it's all about the go go go

(Paloma Faith - Upside Down)

It has been a wonderfully busy few weeks. It is becoming apparent that having lots of lovely things to blog about also means that there is much less time free to do the blogging. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about blogging, in fact I would go so far as to say I have been missing it. I think in part, my self-imposed minimum word count has been rankling a little. I longed to check in with a few lines, but couldn’t quite fit in a full seven hundred words. However, I am here now and very happy about it.

So what has been keeping me so busy? Many things, the majority of which will feature in their own blog posts in the coming days (or, more realistically, weeks). But let’s do a brief run down, to provide an aide memoire for me, and to tempt you back for future posts. There was a lovely sunny weekend, involving baking, family gatherings, best friends, the Wimbledon final, fish and chips in the garden, late night drinks and trivial pursuit. It seems a world away now. It one of those lovely weekends that happens rarely, busy, but somehow in a relaxed, reinvigorating way.

It was our first wedding anniversary the following weekend, and we rented a cottage in the Cotswolds. It was a lovely trip, and felt like a real holiday. The weather stayed wonderful, and we enjoyed picnics, badminton, and mini golf. We also had some fabulous meals, and a theatre trip. We did a mad dash home on the Sunday night, which was our anniversary. We actually had another night booked in the cottage, but knew we had a lot to do on the Monday, and decided we would have a midnight flit (well, nine thirty) and we got home just in time to toast our 365^th day as Mr and Mrs in our own home. It is hard to believe we have been married a year. In some ways the wedding feels like years ago, so much has happened since. In other ways it feels like we spent so long planning the wedding, that its still difficult to realise it is all over. We couldn’t believe how many other people remembered, we are very lucky to have so many thoughtful friends and family.

Since we got back, work has been taking priority. I found out that I had passed all the exams for my degree, which is brilliant news, but also shifts the focus onto completing the dissertation as well as I can. The dissertation is involving some pretty intensive bouts of computer-time, which is possibly another reason the blogging hit a hiatus. I still maintain I am not really a hot weather person, but it feels scandalous to sit staring at a screen all day and all night when the sun is shining, so we have been trying to get out, even for a quick walk, each evening.

We have lots more lovely plans coming up to break up the next few weeks, which otherwise will consist almost entirely of hammering out this dissertation. As soon as it is handed in we have managed to book two weeks off together, and so I’m hoping a last minute break somewhere sunny will present itself.

This feels like a bit of a rambly post, with nothing much to say, but I felt that a little wittering was necessary before I launched straight into a recipe or a restaurant post. Just to practice my writing again, more than anything. So many lovely blogs are out there, it is difficult not to come to write and give up, feeling like an amateur in comparison. There have been a few half-written and subsequently deleted posts in recent weeks, succumbing as I do to self-criticism.

However there have been so many things to be grateful for, so many happy occasions in recent weeks, I want to take time to write about them. Now I have this space to record things, I should overcome my fear of failure, and recognise what pleasure there is in documenting daily joys, however small, and enjoy the creativity blogging brings. So there will definitely be more posts soon.