Tuesday
Jan052010
A Year of...
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 10:46 PM 
At the start of 2008 my friend, Emma, declared the coming twelve months a Year of Culture. She and a friend had decided that their lives were rather sorry in that area, so they planned to attend as many concerts, plays, ballets and operas as they had time and money for. Galleries, museums and historic houses all got a look in. Emma even managed a weekend in Rome.
I lighted on the idea with all the glee of a magpie finding the Crown Jewels. I love such schemes. And so I gaily concocted other ‘years’ that, in hindsight, would separate one twelve month period from another. ‘Ah,’ folk would say, ‘that happened during my Year of Tiddlywinks!’
Emma made up a scrapbook as the year wore on so that she would forever be able to leaf over memories of a year that stood out from the rest. The images above are taken from it.
So, whilst some of us are focusing on our word for the year and looking for meaningful progress or deep change in our lives, I’m offering a more frivolous adjunct or alternative. This is not so much about changing your life as enriching it. The permutations are endless and I could bore you for inches and inches with possibilities; but I’ll refrain and just give you four variations to kick you off. If the concept tickles your fancy, take your pick from these or come up with one of your own.
You don’t have to do everything in each list, of course. Just choose what appeals or what’s possible and add your own bright ideas into the mix. And let us know in the comments below what your ideal ‘year’ would be.
A Year of Food
Sample as many unfamiliar types of cuisine as you can during the year
Try out one new recipe each week
Take a cookery class of some kind
Make ‘foodie’ birthday presents for friends and family
Forage for wild food
Eat out once a week/month at a different restaurant each time
Shop at farmers’ markets or in small, local stores
Explore specialist foods available only by mail order
Go on a gourmet tasting holiday
Take out a food magazine subscription
Volunteer to deliver meals-on-wheels
Back a campaign for better quality food
Throw a food-tasting event for charity
Grow some of your own grub
A Local Year
Make frequent detours to drive down roads you’ve never driven down before
Read up on local history
Patronise local events
Shop in your own neighbourhood
Visit all the places strangers would visit if they came to your neck-of-the-woods
Eat locally-grown food
Set up or join a community group of some kind
Become an avid reader of the local newspaper
Take photographs and compile a record of a year in your village/town/city
Sign up to your local Freecycle group
A Year of Nature
Create a wild garden
Learn to identify birdsong
Go on a wildflower walk
Keep hens
Eat wild greens, pick berries, bottle elderflower cordial or sloe gin
Feed the birds
Keep a nature journal to record your patch of earth at different times of the year
Learn to recognise local animal tracks and dwellings
Let nature inspire your current creative expression
Create a nature table in a corner of your home
An English Year (substitute the country in which you live or have an English year regardless of where you live on the globe!)
Take weekend trips to parts of the country you don’t know
Throw a garden party
Read English novels and poetry
Visit Wimbledon, Ascot or Henley
Take afternoon tea each day
Listen to lots of Elgar and William Walton
Learn the rules of cricket (tee hee)
Celebrate not just Bonfire Night but lesser-known dates and traditions
Go to a Prom concert
Book to see a pantomime at Christmas
Visit well-known gardens or spend time tending your own
Investigate English folk music
Remember St. George’s Day
Talk incessantly about the weather
Drink lots of tea!
Reader Comments (3)
if you have not read EAT, PRAY, LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert try to do so. She lived and wrote of one year of her life wherein she did the former three. It was a very good read. Soon to be a movie I think, but books are always better. Perhaps my year shall be a year of books, or perhaps of EXPLORATION. Yes, I think 2010 shall be my year of Explorations. Like Christopher Robin, i do love a good explore.
Oh my this is such a wonderful wonderful idea! I am going thru the list and still deciding. :) Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!
I absolutely love this idea!