Skip to main content

last christmas post -

While Christmas this year was very immediate family centred I managed to see a great number of friends and family I have sadly ( for good reasons) neglected over the last months and it was a joy to catch up and reconnect - sharing stories of the last year and plans for the new year to come.


I know January the 1st is only a date but I like the fact that it sort of gives permission to draw a line under the past and encourages a new beginning - fresh start and ideas... our last year has reminded us how important wonderful friends and family are and how the support between them and us can never be underestimated.

So I gave myself a kick up the bottom and made a real effort to catch up with people I have missed in my life, I made a seriously long over due visit to my brother and his family and had a lovely day with another scrummy christmas dinner - I called into see my niece and her family - normally they come and see us so it was nice to go there instead - I hasten to add I am always welcome - I'm just really bad at making the effort!!!  I saw friends I see regularly and some I see annually and one or two that I have known for ever but rarely catch up with - my resolution is to try and be better at keeping in touch face to face instead of emails and blogs.... its probably a more useful resolution they learning to hula hoop...

For new years eve we had visitors from Australia to entertain - although I have to say entertainment was very mutual - it was lovely to see them and although I don't think my personality and entertainment was up to full impact or was realised as I quite unbelievably had (and still have to a large extent) totally lost my voice!!! this is a calamity in my life - and very very  very frustrating - and once my voice returned it brought with it a very nasty cough and a serious influx of snotty bodily fluids!!

As always I'll make the best of things, medicate with gin and a roaring fire and look forward to next year with relish and adventures planned...




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful.   There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

 Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors!   The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay.  The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank.  Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...