Our Irish Christmas

Christmas is over! The farmer here has finished being tetchy at the thought of two three-quarter days off in a row, not to mention the fact that the shortest day of the year has now passed and he cherishes each extra couple of minutes of daylight that we get each year. Honestly, he and our working dog become more similar every year.

I recently read an article about how border collies are bred to work. Having a collie as a ‘town’ or ‘house’ dog would usually render them uneasy and discontented unless you’re prepared to give them lots of exercise. I agreed with every word of the article – it’s a joy to watch a dog who loves working and just waits with anticipation for the signal to go to work. Then I thought about how so much of it applies to Brian too! He actually gets restless if he’s indoors for too long, even the prospect of sitting down for a few hours! The kids were happy to visit their uncle and grandparents on Xmas Day for a couple of hours so we dropped them down and we went for a long walk through the farm, the neighbouring forestry and out along the forest road. You’d think he’d get enough of walking through fields and car roads but no. The dog was somewhat puzzled though – why on earth were we walking so far when all the cattle were indoors? He took him a while to stop looking around for cattle and just enjoy sniffing at the different smells.

Santa came! The kids were up at 6:10! They got what they wanted. I got an iPad. The farmer got a jigsaw and a promise of a weighing scales! Not for humans or the house but for weighing the cattle. It’s what he wants, I promise! Christmas was lovely, I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d thought but we played plenty of board games and I’m nearly at the end of crocheting a blanket from granny squares – it’s been a long journey!

I’m midway between wanting to veg for the next week and wanting to put the decorations away and get on with 2015! The lazy side of me might win out!

Highlights of 2014:

I’m on our local radio KCLR96FM tomorrow morning with a panel, chatting about the past year as well as resolutions for 2015. It got me thinking about 2014 so here’s a few reflections based on questions the researcher asked me earlier today.

My 2014 highlight: Being interviewed on TV about my book.

My favourite book: Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent and I really enjoyed The House Where It Happened by Martina Devlin too (read the latter over Xmas).

My favourite film: Mmm, I don’t get to the cinema that often but got to see The Hobbit, Paddington and Annie over the last two weeks. Enjoyed all three.

Favourite holiday: Mmm, with the beef crisis last spring we didn’t get away for a holiday in January but had a few one night hotel breaks away during the summer. Fav hotel was definitely Druid’s Glen in Wicklow.

New Year Resolutions:

Well, I’m guessing I should include weight loss in here but I always seem to get hungrier if I go on a diet. My aim this year is to cut down a bit once the calving period is over as I always forget that I’m not doing as much exercise and hence am not using up the calories in all the food I consume!

I always seem to make resolutions to get decorating done and never quite get there. But this Christmas we cleared out the dining room / store room and it is a dining room again! It was nice dining in there for the few days over Xmas and we’ll use it again for new year. I’ve started painting the woodwork in the bathroom and landing too. That, of course, means that the woodwork in the hall will need to be done too, not to mention the walls but will get there. I want Brian to wallpaper the bathroom as the plastering is rubbish. When they were doing the bathroom two years ago, I was starting to die with flu and I just wanted the house to myself hence I never checked before paying them. Grrr.

I’m doing some research at the moment for the next farming book and am planning to have it ready to go to the editor by early May. Planning on publishing end August / early September. The working title is ‘How To Be A Perfect Farm Wife’.

I’ve had an idea for a novel for some time – just wasn’t sure about the structure for it. When I started writing it three years ago, it was turning into a ‘chick lit’ on me and I wanted it to be darker than that. So this is the year I’m going to have a stab at it and I planned out the structure of the plot last week. Will see how it goes!

And some more writing. Amanda and I published our first social media ebook on Amazon last week. Entitled 365 Social Media Tips, it has a tip for every day of the year – they include LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, blogging and various social media tools too. Do have a look at the sampleand let me know what you think. Would love if you could buy it ?/ spread the word too 🙂

It will be interesting to see how the 365 day approach is received – I’m looking forward to writing another social media ebook later in the year.

I think that’s enough – don’t you?! With all the predictions for dire milk price, we’re also hoping to still have the shirts on our backs this time next year!

What about you? Your highlight of 2014? Your resolutions for 2015?