Returning

I find it hard to believe the last time I wrote was all the way back at the start of January when the country was submerged in floods. A lot has happened since then. We finally got the keys to our house at the start of March and spent the next few weeks carting our stuff from my parent’s house to here. There were fraught trips to IKEA, especially as we tried to be organised but their delivery schedules had other ideas. Many a bookcase was built in March and has been filled and will probably be filled again. We’re slowly getting the house to how we want it, I’m not the best at making my mind up it must be said so I’ve taken my time.

On 9^th March we became proud parents to two beautiful black and tan miniature dachshunds called Ruby and Tilly. I have taken hundreds of photographs of them already and will talk about them in more detail in another post.

In other news my Tatty Devine collection is growing and recently I’ve made some new friends who love Tatty just as much as I do, hopefully we are going to go on a workshop in the summer together.

Work is still the same waiting for news on what changes they may or may not make. I can’t believe it has almost been a year since we first sent the application off asking to move down here.

I’ve got so many posts to write on all the things I’ve been up to since January, well since we moved down really but this will have to do for a start. Below are a few pictures from when we first started the great moving in and Ruby and Tilly’s first picture at home.

 

 

And the rain came down

The start of 2014 has proved eventful so far. Even more so up in our old home of Aberystwyth. I've watched the news feeling incredibly sad seeing the seafront being ripped up by huge and damaging waves. Had we still been up there I probably would have gone into town to see what had happened despite the warnings for people to stay away. The worst storms I ever saw were in 2006 when the prom got damaged but to nowhere near the same extent. We haven't completely escaped from flooding here though. Roads have been closed and fields submerged due to the Usk. I took these photos a couple of days ago not long after the worst had hit, most of the pictures are of Caerleon golf course, it really amused us finding seaweed on one of the greens. The cows were safely up  in the barns as the farm was quite badly flooded too.   

Day One

The start of 2014 will forever make New Years Day particularly memorable. After a traumatic couple of weeks my Grandma died this afternoon. We are still in that surreal stage of feeling at the moment, it wasn't a shock but it is still a very sad day for us all. I started a new Project 365 today too, I went to see my brother this afternoon and this caught my eye in the dimly lit living room and it just felt right.

2013

And we reach the end of another year. I have missed blogging since September, having no access to my desktop has not been productive. I've hardly taken any photographs, written very little and become somewhat down about it all. Hopefully though it will only be a matter of weeks until we get the date our house will be ready! I know we have to go through the hassle of moving but I really can't wait to move into our first house that will actually be ours. Anyway, now is the time to have a look back at some of the highlights of the past year. As usual January was pretty quiet, we enjoyed our days off wandering around town going for hot chocolates and keeping warm 

I discovered the joy of Crafty Creatives this year and am still a fan. My Tatty Devine collection also started in earnest in 2013, I've shared some of my favourite pieces on the blog this year and will do once I have a few more! In February we went to Manchester for a short break and enjoyed the delights of Blackpool once more, much to my husband's happiness. This time the weather was much nicer though.

I really enjoyed capturing blossom in the spring and took a few nice pictures too 

In March Holly came to visit us in Aberystwyth for the day, despite the downpour we had fun in the National Library and in Andy's records. April saw a trip to the Black Country Museum, it was bloody freezing too. 

We also took a trip on the Rheidol 

May saw trips to Tywyn, Fishguard and St Fagans. 

This year we spent a fair amount of time over at the allotment capturing progress for my dad, all in all I've taken well over 700 photographs. Here are a few favourites 

They have another plot now so expect lots more allotment coverage next year, I bought lots of seeds as Christmas presents! 

June saw the arrival of two very special little boys, my nephews Rex and Ralphy. I have taken hundreds of photographs of them over the summer. They arrived just after we submitted our applications to leave Aberystwyth and move down here. We spent most of the summer coming down here on our days off as David had driving lessons. Here are a few of my favourite pictures of the boys so far 

The summer this year was absolutely glorious. We made the most of our time being on the coast having BBQs on the beach with our friends on Sunday evenings

We also ventured to Powis for our annual trip, meeting up with the Rangers

I had a play around in the garden during the summer too 

And in July we also went to St Fagans again 

During August we had a week of holiday and we visited London. As we were about to leave we had the news we had job offers! This was good news after we had already decided to go for the house! I really enjoyed our visit, we had a good wander around seeing all the sights and spent the day in Brighton and Kew Gardens. We also saw the Underground Poster Art exhibition in the Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

Once we returned from our trip we had to start the task of sorting our stuff out in preparation for the move as in the end we started our jobs in the first week of September and we couldn't get any time off to move beforehand so we spent most of September going back and forth moving and cleaning up. From the end of September to now as I said earlier I haven't done anything creative. I think the last pictures I took I really liked were these 

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary back in October, we went out to Cardiff Castle for the day with David's mum and dad. Our new shop opened at the end of November and since then we've only had a handful of days off. I did go for a lovely walk up to Wentwood though with my family and captured the last of autumn

Things have been a little difficult here lately but a new arrival just before Christmas has really made things better. Meet Barney, my newest nephew. He is absolutely gorgeous.  

I look forward to taking some better shots of him soon. So that was 2013! A year of great change, moving back and planning for a better future.