(For last year, go here)

The year that Ollie arrived.

The year I started taking pictures.

The year I was featured in the Daily Mail, and misquoted.

The year I started to realise how far Peak Oil underlies world affairs, and became suspicious about 9/11.

The year I (think I) found my ‘voice’ in blogging and Learning Church.

The year the family chose the home schooling path.

A year bracketed by discovering two great singing voices – Johnny Cash at the beginning, and Martyn Joseph at the end – and a third poetic voice, Wendell Berry.

A year of settling in, on the whole. Solid progress in lots of areas. Just a suspicion that I’m going to be able to relax a little.

Lost some weight. Didn’t drink as much. (I think those two things are related).

Enjoyed lots of films, but not so many really great ones: House of Flying Daggers, Inside Man, Apocalypse Now, Broken Flowers – they were probably the best.

Read lots of books, almost all of which have been reviewed here (one of last year’s resolutions that I’ve kept to). Various favourites: Marsden on fundamentalism, Jared Diamond’s Collapse, James Alison (various books), rediscovering the full range of the Dune sequence. Also Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles (which was stunningly good, and will get a full-length review when I have a spare week in which to analyse and assess it) and From Hell.

I have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. Peace and goodwill to all.