Happy 3rd Blog Birthday to me!

Towards the end of last year I worked out when my blog birthday was and made a note in my diary so I could celebrate it properly. As the date - today - got closer I wondered how I should celebrate, and pretty soon after that I realised there'd need to be cake.  All birthdays need cake, right?

Well, never one to disappoint I decided on three - just cupcakes mind. And made by Mr Kipling, not me.  

So, put the kettle on and help yourself to one of these beauties on me.

While you do that, I'll summarise the past three years - and at a conservative guess some 700 or so posts - as best I can, or not.  Looking at my tag cloud the things I've written about most are unsurprisingly Phase 1 of our redecorating project (141 posts), London (100), my garden (93), and contributions to a couple of my favourite linkies: word of the week (85) and HDYGG (80).

I still love to blog...

I love how it looks and sharing what I get up to with you, so whether you stop by most days or just every now and then - it's great to have you stop by and I hope you continue to stop by.  I moved to this new site at the end of November 2014 and since then have had over 57,000 page views, which makes me happy.

What I didn't expect when I started blogging was the connections and real friendships I'd make with other people online, and I've even met some of those people in real life now at blog conferences and as part of Team Honk. I hope to meet more of you at Blogcamp in May or at BritMums Live in June.

Some milestones

Apart from moving to a new site and making new friends which I've already mentioned, there's been plenty of other milestones too, including working with some fantastic brands and from the start of the year co-hosting Post Comment Love with Morgan, who I hope to meet in real life at some point too!

So what's next?

Well nothing too revolutionary I'm pleased to say. I'm planning quite a bit more of the same, although I'm sure there'll be some new topics along the way. I've still got quite a bit to say, and one day I hope to be almost up-to-date with sharing posts from Portugal and Cornwall and the trips we've yet to take. I've plans for the allotment and for our garden and MOH has plans for yet more house redecorations - there's only the conservatory left, but he's mooting big plans which I know make sense.  

I've enjoyed rediscovering my love of crafts, so I hope there'll be some of that too - and I will teach myself to crochet.  Coming up sooner than that though I've got some fantastic photo products to share and a two week chemical free cleaning challenge that's starting soon.

But before that if you'll excuse me, I'm off to tuck into one of those cakes!  I'm having the one with the cherry on top, but help yourself to either of the other two...

To drive, or not to drive?

That is the question - or at least it's a paraphrased question I've been pondering about getting to France.  Let me start at the beginning or else you'll think I've gone completely mad. 

At the start of the year MOH and I agreed this summer we'd like to cycle along the Loire Valley. It sounds idyllic: sunny days, multiple chateaus, cycling that's not too challenging and of course French food and maybe the odd glass of red, or two. The area is well set up for hosting cyclists and we already have plenty of information on how we can book a route we can tailor to suit exactly what we want to do. 

That part seems easy enough. Sure it'll need some planning and thought, but like I said, easy enough once we start. 

The part that's giving me cause for more pondering is how we actually get ourselves - and our bikes - to France, as ideally with France being so close we'd like to cycle our own bikes. And rather than having our luggage transported by taxi, this year we plan to carry our luggage in the shiny, new panniers we bought in the January sales. That's likely, of course to bring a packing conundrum but that will be much nearer the date of our departure!

To get us to France there are basically a couple of options:

1. Strap the bikes to the back of the car and head over - or under - the Channel in the usual way.

2. Leave the car at home and travel with our bikes by train all the way to Tours or Angers (whichever we choose as our start point)

Each has benefits, and drawbacks though... 

By bike

Benefits

• We'll be taking our bikes on a train, which will be pretty exciting.

• By taking the train to Lille and changing there we should avoid the need to cycle across Paris to change trains...

• We can relax during the train journey, in a way I wouldn't be able to while driving.

• We can travel to Tours and back from Angers, or the other way round.

• It'll be quite an adventure, really!

Drawbacks

• Cycling across Paris between stations doesn't really appeal in much the same way as cycling across London wouldn't either.

• We will have to carry everything we need, and there will be less capacity to bring wine home with us.

• The journey time to reach Tours/Angers is likely to be lengthy.

• We will most likely need to book onto a specific train and stick with that booking, no getting on an earlier one because we've arrived at the terminal early.

By car

Benefits

• We're travelling by car!

• We'll have extra capacity for luggage, especially on the way back.

• I've driven in France before, so have all the necessities, such as spare bulbs, breathalysers, high-vis jacket and such like to stay legal.

• The total journey time will, I expect be less than by train, though I'm happy to be proven wrong on this.

• Did I mention we'll be travelling by car!

Drawbacks

• We'll have to plan a circular route to end up back where we've parked the car. 

• We'll need to find somewhere to park the car for the duration of our cycle tour.

• I'll have to drive the whole way to Tours/Angers, as MOH doesn't drive so will need to include some breaks into our schedule.

• We'll need to be au-fait with the French legislation about carrying the bikes on the back of the car, not a big one but better to be in the know.

So there's my conundrum.

The Accident Advice Helpline have put together this handy Travellers Guide to Driving Etiquette for Driving in France which I think I'll be consulting further, along with the advice for travelling with bikes by train before we make our final decision.  

But what would you do?  And is there anything you've thought of that I've missed, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is a collaborative post with Accident Advice Helpline but all words are my own.

Enticed into the garden by some bubble wrap

And escaping bubble wrap at that. So once I'd recaptured the bubble wrap and replaced it, hopefully more securely around the pot it was supposed to be protecting, I couldn't help but have a look around. 

On the patio edge above the now mossy bricks, I spotted snowdrops looking quite at home in the new black grass I planted last year. My plan is for the black grass to spread and cover the weeds, but to allow the bulbs through. So far, it seems to be working.  

In one of my still- bubble-wrapped-pots it seems an anemone has already flowered. 

Further along there were more snowdrops, these ones looking slightly less picturesque among the decaying leaves. See the black grass is a genius idea.

The bay tree was doing well, with relatively few nibbles.  

And the winter jasmine is in flower. I'm not sure if it's just finishing though, or if there's more to come. 

Mid-way up the garden I paused to admire the grape hyacinth and the ornamental quince.  

Before almost walking over the mini cyclamen, which seem to have multiplied this year - and now I wished I'd opted for the full-size version instead.  

I've some daffodils out too under the yew - but it was too windy by now to get anything other than a blurry shot as they danced along. There'll be other opportunities though, as the patio daffodils are only just in bud. 

At the back of the garden I checked on the hellebores, and they were as beautiful as usual. They too have multiplied and the largest of my self-seeded plants is also flowering. In a year or so, it'll be a hellebore-tastic part of the garden. The new white camellia is in bud, and after watching the squirrels pick the pink buds to nibble at from my neighbour's garden, I'm hoping they'll have had their fill by the time they spot mine. Or perhaps that white isn't so tasty...

The prumulas are once again doing their thing - they really are quite prolific, and cheery too.  

In the far corner of the garden a quick check ensured the Christmas tree was still standing. It looks to be thriving outside and I really should get it dug in where we wanted it. But first the rhubarb needs to make way... 

Walking back down the garden the fatsia is its usual bundle of green and white loveliness. 

And while the berberis is misshapen and hardly spherical, its bursts of orange are welcomed.   

So after a very quick tour of the garden, I can report I've still got a rainbow of colour just outside my back door. Winter really is more colourful than I remembered.