lentil soup from a can at the weekend. My all time favourite canned soup is Heinz Cream of Tomato - it's a real comfort thing to have it with buttered toast. My favourite soup to make from scratch is sweet potato and coconut.

5. Tell us one thing you're looking forward to in 2018.

Spending more time with my beloved exploring this beautiful land and discovering new things.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

On new years day we went for a long walk along the beach at Findhorn Bay and there was a surprising number of people and dogs out enjoying the freezing cold weather. When we'd walked past the crowds and was much further along the beach we saw a man get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend - so romantic and sweet proposing on the first day of a new year. 

Have you made any resolutions for this year, and are there any things that you definitely want to leave in the old year? Whatever comes your way we hope that your year has moments of joy, peace, and love.

Pamela & Ken
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First sunset of the new year.

Farewell 2017, and Welcome 2018

It's only a few hours until we wave goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new, so time to be a little reflective on how the year has been. In January I wrote this post, My wishes for 2017, and I think all of these still apply for the coming year.

We've had lots of great Days of Fun and found some really unique things to see and do. There is so much incredible history to explore where we live and in January we visited a remote church which sheltered Highlanders during the clearances in 1847 and has words scratched into the glass by these long ago people - A Scottish Tragedy Preserved in Glass.

We attended a world championship in which the Swedish reigned supreme, ironic really as it was the World Porridge Championship and it's one of the dishes that Scotland is known for.

April saw me taking on the A to Z Blogging Challenge for the second year, this time I had a theme and it was all about the Scottish Highlands which made it much easier than 2016. Read my thoughts on the experience and some of the great blogs I found in Reflections on the A to Z.

I ticked two things off my bucket list this year. The first was Glamping in Glenshee - basically camping in a glamorous style. It was a beautiful tent with a low bed, a small wood burner for heat, and a fantastic view of the countryside. It was so lovely that we're going back in April to stay in an old train goods carriage.

The other bucket list item was eating a Deep Fried Mars Bar. I know this sounds like a really strange thing to have on my list, but it's one of those weird food items that I'd heard about for years and had really wanted to try. The verdict - yummy but I wouldn't want to have them very often.

We had a wonderful holiday home in Australia, three weeks of catching up with family and friends whilst still managing to find interesting things to visit and explore. In Tasmania we had a great day out visiting the Murals and Mailboxes of Northern Tasmania and during our brief stay in Melbourne we explored the laneways and Street Art of this fabulous city.

I continued to take part in Top Ten blogging which is hosted by Tamara at Part-time Working Hockey Mom and this year we've done a very diverse range of topics from movie quotes, favourite summer foods, rudeness, random photos, and this one, Favourite Place on Earth. It's a small town in Tasmania called Stanley which I absolutely adore. I love lists so this prompt based challenge is perfect for me.

During the year I found two more prompt based challenges which have been great fun to do. On Wednesdays there is the Hodgepodge which is hosted by Joyce From This Side of the Pond and one of my posts included Problematic Confetti.

The other prompt based challenge is hosted by Annie at McGuffy's Reader and is called Friday's Friendly Fill-Ins - here's one of my posts from October, Friday's Friendly Contemplations. Annie also hosts Sparks on a Monday which is a place for us all to share positive thoughts to spread out into the world - it's a really lovely idea and my first contribution in October was Sparks of Hope.

Throughout all this blogging my beloved is there being his wonderful supportive self, exploring our part of the world with me and making me coffee when I'm sitting at my laptop. I'm truly blessed to share my life with this gorgeous, thoughtful, adorably funny man.

As for our furbies, Princess Cookie Cat is nearly 14 and has started to show her age in small ways - the biggest being that I can catch her quite easily now which makes going to the vet much less stressful. She's sitting beside me as I type this, but of course she's got her back to me so I'll share a photo I took earlier.

Bramble Jelly Sassy Pants (our Cocker Spaniel) is as energetic as ever and still hasn't learnt that if she annoys Cookie too much she will get a whack on the nose. I love this picture as Bramble looks so innocent and Cookie has her paw in the air ready to strike.

With one hour to go until midnight, I wish 2017 a very fond farewell - we had ups and downs like anyone does, but along the way we shared lots of love and laughter.

In 2018 I'm sure I'll find lots of other challenges to take on and hopefully we'll tick a few more things off our bucket list. Starting tomorrow, on the first day of the year I'm going to start the 100 Happy Days Challenge which I was inspired to do by Tamara who did it earlier in the year. This involves taking a photo everyday for 100 days of something that makes you happy and sharing via your preferred social media - mine is going to be on my instagram account.

We wish all of you a year filled with peace, health, love, and lots of laughter.

Happy 2018

Pamela & Ken
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Friday's Friendly Fill Ins

It's Friday so it's time for the friendly fill ins which are set by Annie at McGuffy's Reader and Ellen at 15andmeowing.com. The words in purple are the prompts that are provided and then the rest is me.

1. On New Year's Eve, I suspect that my beloved and I will be in bed watching the fireworks on our Kindle like we did last year. He's the only person I want to see in the new year with so in a way it's perfect.

2. One goal I have for 2018 is to do more walking and maybe even walk up a small hill or two.  

3. In 2017, I accomplished I'm not sure what. I just hope I was kind, that I made people smile, and that people felt they could rely on me.

4. I took on more blogging challenges in 2017, including taking part in this one. It gives me a chance to flex my writing brain and helps connect with people all around the world.

How about you, do you spend time reflecting on the year that is finishing and what you want for the year about to start? Before you go make sure you pop over to Annie or Ellen's blogs to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and take some time to think of all the things you're grateful for from 2017.

Pamela & Ken
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