My winter list was a simple one, with just ten things to tick off. As always some things didn't get completed but it just means I can add them to another list for another day, another season. Here are the ones I did complete.

Read 12 books
I ended 2017 reading The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, a book I picked up in a charity shop to read for Rosalyn's Instagram prompt #AdventToShare. In January I kicked off my reading challenge with The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith, and since then I haven't been able to resist the urge to read in colour order, just like last year.

Plan my greenhouse growings
I have seeds ready and waiting to be planted out soon, starting with rainbow mix carrot, spinach, and radish. A bit later a lettuce mix and baby leeks will join them. My brother has given me some strawberry plants. I'm also growing some marigolds from seed for my Dad, and for me I'm planting as many dahlia tubers as I have pots for. Sophie tells me they're easy to grow and need minimal care, so I've got high hopes, and visions of vase upon vase of colourful, fluffy dahlias come the summer months.

Mend
I set myself the task of completing half the pile one weekend in March. I did pretty well, even if I didn't get to the half way point, but I did mend the things that I was most likely to wear. I think some things in my mend pile will end up in the charity bag, thus saving me the bother of altering them. But the pile is definitely smaller. Progress.

I was going to list everything mended here but I might do a separate post instead?

Donate to a food bank
My local Tesco has a collection point and I've started to add 'food bank' to my shopping list to remind me to pick something up each time I go in. I don't go in to the store very often as I have my groceries delivered but, as they say, every little helps.

Get into the woods
In late December we went for a walk to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. The following weekend we planted our small Christmas tree and chopped some wood for the fire. Winter is when Andy has the most free time for such activities, it might be cold but when you're chopping wood or carrying armfuls of it to the truck you soon warm up.

Go to the beach
I took part in my third beach clean organised and run by Adnams in Southwold. It's something I really enjoy, it's very therapeutic, and I'm always amazed by how much we pick up.

Turn off the TV and do a jigsaw puzzle / play a board game
This is how we spent New Year's Eve. We didn't fancy going out, but I didn't want to sit in front of the TV, just like almost every other night of the year, so we played games. And at midnight we swept the hallway, opened the door, swept out the dust, and welcomed in the new year.

How was your winter? What did you get up to?