Turning over a new leaf

I have been a spasmodic blogger, and am planning to do better in 2016.  It is my 70th year, and a time to reflect on many good things in my life, in the context of an often sombre world.  So I'll try for one post a fortnight, and see if I can keep it up!

To start with this is a brief look back at 2015, dominated for me by my knee replacement and by our family holiday in Cornwall.  There is plenty about the knee here already, so suffice it to say that 10 months later it is still improving slowly - I can walk well and there is no pain, just weird discomfort most of the time.

As for the holiday, we had a wonderful fortnight with all 3 sons and their families for various parts of the time, and we took the opportunity on the way there and back to do some sightseeing in France, notably in Brittany.  Bringing the car meant we could bring Evie too and she enjoyed herself on the beach and with the children.  Trebetherick and Daymer Bay were our regular holiday base when the boys were young, and we loved rediscovering the area and seeing Polly again, still in Bodmin in her 80s.
 
 

At home, after 9 years we feel well settled in Lunel and with our regular activities, musical, always improving our French, welcoming friends and family as well as other B&B visitors, and enjoying wine.  As ever we enjoy cooking and entertaining, and bee-keeping (Mary's rollercoaster activity) and, for me, keeping up with many friends through Facebook, keep us busy.

 

We also watch a lot of tv, almost all UK channels - we find French tv underwhelming with a few exceptions. We watch a lot of quizzes, and as I write we have just finished watching the latest and best Masterchef professionals series.  When we were in England we took the opportunity to eat at the Treby Arms in Devon whose chef/proprietor Anton won the title a few years ago - a real pleasure.  Our own cooking never approaches these dizzy heights of skill, but we get lots of delicious tips from the series!

Our sporting enthusiasms include following Arsenal (Mary) and Liverpool (me).  As ex-East Midlanders we  also enjoy Derby's footballing success and Leicester's current triumph.  We like cricket too, and are delighted to let Test Match Special drone on as it will in S Africa from Christmas onwards.  Marvellous that England beat the no. 1 Test team in the first match.  Our radio listening has been transformed this year by the discovery of 1.FM's Otto's Baroque Music channel, which has helped enhance our CD collection through hearing some beautiful performances for the first time there.  Our tv watching has also been transformed by a new satellite freeview box which records things automatically - amazing how rapidly technology advances.

So this is to wish everyone who reads this a happy and healthy 2016 - as French people always say, above all good health!  I finish this post with pictures of the lunar eclipse last year, and one of my favourites taken by the Etang d'Or in September.