This week has been a little crazy for me.  Parties, friends and my whole family at home (encroaching on my workspace) — its all great, and I am grateful, but to some extent, I am looking forward to the quiet of next week.  All I want to do at this time of year is to have some peaceful uninterrupted introspective time where I can plan for the coming year.

Last night I was able (with the help of a blogging friend) to get my focus on thoughtfulness started.  I have the classic overachiever tendancy to want to do way more than is realistic and expect myself to be able to accomplish it all in unattainable time frames.  So, sometimes my introspective times can feel stressful because I can’t figure out how to do it all.   The suggestion to look back rather than forward, at least as a start, turned out to be a good thing.  Instead of trying to get my head around a realistic plan to do all the things I want to do in life, Holly proposed to look back over 2011  and list what was accomplished. Turns out the list is longer than I expected and it is a good one that I wanted to share with you.  I found that in celebrating it, I am able to focus a little less on what I didn’t accomplish in 2011 and now feel compelled to achieve  in 2012.  Instead, I feel good about what I did do and can move into the next year with both a more realistic set of expectations as well as a little less anxiety.

I’m putting my list in the comments —  I thought you might want to share your list too.  I would love to celebrate what you guys did as well.

image from flickr commons. More info about image: Taken Dec 10, 1870
Beautiful and festive scene from the grounds of Clonbrock House, Ahascragh, Co. Galway. We don’t know whether the man with the rifle was a member of the Dillon family or a gamekeeper on the Clonbrock Estate.

When the holiday hulabaloo dies down I relish the thought of clearing all the clutter and starting the new year with a clean slate.  Clean Slate Mentality  drives me in so many ways.  Its why I can’t wait to do a major refrigerator and freezer scrub down.  It’s why I am especially excited about the lack of snow –  I still have time to go mow down the perennials and clear out before spring.  And it is why places like the Saguaro Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ appeal (and also its warm).

Bold stark color and straight lines is the opposite of the visual excess that generally pervades in December and this is what I crave for January.  Who’s ready for a vacation?

As I sort out all my goals and hopes and resolutions for this new year ahead, this is one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that sooner‘ sort of ideas.   I always want to be more organized and clever.

My aprons and shed shelves and truck and literally everywhere I go during planting season is likely to have plant tags laying around.  As I grow older and my garden grows bigger my mind seems to have less room for remembering each and every plant and it’s place, so I save tags and then I loose them – doing me little good.   But this utterly simple (and to be honest, a little bit cute), idea is perfect for organizing on the fly.   Call this resolution #1.

image found via pinterest.

All season I’ve been refraining from writing about garden-y gift ideas. I’m just kinda tired of spending money on holiday stuff (I’m mostly done shopping before Thanksgiving) so I wasn’t going to find much fun in it….but seeing as it is now the eve of christmas, and if you still need ideas, well, you really just need some help, here it is – the perfect last minute gift. I think that these Stoneface Creations are arguably the coolest garden containers I have seen in a while (last minute gift shoppers for moi – take note). A whole quirky collection would make my day and I’m going to bet there is a good chance your last minute garden loving loved one would love one too.

A friend posted this on my facebook wall this morning and it hi-jacked me for the last hour.  I wasn’t really planning to watch something like this at 4:45 in the morning on Chistmas Eve Eve/Winter Solstice morning but in my state of last minute holiday planning and bustle, and at a time when I always wish I had a little more brain power left for introspection and thoughtful consideration, this has helped me to look past the hype of the next few days and start to move into a time of year I always cherish.
That time of year is the deep winter darkness (I have a dear friend who has recently been referring to it as the ‘fertile darkness’ – a phrase I love that refers to planting the seeds that will grow as the light returns) where I can think, re-organize, evaluate, and be a little quieter.
If you have an extra hour, or can find some minutes here and there that will eventually add up to an hour, I would encourage you to watch this video series. And if you take the time to do so, drop a comment here, I would love to chat about it with you.

Colorado University Physics Professor Dr. Albert A. Bartlett’s lecture on “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy.”

Happy Winter!  My mind is a jumble this morning as I am listening to a remarkable video (which I will share in a few minutes) and thinking about the New Year ( I always feel that today – the day after the winter solstice –  is much more of a new beginning than January 1st).  What’s on your mind?  Last minute holiday preparations?  The lengthening days and what life will bring in the lightening days?  Something else entirely?

image from Wolfie and the Sneak at Poppytalk.