Happy new year to all! Phew, last year seemed to fly. Was it just us, or did everyone feel that way? Blog posts here were a bit thin on the ground, so below are a few highlights and perhaps 2013 will see some further explanation of some of these and more that we've been up to.  

The year started slowly for Build-It Bloke, with an injury providing a hindrance rather than a highlight.

Surgery followed by a few quiet months saw the tendon in his thumb almost back to normal. How did he go with 'doing nothing' you ask? Well let's just say we were both very grateful for i-view - thanks ABC tv. He was a surprisingly sensible, if not always an entirely patient, patient!

After that setback, he got back to building (read 'crafting') the shed as well as paid work. We had the usual mix of wins and losses in the garden across the year. And in-between working three jobs, doing some consulting and various volunteering, I managed to squeeze in some attendance at the conservation and land management course, which was fantastic. Click the text or images to view PDFs of the compilations below.

Gee, and I nearly forgot ... I also met the Prime Minister at the Lodge and toured the garden there, as well as those of Parliament House, Government House and the rainforest garden at the Botanic Gardens in Canberra (by night!). It was all as part of our region's launch of the 25th year of Open Gardens Australia in August.

I thought being a selector of gardens for the scheme was reward in itself, but this was a big additional perk this year! Here's an ABC report on the launch. For the record, I reckon there's a great opportunity for adding a vegetable patch and perhaps some additional bee-friendly plantings (for native and/or honeybees) to any and all those locations. 

Hmm, maybe I know why the year disappeared so quickly after all - it sure was a busy one.