Continued good New Year for you all ... ?
Christine's photo: Basilica of St-Denis, Paris, 2006
It's been quite a hard year on the whole for us, partly because of things we'd planned (nice new bathroom & kitchen), but also because of events that were unexpected & hence similarly a bit expensive & stressful (a garden terrace collapse & its remedying, plus, for us, very unusual car trouble) - hopefully, though, made up for by a lot of enjoyable times - I suppose it's like that for a lot of folks! If you want to see where we've been over the year, some of that's in this website (click here).
We still keep pretty fit with the usual swimming & not too strenuous walks, the latter given focus by full use of our National Trust, English Heritage, & Historic Houses Association memberships. The garden is now taking more hours, accelerated by that problem above, but we certainly enjoy & gain from it. Membership of various other societies occupies much of our time - Christine's helping with CAFOD activities at Church, her U3A Drawing & Painting groups, and her attendance of my Heraldry group (adding to her committee work with Probus); & the preparation for & sessions of my Exploring Heraldry group - in addition we go to a lot of lectures at a nearby NADFAS group, as well as do plenty of reading.
The "kids" have been "on the move". Joe & Andrea successfully downsized to a smaller house (but with bigger garden to make up for leaving their allotment), in Bottesford, near Grantham, only half an hour away. Claire & Mike are in the throes of getting a bigger house (depending on how they can meet a possible subsidence problem), with a garden that they lack in their present apartment.
All-in-all, then, not too bad overall. Although, like so many, we're having to cut back a bit, we very much look forward to a September holiday in Provence next year - for the first time with friends Kathy & Graham (a teaching colleague), but with a tinge of sadness, as it looks like the last time that the marvellously-located & so amiably-run gite of Chris & Kevin in Malaucene will be available: they too look ahead to retirement & enjoying grandchildren.
Our best wishes to you all.
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See "PICTURE GALLERY" for "Holidays & Outings " including recent trips to Lichfield, Northants, Derbyshire, and 'Down South', after some from earlier French holiday in Auvergne (including additions from these trips to "Heraldry", "Stained Glass" & "Art & Architecture" sub-albums), ....
