first things first

The first of January.

The first day of 2016. A beautiful brand new year to look forward to with all the promise it brings.

The first day of a long weekend, with plans for dismantling the decorations, pottering around the house, enjoying some leisurely afternoons before the return to routine on Monday. Although both The Husband and I were in work this week it was that odd kind of atmosphere where some people came in dressed casually, and everywhere was quiet, with trays of mince pies hanging around and that general air of conviviality and comraderie amongst the few of us that had ventured in. Next week will no doubts be back to normal, with that gentle disbelief as the day begins that Christmas is over for another year, and that slight disorientation of having to write 2016 for the first few times.

The first family gathering of the year, with a visit to my Aunties, and time spent chatting, making plans for the year ahead, reflecting on the incredibly year that has passed and generally realising just how much we achieved, helped almost singlehandedly by my fabulous Grandad and my amazing parents.

The first day of setting up my new phone, or should that be The Husband setting up my new phone. My contract was coming to an end, so I decided on a whim to order a new one, with a swanky new camera, ready for a new year of photography, hopefully with lots of lovely memories ready to be captured. I always have a few days of regret when a new phone arrives, feeling like I'll never get as accustomed to it as I was to my previous model, but I seem to have taken to this one quite quickly. I've moved to a new provider, and made the switch from Apple back to Android for the first time in years, so am very excited to start playing with it and finding out what it can do.

The first, as you may have noticed, blog post in a while. If you visit here frequently you won't be surprised that I have reappeared today, with my love of fresh starts, new beginnings, and the optimism that comes with a new week, month, or year. It wasn't a deliberate break, but once I missed a week of the different projects I was taking part in and realised it didn't suddenly undermine all the weeks I had done, I relaxed a little. It was a shame not to finish the projects, like 365 photos, and the year in books, and I'm still contemplating writing my last two bake off posts, especially as I was so proud of the Millefeuille! I've been trying to get a bit of a better balance between being a perfectionist and giving up entirely when something slips, and taking a bit of a break from blogging was a good way of realising that I can take a bit more of a relaxed approach to it for the year ahead without packing it up entirely. In the last few months I moved placements yet again, we had a lovely family holiday to the Lake District with my parents and grandad (who was making a fabulous recovery from his second knee operation in less than six months), Millie ended up very poorly in the vets for a second time (we have now discovered that it was caused by her finding her way into her food supply and literally gorging herself sick so at least it has been easily remedied!), I have rediscovered calligraphy, and of course there has been the fabulous festivities of the season. It's not really surprising that blogging took a back seat for a little while, but I am very glad to be back and will hopefully be posting a little more regularly and visiting all of those blogs I have missed very much over the last few weeks.

And now I think the first dog walk of the year, followed by the first early night, and perhaps the first few pages of one of the new books I got for Christmas. I wish you all the very best of years ahead, and thank you for finding your way to this little corner of the internet today, and for any previous visits you may have made. Happy New Year.