2016 Goals - Remember, trying is the first step towards failure...

With an acknowledgement to Homer Simpson, for the excellent piece of lifestyle advice in the title.

It's the time of year when many bloggers are writing detailed reviews about their last year's personal and lifestyle goals, and either congratulating themselves or indulging in self-flagellation depending on their degree of success.  

And then setting out even more ambitious plans for the year ahead.   Some I've read mention up to 25 goals for the year - that averages out at two per month.  

Cut yourself some slack, FFS !  

Investment Review - December 2015

I've just compiled the latest Combined Portfolio position, as shown in the graphic below.  Click on it for a larger image.

I've included the column from the previous post for comparison, as usual, but there's also an extra column from this same time last year, i.e. at the end December 2014.

I've shown this because, in spite of the quite poor market performance over the year, and in particular the rout in commodities stocks in which I'm heavily overweight, all is not doom and gloom and the year-on-year overall position doesn't actually look bad at all.  

Annual Spending Review - 2015

It's that time of the year, yet again....  I know there's still a few days to go until the end of the year, but I'm highly unlikely to spend anything further unless the ground dries up sufficiently to get a game of golf in on Wednesday afternoon...

Here's a breakdown of where all the money went in 2015, and compared to the previous two years' spending ... click for a larger image.

The columns are ranked highest-to-lowest from left-to-right, based on the 2015 spend.   Basic ground rules are generally as last year's post, and a few points of note are listed below :-

An idiot's guide to planning next year's veg plot ...

After you've read this short post, you might consider that it's simply an exercise in the bleedin' obvious, but we've been thinking about which vegetables and, more importantly, how many of each we should grow next year.

It came about because we recently planted some overwintering garlic for next year, and since the seed cloves were sold in batches of ten we had to decide how many to buy.

In the end, we used some very simple reasoning and arithmetic.  We probably use a whole garlic bulb every two or three weeks, so if we could grow and store enough for a year then we'd need around 20.  So this is the quantity we bought and planted....

Investment Review - September 2015

Here's an update of the combined portfolio as of the penultimate day of September (we're on holiday in sunnier climes at the minute, as from the thirtieth, and I knew there'd be no opportunity to refresh the spreadsheets on that last day of the month).

Garden Review in pictures...

The garden so far this year, in pictures....


Fruit & Vegetables....

strawberries in June....

Antique Paraffin Heater...

In late May and early June this year, we lost more than a dozen cucumber plants in the greenhouse because of late frosts.  

So I decided to buy a heater, which may hopefully take the chill off the air if it happens again next year, and I picked up this large old Valor 525-R paraffin heater on eBay for £20.