2020 Year In Review

Every year I love to look back over my journal and compile the highlights!

I started this year by sharing my diary entries after Dad died. A slightly glum way to start the year but 2019 was too huge not to have trickled over into 2020.  I didn't realise 2020 would follow suit in intensity, from the Australian bushfires at the start of the year to covid which would impact everyone!

Optimistic Fee at the start of the year!

A great distraction for the year was having our house to pour ourselves into.  I posted the original photos of the home here (interior, exterior, walk-through video) for those curious.  We knocked off lots of home projects including our huge mosaic stair-case (+ house number & failed bathroom mosaic!)

I kept up my oyster growing!

Continued blogging my beach finds, thrifting and clay adventures :)

We put in loads of new plants into our garden, including (off the top of my head!) kangaroo paw, heliconia, a lychee tree, tree fern, azaleas, flame tree, and an olive tree. 
+ my passionfruit bloomed and fruited for the first time ever!

Not surprisingly all our adventures were close to home this year! One of the most fun was visiting an abandoned dinosaur park!

We also got to see the water exhibition at GOMA

And we stayed with Ben's family at Bribie and got to swim in science equipment :P

We hired a cement truck, dug a huge trench, and started the war on our garden's invasive bamboo, or at least a first attempt to try and control it :) We also built an outdoor eating area, ripped out our front and back porch, built a new front ramp, and have grand plans to have our deck built by mid 2021! Oh and Ben restumped our house - we were busy!

Our animals kept us sane at home :)

Despite numerous trips to the vet this year, they're all doing well *knocks on wood*

We also got in plenty of nature adventures!

In 2020 I started a new series, reviewing books from the library.  I also wanted to start educating myself on the black lives movement (and my role as a white person) which shamefully I started to unearth many blind spots in my thinking (still learning, still on that journey!)

I made the emotional decision to sell my Dad's ute

And Ben and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by braving our local "theme" park :P

I continued my bought/gift/made series
Kester black's nail polish was a definite win for small (covid) joys!

This year's monthly challenge was to write a poem a month.  I'm proud to say I succeeded and overcame my fear of publicly sharing my writing.  My dream is still to land a poetry book deal so I'm going to continue chugging on with that long term goal!

We visited Ben's mum in Biggenden and met her friend Bev who gave us so many succulent cuttings for our garden!

We also visited the Noosa and Brisbane botanical gardens for our nature hit/garden inspiration!

I started the year in Feb by having extension surgery for my endometriosis.  I have pain associated with the disease but the main reason was infertility.  It was a very pleasant surprise 4 months later when I finally got a positive pregnancy test.  Many doctors and hospital trips later I ended up having a miscarriage at home.  The day after the miscarriage I had the most intense pain of my life and needed to call an ambulance.  They dismissed me at the hospital for simply being emotional about my miscarriage but it was nice to speak to my fertility doctor, afterwards, who explained that if you have a cyst present, pregnancy can cause it to enlarge and that my pain was most likely from it bursting.  

The fertility doctor seems hopeful I will fall pregnant again but I'm trying not to live my life focused on it (very hard not to) and just enjoy the fact that I'm alive and not experiencing hospital-level pain!!

I am very grateful to be alive, to be healthy, and to have a new year to look forward too :)

Bring on 2021!