Where did 2023 go?

I can’t believe that I haven’t written here since the beginning of the year!

It isn’t that I have stopped working on miniatures but it has slowed a bit. The frenetic level of work seems to have slowed to a more reasonable but patchy pace. Partly this has been because I am rapidly running out of space and when I finish this house I may not be able to take on another. So there is a battle going on in my head between the joy of dressing the house and the impact that might have on my future!

Looking back over the Covid years, my natural inclination to worry developed into a more deep seated anxiety. The constant feeling of doom engendered by the government led media rolling out deaths like a war memorial had a much greater effect on me than I realised. I developed an underlying anxiety about everything and everyone. My go to thoughts were always the worst case scenario and although during the crisis my miniatures kept my anxiety at bay, it only worked when I was absorbed in them. I have read that those of us who are used to anxiety are actually good in a crisis, who knew it was a strength. But it is when the crisis ends that we feel the impact and it becomes generalised.

Thankfully, gradually I am addressing these thoughts and challenging them but it isn’t an easy fix. So I am not cured but life isn’t quite so bumpy. But my miniatures still give me pleasure instead of being there to block out the bad stuff.

So to hang with ‘finishing this house, time to move things around and make space for something! Probably not a house, maybe a shelf unit to display individual items

2024 is going to be about what makes me happy and working to keep the runaway express train down to a country pace local steam train.🚂