Where has the time gone? I've literally just realised that I have not written a blog since November last year & was astounded, time really has flown by, and I do apologise.
So what has happened in the world of Acorns of Lyndhurst???
Sadly we started this year with saying goodbye to a very special friend who lost her brave battle against Cancer just before Christmas. It was the most beautiful and moving service I have ever attended and the church was absolutely packed - an amazing send off for an amazing lady who was taken way too young x
It kind of shakes you up a lot, it makes you realise that life is precious & that you have to make the most of everyday & make as many memories as is physically possible because you never know what might happen. So when you see us having fun - that's exactly what we are doing.
Business wise we have been extremely busy, thanks to everyone who has stayed with us this year - it has been amazing. We had our 10 year anniversary too, which we decided to just celebrate with a few friends & left it all low key, but it is an acheivment that we are both very proud of. We also did some re-decoration in the breakfast room & Allium room
So.....
Fun wise - well if you follow us on Facebook then you will already know that we have been very busy enjoying ourselves and our beautiful surrounding areas, but those of you that haven't followed, here is taster (not necessarily in order) of our adventures....
January actually was a real challenge for me as I decided to join in with Dry January - something I didn't really think I could do as I do like to socialise with my friends over a lager or two! It was ok during the week but the weekends were tough. I managed it though and was extremely proud of myself. I found it easier if you kept busy so out & about we went.
We did our annual visit to the Winchester Cathedral Ice Rink which is always a winter highlight for us. It is just such a beautiful setting for ice skating.We took the kids Crabbing a couple of times at Keyhaven Nature Reserve I think our best total here has been 40. This place is a favourite all year round for everything from walking, camping, cycling & crabbing. It really is a great place to enjoy nature and just being outdoors. We did many walks including a few new places like Hengitsbury Head, Longslade Bottom & Setthorns.
In February we finally, after driving past for 15 years (when going back home) stopped for a beautiful few hours in Oxford. This will definitely be on our itinerary again when we go visiting family next time as we want to do the open top tour bus next time.
In April we adopted a third cat, she's 11 years old & used to live in a care home which sadly closed down and she desperately needed a new home, feeling sorry for her we took her in.
Meet our newest addition - Pixie x
Over the summer months we have attended a few beer festivals at the Fox & Hounds, Non-Descripts Club and also an amazing private festival: Turnerfest. This was a very small family & friends gathering involving camping, food, drink, music, lots of sunshine, fires, laughing, singing & relaxing - it was awesome. We've also had summer fayres, fun days, bike rides, camping trips, afternoons out by the river, many beach trips but some including evening bbq's - always a highlight.
The major event of the summer though was most certainly our Skydive.
Both Fred & I were already planning to do a skydive as I enjoyed mine last so much that I had to do it again but it was prompted when all of a sudden we lost a very special and influential person in Fred's life from Leukaemia at the end of May. We did it in July as a charity event to raise money for Bloodwise and our amazing friends & family all helped us to raise a grand total of £700.00.
The skydive for me was awesome, even though it was my second time it was still different, all thanks to Tim from GoSkydive who decided to mix it up a bit for me :) I definitely won't forget it - I absolutely love it and have already told Fred that it needs to become a yearly event.
Still carrying on though - more recently we went to the Isle of Wight a couple of times, first for a 60th birthday party which was a great weekend and then just for the day to visit our lovely friends again. We really love the Dairymans Daughter up at Arreton Barns and are hoping to go back again at the end of September for the annual Sweetcorn Fest.
We went down to Bournemouth for the Friday Night Air - part of the Bournemouth Airshow which was great. For the first time we went child free so we were able to take full advantage of the prime location that is the balcony of Aruba on the pier.
Then to bring you right up to date we had a fantastic time over the bank holiday weekend with family that came to visit. A group of 11 of us went on the open top Tour Bus red route on the Saturday, which we turned into a pub crawl. It was a hilarious full day out, starting at 10.30am and returning back to Lyndhurst at 6.30pm. As you can imagine we had a couple of drinks but we had so many laughs and saw some lovely scenery and some lovely pubs along the way. We can definitely recommend it - this is already booked for an annual event from now on :)
On the Sunday we took the family over to Furzey Gardens for a more sedate leisurely day looking for Fairy doors, which then took us on to showing them the Trusty Servant, The New Forest Inn, having an amazing Carvery Sunday Lunch at the Mailmans - all of which they really enjoyed & praised. Then proceeding onto a couple more pubs before ending up at a wedding reception with lots more lovely people including all the TurnerFest gang :)
As you can see from this little insight we have been quite busy & we have been making lots of great memories x
The year isn't over yet, so here's to the next 4 months lol
Mel
