Merry & Bright

Just a few photographs of our Christmas, which began with "fake Christmas" at our house on the Sunday before the official big day. We watched Home Alone and Die Hard, I burned my favourite festive candle and we ate that entire box of salted caramel profiteroles. Marks & Spencer, you are a temptress and I love you.

We then spent five days at my parents' house in Cheshire and it was pretty idyllic. A festive pub crawl around the village pubs, going to pick up the turkey from the local farm that we've been getting it from for the last 30 years or so, preparing the vegetables with my Mum on Christmas Eve (accompanied by plenty of gin) and then the usual Christmas Eve evening spent with good friends at the world's cheapest (and possibly most cheerful) pub. Christmas Day was quiet but lovely, with Boxing Day being much the same. Lots of thoughtful presents, great food, plentiful wine and a couple of bracing walks to enable the consumption of more food.

I'm not back to work until Thursday and I'm relishing each and every moment. Plenty of sleep, plenty more good food (before the wedding diet begins in earnest in January) and lots of sitting down. My favourite. I hope that, whatever you do tomorrow night, you have a great time and that 2014 is spectacular for you all!

Back once again...

So, the six month break was entirely unintentional, I promise. Life got busy and I didn't have time to write. And then I lost the inclination to write. Blogging stopped being a part of my life. I stopped writing, I stopped reading. Then, a few weeks ago I opened up Feedly again and I started to read. And I realised that I missed writing, I missed posting photographs. So here we go. It feels rather strange to be posting a summer's worth of photographs but, if I don't post them now, I never will.

Grillstock in June. Beer, meat, sun. Wonderful.

I threw a little party for my girls back when it was sunny and before this one moved in...

Yep, I live with a boy now. And it's pretty much brilliant in every single way.

We went to London in July and wandered amongst the flowers near St Paul's.

We also took many many photographs in the reflective spherical sculptures nearby.

In September we went to Liverpool and stayed at Hope Street Hotel. In a room with the most magnificent view.

We went to Crosby beach and I took approximately 6 million photographs of the Another Place sculptures.

I made a new friend.

We gazed at the view, drank prosecco and life was marvellous.

We carved some pumpkins. I'll leave you to guess which was mine.

And then?

Well, this happened....

And the rest, as they say, is history.