It is time yet again to look back over
the year and remind ourselves of the happy times we have had.
For both of us, Cyprus has been a large
part of the year. We have been there three times and the boys have
both visited as well. The high point of this year has been watching
the development of our guests (swallows) as they grew and finally flew the
nest. We had two successful nests this year; one by the
kitchen patio which had Fannie and Johnny in residence (after the Craddocks)
and which produced 3 chicks, and one under the sitting room patio and inhabited
by Phil and Kirsty (Location etc), they actually produced four chicks and I
don’t know how they stayed in the nest, it was so crowded.
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| These chicks were in the nest of Kirsty and Phil.... |
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| ....whilst these were in the nest of Fanny and Johnny |
Both boys are doing very
well. Nick is still with Yamaha and he and his girlfriend Louise
moved to Slough at the beginning of the year and seem quite
settled. Christopher is still in Bournemouth and is now working as a
consultant and really enjoying it. He also passed his driving test
in the autumn, so he has a lot more freedom. Hopefully they will
both be home for the holiday.
Yet again the year has been hectic. I
am still heavily involved in children’s books and have been part of the
organising group for the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature. it
took place over 10 days in September and was a huge success. We had
80 public events and about 55 school events. We ended the month
totally exhausted, but very happy. I am also still doing some book
reviewing, which I enjoy and it makes me read books I wouldn’t naturally
choose.
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| Not all hard work in Cyprus - we had access to a large pool |
Stephen has been very busy working on the Cyprus house this year and we got the main upstairs balcony rail replaced by a nice wrought iron one this November. We also managed to attend the Service of Remembrance in Cyprus (quite a special event). He has also managed to keep up his flying even though the weather has not been very good.
At the moment both of us have
uncertainties at work as there is a re-structuring at my work and there may be
an outsourcing of work at Stephen’s place, i.e. he would be seconded to a new
external employer. We will have to wait and see what will happen.
We have also had a problem with Lucy
(our dog), she is 13 years old and two weeks ago she had several fits within
the space of one day. The vet has put her on phenobarbitone and
she has been getting a lot better. However I think she is now in the
last stage of her life; hopefully she will be with us for a couple of years
yet.
We are due to go out to the house at
the end of March to open it up and we are hoping to include a few days in
Jordan. We have always wanted to visit Petra and this should be a great
opportunity.
Anyway we wish everyone a wonderful
Christmas and a Peaceful and Happy New Year
