Well, last day of the year and it’s been memorable, some sadness, but also great joy, peculiar happenings, forever farewells to some dear friends and family, welcome to new little ones, new places visited, familiar places revisited, pints drunk, pubs lost and pubs found, but now it’s that time when as well as looking back, we look forward, with excitement and anticipation as well as maybe a few nerves about what this new year will bring.
My first post of 2025 was ‘On storing eggs’, which doesn’t sound particularly seasonal or interesting, but the second was a repeated post which I traditionally share at the beginning of the new year. Within a few days of that I wrote a review of a local village pantomime which as ever was great fun and most enjoyable (oh yes it was!!) Things have changed in our favourite am-dram group, and sadly it is not as it was and we won’t be seeing a pantomime this year, even if there is one. Another January post was welcoming the arrival of a new baby cousin – I’m not quite sure how we are related, removed to some degree!
In February this year our little gang of writers went to the delightful small Somerset coastal town of Watchet for their literary festival, which was a great success and we enjoyed very much. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we are going again in six weeks time, to Watchet 2026! I also went to Bath in February to see the TV show The Repair Shop, on tour! It was wonderful and if they tour again I’d love to repeat the fun. In March it was the family holiday, and eight cousins and us went to North Wales for a week and had a marvellous time and marvellous weather! How lucky we were! In April I appeared in the village magazine, a marvellous write-up but a most embarrassing and ludicrous picture in which I look as if I had been inflated! Later on in the month, a group of us Mavericks fans met up in Oxford and had a wonderful and enjoyable day together. Now, in the light of recent events, we are so glad we did.
In May, through necessity not choice we had to get a new car; we waved our poor old car off on the back of a truck, and said hello to our little new car. Daughter and I had a day out in Newport which we very much enjoyed, and in fact, daughter has now moved there and is really loving living there!
We all went over to Cambridgeshire towards the end of the month to celebrate our dear cousins’ ruby wedding anniversary! Towards the end of June our writing group were part of an inaugural writers night at a local hostelry, The Black Cat in Weston, this has continued each month and the first meeting of the new year is due in a couple of weeks. July was the birthday of my writing friend Fenja Hill and to celebrate we went to a indoor racing circuit – however, I chickened out so took lots of photos of the birthday girl and the poet Macaque whizzing round and round and trying not to crash!
In August it was the annual folk festival in Sidmouth so the Weston Ukulele Players headed south with their hangers on (me and a few other non-twanging partners) and as ever the sun beamed down and we had a wonderful time. August is daughter’s birthday and we all had a lovely day out in Bristol and I played shuffleboard for the first time. I confess that my enthusiasm and enjoyment was not matched by my expertise! In September a bungalow came up for sake further down our road, and thoughts which had been swirling for a while rose to the surface and we arranged to view it. Our house is a family home which was ideal when the children were living with us (one has temporarily returned) and we arranged to view – the upshot is, our house is now also for sale and we hope we may be able to move to somewhere smaller and more suitable for the two of us.
September continued with another trip south-west, to St Endellion for the literature festival we have attended for several years and much enjoy. The highlight for me was hearing a talk from Vaseem Khan (although finding a tiny home-made take-away pizzeria in a tiny place called Pityme was pretty special too!) By the end of September we had begun to put stuff in boxes to store in the garage in preparation for trying to sell our house. I have one word for that – NIGHTMARE!’ We no longer remember what’s in the boxes although we wrote on each, but I think most of them ought to be taken straight to the charity shop! A smaller place will not have enough room for all our stuff!!
October. Our beloved Dolphin has changed. I will say no more except we are now Ship-mates!
We had a lovely few days away in Portsmouth and surrounding areas for husband’s annual reunion with his art college friends. I had to travel down a day late as daughter had bought us tickets to see the amazing Dame Mary Beard. In Portsmouth we had beautiful weather and lovely company, perfect! That same month, another new baby member of the family arrived, and a cousin got engaged. Unfortunately, and very sadly one of the dearest and most courageous of the family lost a fight with an ongoing illness and we once again convened as a family, but this time to say goodbye.
October became November, and unbelievably and tragically, we had to attend another funeral this time in Sussex. It was a long journey, but we were so glad we went, were so welcomed by the family, and although a sad occasion, it was also good to remember happier times. Not long after, sad news reached all Mavericks fans, our beloved Raul Malo had died. Our little group over here was so grateful we had met together earlier in the year when we celebrated him and the band, who were the reason we had all become friends in the first place.
The month merged into December, and the Ely family were together again, it was the family Christmas party, all forty-two of us! And then good heavens! It’s actual Christmas! And this year we were in Wales because daughter has moved there, and what a most enjoyable and wonderful time we had… and now of course, suddenly the old year is slipping away and the New Year will be with us in less than four hours, so I think I need a glass of something in preparation!
So, we have had a lot of travelling this year, a lot of different events, writing fests, music fests, reunions, significant birthdays to celebrate, farewells to family and friends who have left us, welcome to new little ones who have joined, actually moving house and hoping to move house! I’m quite exhausted just thinking about it all!
I have continued throughout the year with determination but little progress, to learn Danish, so –
Godt nytår! Held og lykke og alt det bedste i 2026! Skål!!
Lois Elsden 