Goodbye 2020, Happy New Year 2021

I’ve been lazy of late… lazy with my photography, reverting to using the camera phone and the tweaking software on Instagram rather than going all out with the “big camera” and downloading it to the desktop to tweak with much better software.

I’ve also been lazy with my blogging – the once a week post slipped to once a month, and then to just every so often… I had fallen into this sense of who wants or needs to hear what I have to say? I don’t mean this in a “poor me” sense, but at least when I lived abroad, I was documenting the life that was different, or at least different to what I considered as my factory setting of life in Armagh. By that, I don’t mean that life in Armagh is not worth documenting. It is, but I realised that when I lived abroad and wrote my blog I usually felt that I was writing letters home, to my sister, and now we share the same living experience and what can I tell her that is fresh and interesting?

Then there’s the time it takes to write the blog… was it worth spending so much time on something that a dozen people might read. I had a look at my traffic to the blog and was pleasantly surprised…okay so it’s more that I realised. Maybe there is an audience out there. But what really swung it was the fact that I love going back through the years and reading my posts myself! It’s a form of journaling. Some posts are markers for big events in my life I was happy to share. Other more personal events perhaps not shared are tucked between the lines of text where I remember things like what I did the weekend after I miscarried my only pregnancy ten years ago…that event always carried in my heart.

So I have my answer – my blog is my journal. If people don’t feel like reading it, that’s no problem. If they do even better. As a writer, I’m compelled to share my thoughts with the world – and some I don’t – it’s up to me.

So my New Years resolution is the resurrection of my blog posting… starting now… (and intending to post every Friday of 2021.)

Santa brought me a snazzy new bird feeding station this year and it’s brought my feather garden to life big time. A new visitor to the garden prompted me to get the “big camera” out again. It’s the first time I’ve seen a goldfinch at the feeders, and I loved that our regular bluetit was okay with sharing a table. No social distancing here!

You’ll notice the snow on top – I was up at before dawn today pulling my sleep-stunned husband to the window to see the full moon over the snowy garden. I was too busy pulling on my snow boots and ski jacket to take pictures, but even half asleep (he is NOT a morning person) he managed to take this great shot.

2020 was a tough and weird year for all of us. Every year, I like to pick out one thing of note for each month. When we’ve hosted NYE parties, I’ve put a wall-sized annual planner on the wall and invited guests to add their own events. It’s always fun to review the positive things the past year has brought, but this year, I reckoned it would be challenging. So I’ve chosen to ignore the ‘C’ word and write out my own calendar…

Highlights of 2020

January – Ski trip to Bulgaria

February – Flash Fiction Armagh Saturday Night at the Museum

March – Rejuvenation Book One published by Castrum Press

April – Women Aloud NI Facebook Live Festival

May – The Bramley Volume Two published

June – Zoomeo & Juliet rehearsals, performed live on Zoom by Armagh Theater Group at the beginning of July

July – Rejuvenation Book Two published by Castrum Press

August – Trip to Killarney and West Cork

September – Flash Fiction in the Orchard 2020

October – Rejuvenation Book Three published by Castrum Press

November – Social Bubble, Toil & Trouble performed live on Zoom by Armagh Theatre Group

December – Christmas Diner with My Mummy

In 2021, I imagine I’ll be travelling further afield and hopefully have much more to write about so 2021 here we come…

Byddi Lee