A few of my 2025 favourites
Hello Everyone
When I started this post, I was on my way to Manchester for a quick visit to watch my son Alex’s gig. I managed to pick a bad weekend weather-wise to travel. It was touch and go whether we would get to the airport, whether the plane would take off and whether there would be any transport once I got to the UK courtesy of Storm Goretti. I had already greatly reduced the length of the trip as our car broke down on Christmas Eve and was finally repaired and ready for collection on January 7th! Anyway long story short, we got to the airport in plenty of time, the plane was delayed but I got to Euston with time to spare. Lots of cancelled trains but mine left on time, albeit a lot busier as several of the previous Manchester trains had been cancelled. The weekend was fun but busy. I ended up sewing designs onto hats to sell as the first merchandise and doing the selling! The gig was great, the rest of the weekend was spent catching up with my son and his friends – nice food, good company not great weather! Then back to France. It was nice being in a warm room for a couple of days!
I thought I would take the time this week to highlight 2025 as I wrote so few posts. It was a busy year, a number of trips to the UK for various family things plus seeing friends. We had a few visitors, so some lovely times, usually including a trip to a vineyard! Lots of extreme weather, pool problems, owl rescues, some toad friends, cat and dog tales and the usual adventures when you are renovating an old country house. A highlight for me was visiting the seaside twice – my best place!
January and February : Frosty days, kitchen progress and a visit to Sète.
April, May and June: Café gourmand, lemon tree envy and the best ice-cream ever.
July and August: Owl rescues, toads galore and courgette tarte tatin.
September and October: A Manchester trip and the beach at Narbonne
November and December: the first snowdrop, a first gig and mulled wine!
As I mentioned last time, over 2025 I took a photo every 9th day of the month at the same time in the same place. Look out for the next post to see how one view changes over the year. This is the first time I have done this, sadly the photos aren’t all identical, but it is interesting to see how the view changes with the seasons. I might do the same thing again this year as it was a fun project. Just got to decide which date, which time and what view. As January is speeding by it looks like it will be near the end of the month!
I have a number of other projects on the go too – more soon.
Enjoy the remaining days of January.
A bientôt
Ali xx
