Maureen's 80th bash

 This week my great-aunt Maureen turned 80, and invited us all to Swindon (a meet-in-the-middle between Cardiff, Exeter, London, and Basingstoke) to celebrate with her. 

We were joined by our other Farmer/Brook family and played a couple of games of bowling. I have discovered that bowling in a straight line is not one of my specialist skills, and managed to win last place overall. 

Following this we were treated to late lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant. 

On Sunday Mark I had a productive day of lie-ins, climbing/running, and then joining our friends to watch Project Hail Mary in the cinema - very accurate to the book, but when compared to The Martian (another film based on an Andy Weir's book) there wasn't enough disco music. 

March weekends

Last weekend my gorgeous mum yet again visited in an attempt to source me a wedding dress - who knew it'd be this challenging! The extra dilemma comes due to the nature of visiting outlet shops (ex-sample dresses) rather than a main bridal shop, meaning that options are much more limited.

Then mum made me walk across a bridge. 

This photo was used (amongst many others taken at the bridal shop that morning) when I got home & realised I was missing my earring. We managed to deduce that I've either lost it at home or when I first changed at the bridal shop, as it was in none of the photos that day. Happily, super-mum found my earring at home!

We are very pleased to announce that we did find 'the dress' last weekend! Very exciting stuff indeed - it only took 5 shops and 2 weekends... Even more exciting for my mum who got to pick it up from Cullompton post office and lug carry it home to be stored in her house. Thanks mum!!

Cait also called whilst I was on the train to discuss her 30th plans, and then didn't release me until we'd walked all the way to the bridal shop in Newport! 

Cardiff has had some much wanted lovely weather this week - despite the hail last Friday. The sun shining really does make everything seem so gorgeous. 

Hail.

Blossom!

Sunset.

When the light hits the hallway just right. 🥰 

Then this weekend Mark & I traipsed across Cardiff to visit a cake/brunch shop near Victoria Park - Let Them See Cake. Worth it - the brunch and cakes were both excellent. 

 I was feeling a bit sourdough deficient with mine so Mark let me eat half of his - I'm marrying him for a reason. 

Proof of Mark's existence. 

Bridgerton Binge weekend away

This weekend Mark and I booked an airbnb... ostensibly for a weekend away together but really so that we could watch all 8 episodes of the new season of Bridgerton. 

In preparation for the weekend, I made a huge tray of chocolate cracknell. 

We stayed in a  gorgeous converted sheep lorry near Powys, loud braying donkey included (no photos of him sadly).  

On Saturday we had a lie in and then headed out to Henrhyd Falls - the highest waterfall in South Wales!

You can walk behind it but it looked very slippery and wet and we decided to enjoy it from afar. 

The airbnb also had a hot tub, of which I cannot photograph well in the dark but was lovely to hide from the cold wind. 

A lovely weekend all in all, with Sunday for another lie in, driving home, and falling asleep on the sofa. And yes, Bridgerton season 4 was excellent. 

Wedding dress shopping

This weekend my lovely family came up to visit. I've started the hunt for a wedding dress! I'm trying to start early so that I have time to visit multiple outlet shops before giving in to the comprehensive but expensive proper bridal shops.

Cait and mum popped to Cardiff on Friday, and then on Saturday we began. 

First up was a bridal charity shop in Abergavenny. This was the most unlikely option to find my dress but also the cheapest, so worth a go! We were released into a room of dresses and had fun dressing up.

This wasn't quite the one...

Of course, we had to pop into a charity shop or two while we were there, and Caitlin was fully out in support of the rugby. 

We loved Abergavenny, it was so cute, and we found a new favourite shop for me - a zero waste shop with pick and mix sweets, a coffee shop, and a toilet! What more could I want?

And apparently, 2kg of brown rice is what mum wanted. 

I'd asked our venue (St Tewdrics House - and no, I didn't leave an apostrophe out) if we could visit and then asked dad if he wanted to pop up and join us. He drove up on Saturday morning and picked up Mark from Chepstow station. We then had a lovely time showing them around the venue and visualising our wedding! We even got lucky and got a view of the estuary. Dad is pleased there are lots of comfy chairs for him to fall asleep in. 

We drove back to Cardiff and had a quick lunch whilst watching the first half of the rugby (Ire vs Eng). Or rather, Cait & dad screamed at the TV while mum & I actually made lunch. Next, we left the boys to the rugby and went to a secondhand reloved bridal shop, which was closer to the 'right dress' but still too much tulle!

On Saturday evening we treated ourselves to a takeaway & introduced Mark to fifteens (made by dad), before dad drove back home. 

On Sunday we tried our third bridal shop of the weekend - this time a bridal shop outlet. This was the closest yet, and I nearly bought a dress! But ultimately, I want to look a bit more to see if I can get that 'the one' moment. We shall see!

Time with friends

 We've had a pretty chill January and February so far. We've done a big few wedding bits - venue, photographer, caterer - which has been fun! And yes, I've bought cake toppers for my currently non-existent (and potentially always non-existent) cake. 

A recent highlight has been spending time with lovely friends. 

Last weekend we helped move David (Mark's friend) into a new flat in Cardiff. This involved multiple car journeys, David & Mark walking 40 minutes across Cardiff carrying a bed headboard, and strapping a mattress to my car roof (pictured after straps taken off!). David has lived in a house share until now, and I couldn't quite get over his lack of belongings. 1 mug, 1 glass, and 1 fork/knife/spoon anyone? I doubled his mug supply by buying him a new one so we could both have a cuppa whilst I watched them assemble the bed.

Walkies. 

I drove the mattress over so I'm not sure why I have a photo of Mark in the car here!

The lovely Pontcanna/Canton. 

Lonely mug. 

Then last week, I saw the gorgeous Katharine! She's moved from Sheffield to Bristol for an amazing new job (training as a plastic surgeon!!), so was able to pop over on the train to Cardiff for a much loved catchup and dinner. 

New passenger princess time

Mark passed his driving test on Friday - congrats Mark!! I'm very excited to be the new passenger princess for you to get more independence and freedom. 

2025 Year in Books

The post you all have been waiting for… my 2025 year in books!

For those who are new to obsessive book tracking, I use 2 cataloguing websites/apps: Goodreads (amazon owned, great for numerous reviews but the stats aren’t amazing) & Storygraph (independently owned, brilliant stats, but less popular therefore fewer reviews). Goodreads also isn’t accurate for audiobooks, so the pages/minutes on Storygraph is the accurate one. 

Goodreads sent an email with some fabulous graphics - but it was sent a bit prematurely in mid-late December and was not updated when more books were read. Graphics with a pinch of salt!

*8 in December.

Trendy, me.

Managed to write reviews for all books this year!Woah, what a surprise! (not)

I don’t quite get this one. Pages laid out end of end or back to back like in a book?

Storygraph had no such fun email but have great stats throughout the year in addition to their yearly wrap up. 

70 books!!

December had a nice pick up tick (panic to get to a nice round number by the year's end). 

Fantasy strikes again.

1000 paged book! I carried it around in hardback too. An average of 431 pages per book too, nice and chunky.

Some smashing reads this year! Expected favourites from brilliant authors (Suzanne Collins, Rebecca Yarros, V.E. Schwab), and some new discoveries (Emily Hauser, James Islington). 

Just 1 reread, I'm surprised!

A good chunk of nonfiction too. 

Nearly 50% audiobooks, thanks to the 5 months of commuting this year. And I did manage a good amount of my own books, yay!

I've not yet got a goal for this year, but there are several books I'm excited to read. Watch this space!