Out with the old....

...thank goodness.

As many of you have done, and very entertainingly too, I was going to review my past year for this post, but the very thought of trawling through the various events, photographs, memories and emotions was so onerous and off-putting that I thought I would sum it up with one cliched image:

As someone who really isn't fond of thrills, spills and sky-high blood pressure through being catapulted violently from one emotional state to another, and run off my feet with so much to do whilst trying to keep a grip - for months! - saying goodbye to 2011 is very welcome. I am very happy to step off this hideous hurtling contraption that  symbolises so aptly the changeover process of house and location, and all that went before and since, and to walk calmly into 2012.

It's been quite a year, eventful, decisive, disappointing, upsetting, exhilarating, scary and thrilling, all overlaid with a clinging blanket of exhaustion, but it's over, just about, and I intend never to repeat it with such intensity. Never, ever again will I step willingly onto a rollercoaster, if I can help it.

I'm home; I will settle peacefully into my new environment, care for my little family of dogs and cats, tend my garden, and just 'be' in my cottage, creating as tranquil and simple a life as I can, and be content.

Thank you for coming along with me on this year-long (two-year-long, really) voyage-cum-rollercoaster ride, and for supporting, encouraging, empathising and sharing it with me.

I wish you a very Happy New Year, and exactly the kind of 2012 you want for yourselves.