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Approaching my 50th birthday, on 16 April, I asked friends for ideas of what I could do to celebrate. I don't normally pay much attention to birthdays with zeros on the end, but this one was making me feel a bit daunted, and I really wanted to do something a bit different from our usual way of marking birthdays and anniversaries, which is to go for a walk round a nice garden.

I'm not well enough for any of the things people usually do when they reach a milestone birthday: I couldn't throw a big party, go to a swish restaurant, or have a luxury holiday, and in fact none of these things would appeal to me much anyway. I'm also not well enough to do many of the things I used to enjoy: I couldn't go to the theatre, or meet up with a group of friends, and staying in a cottage in the remote countryside takes months of planning and is a huge effort for me. And all the things I'd have chosen to do as a one-off special celebration if I were well, such as swimming with dolphins, learning to ride a motorbike, or visiting Norway, would be about as possible for me to achieve as flying to Jupiter.

Among other ideas, one of my friends asked me to make a list of things I can do. Another suggested I spread out my birthday celebration throughout the year, dividing it into manageable chunks rather than trying to do one big thing. A third thought I could make a photo-book of all the fun things I do this year so that I have a souvenir of the whole year.

So I made a list. In fact, I made three: firstly a rather short list of things I can do, which led me on to a list of things I have enjoyed doing since I've been ill. This made me think about what my priorities are - how important wildlife is to me, for instance, as many of my best experiences, such as a boat trip round the Farne Islands or a visit to Jersey Zoo (home of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust), involved wildlife.

And finally I started to make a list of 50 things to do while I'm 50. On it are small things which I will enjoy doing and which I think I have a good chance of being able to do, such as visit a special garden, eat a summer pudding, walk round a wildflower meadow, and enlarge a favourite photo to put on the wall. There are several ideas relating to wildlife. I haven't quite finished the list yet, and it may change as the year goes on, depending on how my health is this year. I won't be able to do the things in the order of the list, or my order of preference, so they will happen at random as and when I am up to them.

The only rules for putting something on the list are:
* it must be something I'm doing just for the fun of it, not something necessary
* it must be something I can do easily, not something which will be a big effort health-wise
* it must be something I don't do regularly or frequently
* it must be something I wasn't already planning to do this year

I'm going to try to post pictures of everything I do on this blog, but blogging is an effort for me, so posting on the blog is not on the list and I'm not making any promises!