Taking the plunge

                                                

I contemplated the possibility of blog writing again for a while before I decided to pick it up again. Not many people write blogs these days - those time seems to have come to an end. Especially blogs like mine, with no real purpose, no business backing and no agenda to sell. Yet, I still love reading my favourite blogs and figured there may still be some people out there who are interested in more than just a picture or quick fly-away comment designed to impress or provoke controversy. This blog has never attempted to do either of those things, nor will it in the future. Nor does it exist solely to be read. It is as much for my own benefit as any other reason. I enjoy speculating on books, thoughts, ideas and general life and miss doing so. I have continued my personal journals and thought notebooks over the years, and will always love pen and paper musings, but I also missed making a more official (if that's the right word) recording of our daily happenings.

I also considered starting a new blog, one to chronicle a new chapter in my life, but I have decided to continue on with the old one. The set up is already here and ready to go, many pages of our past live here (which I still love to scroll back over) and it just seemed right to continue on. So here I am.

So what's happened in the last five years?

The characters are mostly the same (if all a little older). There are a few new members:

The chickens:

           

The bunny:

                                               

The Budgie:

And of course Dash is still here too:

                                            

The setting is the same (just renovated here and there).

                                   

The story plots are different (but that was to be expected if you read any of my old posts of novel writing)

The love of history and studying history and researching and taking notes and reflecting on them is still the same.

Thus, here we are.

Life has been good to us for the last five years, so much so that I was able to take some leave from my teaching job. We are just beginning our Winter holidays as I write this, so technically my leave doesn't start for another two weeks. I am looking forward to recording some little aspects of my sabbatical here.

This year has been a tough one and I, like many others, am realising that a simplification of life is the way forward; making home life a priority and enjoying the little things along the way. I have many thoughts on this topic and read a lot on it too, so expect to see my thoughts here. 

Welcome.