Well now, I'm not really sure where to begin. Grab a cuppa if you are planning a read. This is going to be a long post.
It's been a really up and down six months and my head has not been into blogging at all. It's been like this since July and I've really struggled to remember why I enjoy blogging. To be honest the thought of even taking and editing pictures, thinking up copy or testing a recipe has made me just want to crawl back into bed and go to sleep. I'd fallen completely out of love with it and could not get up the energy to think of anything to write as nothing felt interesting or inviting.
I think part of that was firstly just tiredness and then the autumn and winter kicked in. Don't get me wrong, I love the warm clothes and cosy nights as much as the next person, but in terms of feeling excited about anything I tend to go into hibernation mode and only really start to emerge again when I start to sniff out spring.
I also had personal stuff going on that meant that actually, I had bigger priorities than a blog to worry about.
Now though, whilst I'm not completely there yet, I'm going to try and get back into it again. I was looking back through old posts over the weekend and remembering good times with friends and I realised that I would be quite sad if I didn't have that in the future. This blog was always supposed to be an online diary, somewhere to reflect and look back on, so let's try again.
With that, here is a summary of all the things that I meant to write about and didn't and that now it seems silly to go back to with a bunch of individual posts. I don't really want to lose those memories though, so I'm just going to throw them all in the mix here!
So in the words of Julie Andrews. Let's start at the very beginning.
Late July, and I made a paella dish that I was really proud of, and don't have the first blue clue now how I made. Seriously, I wish I could put the recipe here, but I can't for the life of me remember what I did. It did taste good though.



RV presented his tour de force, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) at the Marlowe Theatre Studio at the end of July. I absolutely adored this production - I saw it three times and was still howling with laughter the last time I saw it as the cast raced us at breakneck speed through every Shakespeare play, including Hamlet three times. Once of which was backwards. I've seen the professional version and this was just as good. Simply wonderful, joyful theater with the brightest, gaudiest set I think the Players have ever designed, courtesy of Stephen and Nick. I painted Will's portrait. Look closely and you may be able to spot it.
















There is the odd, rather crowded exception! Just be prepared for a lot of huffing and puffing down the cliffs edge to get there.

Further down the coast though, near the ruins of Patara was another beach, one that was slightly more deserted. We settled here for a bit after exploring the ruins, but the sand was so hot that actually getting to your lounger was a challenge all on its own! We didn't particularly enjoy it called it a day and headed back to the seclusion and peace of the villa for a swim instead.










































November saw a bunch of us up in ol' London Town for Jo's hen do. We piled into a small room in the middle of Camden Lock on a damp and windy Saturday for a quilting extravaganza, followed by a night out on the tiles.












That coffee is a stereotypical blogger pic if ever I saw one. Total lack of imagination there, forgive me, I was still probably drunk. Coffee wasn't too bad either, if a little bitter. Food was OK, bit overpriced and I hate my bacon that overdone, but that is just personal taste. My main issue was the fact that it was full of people who were very pleased with how alternative and non-mainstream they were though - we all left and burst out laughing at how pretentious the entire place was! Seriously, when somewhere serves you tea in a glass with no handle so you can't pick it up, you realize that aesthetic is more important to them than the practicality of actually enjoying your meal. Poor Jo could only stare in longing as her desperately needed restorative cup of tea got colder and colder as she waited to not burn her fingers on the glass.







I also made an igloo cake as our contribution to the annual ham party. I was pretty pleased with it! Jo's wedding cake was, however, better. How cute are the two little fox cake toppers (see, I didn't just make a fox for the quilt for the sake of it, there was method in my madness!)






So that's it - the last few months of my life captured in one very long winded post.
Let's see if it gets me back on blogging schedule. I'm aiming for a couple a month to start with......