Instead of making just one new year resolution each year, I like to write a list of at least 10 things I want to do over the following 12 months. The idea is that with a lot of goals you have a good chance of getting at least some of them done. How many of my resolutions did I achieve in 2015? Well, here's what I hoped to do, what I succeeded at, what I attempted and what I failed to do completely.
- Explore Tower Hamlets Cemetery as it is the only one of London's Magnificent Seven cemeteries that I haven't already visited.
I went for a walk in Tower Hamlets Cemetery in east London on December 13 and you can see a picture of it to the right. It also helped me towards the second of my resolutions. - Inspired by Mindful London and Untamed London: Where Nature Still Runs Wild in the Big City (which I had recently read), visit three peaceful wildlife havens that can be found within London.
Tower Hamlets Cemetery was one of them - the old Victorian burial ground is now a nature reserve. Just before Yule I visited Crofton Woods, which is a peaceful stretch of ancient woodland in south east London. The third wildlife haven was Sydenham Hill Woods, where on 25 January 2015 I went on a tree identification walk run by conservation officer Daniel Greenwood with Nature Conservation Lewisham. I failed to mention this on my blog at the time - what an oversight. I have blogged about the woods before though and I still count this as a resolution completed. - Learn to use the The Cup of Destiny tea-leaf reading cup I was given for Yule 2014.
I really enjoyed learning to use this cup, which I discovered was very similar to a cup and saucer I inherited from my grandmother, but hadn't known how to use. You can see pictures of both cups at the top and read my review of the Cup of Destiny here. - Build a wicker man.
No, for the second year running I didn't manage to do this. Maybe next year. - Take up yoga again - it has been quite a few years since I last did yoga.
I had several opportunities to do yoga, including going to a yoga show, but I didn't. Maybe next year for this one too. - Visit an ancient site in or near London that I haven't yet blogged about.
St Albans is quite near London and is also the site of the historic Roman town of Verulamium. I walked around the site, visited the museum there and blogged about a surviving pagan god mosaic. - Visit at least one ancient pagan site that isn't in or near London.
In August I visited the Uffington White Horse. It was really impressive, even though the weather was so foggy I could hardly make it out. You can see a picture I took at the bottom of the page. - Make my own candles.
- Have a go at learning the basics of blacksmithing in order to make my own athame (the traditional witch's knife)
I didn't get a chance to do this, but I will put it on my list of resolutions for 2016. - After giving a talk on psychogeography at last year's PF London conference, I would like to give another talk, workshop or training session.
I ran two workshops on candle magic this year, but because they were both at private events I didn't blog about them. Nevertheless, I am going to count them towards my successes in 2015. I will be running a candle magic workshop at Treadwell's in London on 2 Feb 2016. You can find out more about it here.

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