2020, a new start

well, I neglected you, my dear Garden Journal, far too long. 

What can I say, I fell off the journaling wagon. The good thing is, journaling can be picked up at any time, dropped, forgotten, picked up again. It doesn't really matter nowadays, there are so many additional ways of recording what's going on via videos and photos, they store beautifully in the Google timeline, are shared easily via Instagram and Pinterest, no words needed. 

A while ago I came across my old, handwritten journals with glued-in photos and thought about going back to this old-fashioned way of recording what is important to me. Paper journals are permanent, right? While computer journals are not. I lost a lot of my writings before the Blogger time, but what if Blogger goes away? Would I have the energy to transfer my entire journal to a different platform? Most likely not. 

What was going on in the past six months?

Copenhagen

We had an amazing vacation in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a cruise along the Norway coast line up to the arctic circle,

Beautiful Fjord

while always on the lookout for the perfect Troll.

Trolls

Of course, I had to stop at the Botanical Gardens, one being the Arctic  - Alpine Botanical Garden in Tromso to see the famous Meconopsis "Lingholm' in bloom

Meconopsis 'Lingholm'

We had a bumper crop of lychees and mangoes

Lots and lots of sweet, juicy Lychees

and celebrated the 4th of July alone, just hubs and I.

4th of July

we decided to add a small pool to our back yard, and what a mess that was! The construction dragged out because of the rainy season

Begin of the dig

so we decided to leave and cruise for a week in the Caribbean's sunny, no rain, weather for a change.

Sunrise over CocoCay

My mom turned 80 in October, with a big family celebration in Germany.

Picturesque small town Wertingen

We brought her back to stay with us for a while but after one week she needed a triple bypass and shortly after that a pacemaker.

She did not get better as fast as the doctors wanted it to happen, so the decision was made to medevac her back to Germany. She sure had a trip of a lifetime. Dealing with her travel insurance was and still is a nightmare.

We flew to DC for a week over Thanksgiving. I did need to get my mind off things.

Christmas and New Year were uneventful, luckily. But yes, dear journal, I should catch up on all that's going on.
January is a quiet month in the garden, chilly temperatures and the plants are all asleep.