Yes, it’s another of those year in review type posts, and at some point I’ll look at my Top 10 posts for the year as I usually do, but before that I’m sharing a look back at the past year which I’m hoping should be all the easier for the new series of ‘This is’ posts I started last January. Fingers crossed anyway.
2025 was a year that we saw way too much of hospitals, and I’d appreciate it if 2026 could be much better behaved in that respect please. Both MOH and I made various visits to hospitals here in Newark and further afield in Mansfield and our parents also had ambulances and A&E visits, though thankfully that’s been left in 2025.
It was also the year that I learnt that my HRT was the ‘wrong sort’ and had been for a while, despite me asking questions, but anyway it’s sorted now and I’m grateful that it was eventually discovered and corrected.
Health and fitness was a big theme this year, and I’m sure it will continue to be too. We have our gym in the garage, which I’m a much more frequent visitor in warmer weather, and I’ve been going to regular Yoga sessions in the hall in the village next to us. In October we both started Reformer Pilates, and wow - it’s been a learning curve for us both. We’ve stuck at it though and we are both benefitting from the classes, even if we don’t manage to do everything quite how we should all of the time!
And as I look back over my monthly posts as always there’s things I remember clearly, and things that make me smile - such as remembering the pheasant in our garden in the February sun - and things that jog my memory too.
In January I was inspired by many quilts at the Newark Quilt Show, and spent a Saturday at a workshop starting my Floral Fancy panel, which I haven’t yet progressed any further - oops! I wondered ahead of the workshop if I had the skills required, and over the year I’ve realised that I do and also that the more sewing I do, the more I can do, though I think having the confidence with and in my new machine helps.
In February as well as the running pheasant the snowdrops we’d planted in the garden started to flower, there was a day trip to London where I snuck in a visit and small purchase at Liberty, and we had the most amazing meal out at Sabor, which had long been on our list to visit but we never got to while we were living in London!
Spring started to spring in March and brought with it much more traffic through our tiny village thanks to the roadworks on the nearby A46. We sorted out better wine storage, replaced a failing light on our landing and spent a small fortune on a large piece of art for the stairwell.
There were cute lambs in the village in April and many mornings we woke to their bleating, which given how cute they were never becoming annoying. We went along to the Newark Garden Show leaving with an ornament for the garden, which has stayed in the garage ever since. We needed to source another light for our landing after sending a damaged light back and being expected to wait until June for its replacement - I really don’t think so, so we didn’t.
In May I was back in London at the preview of Unearthed at the British Library, and it was a fantastic exhibition which part of it is now touring the country, or at least it was. We tied this in with a visit to Grand Designs at the Excel and was surprised to see how much reduced the show was, though that didn’t stop me buying a very large pot for the patio, oh and Palace won the FA Cup, which was totally amazing.
We spent two and a bit weeks in June travelling between Chicago, Seattle and Vancouver and this was more amazing that Palace’s FA Cup win. I’ve still not edited the photos, and I really should as I want to share its awesomeness. And as soon as we were back we were off to Gardeners’ World Live in Birmingham again.
In July we finally went shopping for the sofa we were aiming for earlier in the year - hooray! Though our garden sofa which up until now had been an indoor sofa probably wasn’t as pleased as that was to be kicked out when the new one came! We got the high level sockets moved down to a level that suited us and covered the hole temporarily with a piece of A4 paper. We are resourceful if nothing else, as proven by using a liquidiser for our Pimms.
In August I continued to be wowed by quilts, this time at my first visit to the Festival of Quilts, the new kitchen sofa arrived - and it’s only in the last week or so that I’ve cut the safety label off it (it was right at the front so it had to go), and we finally made great strides in sorting out the garage, with new racks arriving too. That’s just as well as it wouldn’t be that long before the garden furniture would be moved in there for the winter.
We had a lesson in how to weekend in September, and it was a refreshing and timely reminder, plus there was new garden furniture delivered which we’ve not been able to use yet - but it’ll be new for this summer, and it was a bargain too.
There was even more progress in the garage in October when we actually made use of the racks we’d bought, but the real highlight of the month was the foraging and preserving. We had some chestnuts and walnuts from a neighbours garden, and picked up some more walnuts from the tree around the corner, and I made some chilli jelly using many of the tiny crab apples from our garden.
November saw a day trip to Harrogate for yet another quilt show (and I’m still not bored of them yet!), and I spent a joyous morning block printing some more patterns to embroider. Plus there was the annual Christmas pudding making and boiling, which always means Christmas is on its way.
And so it was, our Christmas was kickstarted after an early December weekend in Devon where we spent most of a day wandering around the gardens at The Newt, drove through plenty of water and then collected our own Christmas wreath when we were home. I got all of the sheep in Christmas jumpers embroidered that I wanted to, and we had a great Christmas seeing all of our family. Not withstanding a few domestic hiccups with the dishwasher and the heating, it was a great end to the year.
I’m only just starting to think about what 2026 may bring and what it will bring for my blog, and it may take a while for those intentional posts to surface - I’m always amazed at the number of people that already know when January 1 rolls round. I’ll get there, and most likely in a more relaxed way, which suits me just fine.
Here’s to a really great 2026 for each and every one of us.