Welcome to April!  I hope you had a very Happy Easter and maybe the chance to enjoy a couple of days off work?  I’m never very sure how they calculate the date for Easter each year although I’m sure it’s for seasonal reasons as well as religious? I seem to have a memory of it being towards the end of April a few years back, but at least Saturday was beautifully sunny and I managed to get a long walk in and dry all the washing! Do you have any idea what the date is based on?

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I think I need to start this blog with an apology for being so tardy with my responses to your comments!  Thanks as always for bringing me up to speed with what’s going on in your world, and also for the book and TV recommendations.  I’m sorry to know that some of you have been struggling with Covid and other viruses. They really seem to have taken a stranglehold this time around! I wish you better very soon.  So glad that you, Merche, enjoyed The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes – it got better and better and I couldn’t quite believe I’d listened to a whole 15 hours of it – which is testament to how many miles I’m covering in the car these days – more on that in a moment. I’m now listening to Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, as it’s read by Meryl Streep whom I admire hugely, and Kathy Tayler was singing her praises when we last went for a walk together ☺️

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I wonder if you spotted the deliberate mistake in my last blog! There I was,  boldly declaring another family wedding while neglecting to add any details! I’m going to rectify that in just a moment, but clearly my head was elsewhere as I also said that my stepson Dan’s 40th birthday was on the 7^th February when he was actually born on the 10^th! Luckily, this year it fell on a Saturday so most of us the family were able to celebrate together, but more on that in a moment. 

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By crikey!  I almost got whiplash from the speed January has flown by.  Seems like only yesterday I was compiling the Christmas photographs to be included in my last blog and here we are, in February!  Welcome ☺️

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Here we are, already five days into 2024, which cheers me as I’ve always been a little superstitious about years that have odd numbers in them!  Does that make me odd?  Probably, and a little daft too, because last year couldn’t have been better really, with our two family weddings, and my foray into the world of retirement!  So how was your Christmas?  I know that some of you were with family, and others spent the festive period on holiday, so I really hope it all went according to plan and you were truly relaxed by the time we hit the countdown for New Year?  

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Here we are – just a couple of days away from Christmas and I’ve still got a list as long as my arm of things to do!! How can that be?  😊  That said, at least the tree is up, I only have four more presents to wrap, and I’ve finished writing my shopping list for the Christmas food so not too shabby.  The housework can wait until tomorrow as the family don’t arrive until the 23^rd!

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I thought I would start this week’s blog with a quote from Shakespeare, not just in deference to the BBC’s ongoing tribute to the Bard’s monumental talent, but because I have been entertained right royally this last month in a myriad of different ways! And of course many of us will take up the role as we entertain our families and friends for Christmas – what are your plans? Thank as always for continuing to support me here on the blog – I so enjoy hearing about your lives and it’s even nicer that we can keep in touch in the interim via Instagram and Facebook. I was staggered to see the response to some of my more recent posts and it really does cheer me to feel so connected to you.. 

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Hi there, I do hope you enjoyed the rest of October, and I imagine you’re as shocked as I am to hear that there are only seven weeks to go until Christmas!   I bought myself an Air Fryer Christmas Recipe magazine that I’ve been poring over this last week and am hoping to make my own mincemeat and Christmas pudding this year – do you make your own or buy them?

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There’s a fantastic quote from Benjamin Franklin: “You may delay but time will not!’  and by crikey that’s true!   Last time I wrote to you, we were two days away from the second of our big family weddings and now it’s just a memory, but WHAT a memory! How lucky are we to have witnessed both our sons marrying their loves in the same year 😊 More on that in just a moment.  

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