With all the travel in February, we were a week into March before I knew it and I was still trying to adjust to having gained hours and hours of daylight. No complaints: this means it’s sunrise season, with a month or so of glorious views to wake up to each morning. And now the clocks have changed, we’re back to wonderful long evenings. The weather doesn’t agree, but winter is over!

Wait, where did February go. Hey, you there, bring that month back before it gets away! I often find time disappears on me when I travel as if days away from home aren’t real …and I spent a third of this month in London (for my birthday) and Zagreb (for work). I squeezed in a long hike and wrecked my knees (oops) and more reading than you might expect…

I’ve enjoyed the snowy start to the year, in spite because of wading through knee deep snow and skidding over ice on our adventures. A read-along has kept me flexing my out of shape blogging muscles (a little at least), and I’ve set what’s sure to be my maddest goal for the year…

My October plans were disrupted by high winds (thanks Amy) and a work trip to London for my company’s tenth birthday celebration. I’ve spent most of the month being surprised it’s nearly winter, although we got one last summery day for a walk before winter’s darkness.

I didn’t mean to drop off the blog at the end of July, but it was a messy August. A close family member was rushed into hospital, so my focus switched to trips up and down the country to support at home. Happily all has ended well, but it left me neither reading nor blogging as I scrambled to stay afloat at work. On the plus side, I finally got to meet my stepbrother. September has been about getting back outside to enjoy the rush from summer into autumn.

I spent the first half of July in Australia to attend a friend’s wedding and see family, which absolutely addled my brain because it’s the first time (I think) I’ve been over there for their winter. For the record, it was not as cold as they kept telling me, but there was snow in the Snowy Mountains (and the other 3 seasons featured across the rest of the trip). Also, pelicans.

I’ve had an unplanned blogging hiatus in June, with my focus entirely on life in meatspace. Work (including a trip to Chicago), family health misadventures and a long distance overnight hike took full focus, with even reading taking a back seat. After not really getting any sleep for 3 Saturdays in a row, I’m very much in need of a holiday, which July will thankfully deliver.

I feel like I say this most years, but May hasn’t gone as planned. I was expecting work travel and overseas visitors, I wasn’t expecting to pick up a snotty cold on my travels or have some rather more serious family health complications. The upshot has been another quiet Wyrd & Wonder rather than the more ambitious one I had planned, although I did read a stack of novellas I’ve been looking forward to.

April has flown by in a whirl of visiting relatives, which was an excellent excuse to visit some favourite places and show them the sights, culminating in a road trip to the far north and Orkney. It has had the side effect that I’ve done very little reading and no blogging, but on the plus side I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors which is good for the spirit.

March has been a false spring in the Highlands, with overnight temperatures hovering around freezing for much of the month so that only the bravest flowers emerged and the trees have thoughtfully held themselves in bud (I’ve been learning to identify them from the buds; once they get leaves I’ll have to start over). Reading has been slow and steady, but I shifted up a gear on hiking with fine, cool days tempting me to go further than planned.

Work took centre stage in February thanks to a major project deadline and spring’s big projects all kicking off. I got out on a couple of easy but rewarding 6-7 mile hikes at the weekends (pictured: view from the Great Glen Way) before heading south to London for the first time in ages for birthday shenanigans and training at work.