The Year in Pictures- a 2015 Picture Book

Happy New Year to you all!

Where has 2015 gone?

Although it seems to have rushed by, for us 2015 has been a pretty significant year one way and another. A great deal has happened, so for once I am not going to waste your time with too many words. I will choose a few of the 61 photos that John has looked out for me to choose from. Continue reading The Year in Pictures- a 2015 Picture Book

An Unexpected Pre-Christmas Adventure

What’s Round the Corner?

Who knows…

On Friday night – another ‘black’ Friday, apparently because it is when office parties and pre-christmas revels tend to get out of hand – we in fact were relieved to be heading sedately for bed at 10.30pm, after a very sober evening, somewhat exhausted for various reasons to do with tax returns and the HMRC. Continue reading An Unexpected Pre-Christmas Adventure

Blogs: What Is It That Alarms People?

No. 1. Blogs and Bloggers

Yesterday John was talking to a couple of friends who had been admiring his photos and wanted to see more. ‘Have a look at them on Marion’s Blog,’ he suggested. Both ladies looked embarrassed, as if he was suggesting something rude, and quickly tried to change the subject.

What did they think? Continue reading Blogs: What Is It That Alarms People?

Another New Supermarket for Ashbourne

With a flurry of excitement and an enormous fanfare of publicity, a brand new out of town supermarket opened in Ashbourne last week. Apparently according to all the excitement that was being generated, it was to be just what Ashbourne needed, but it seemed hard to see why, in a small town already served by a Coop, Sainsburys, Waitrose and M&S, and already concerned about the future of small local independent shops. Continue reading Another New Supermarket for Ashbourne

Alice is 100 years old…

Alice helped my parents for 40 years
Alice Mason, a dear friend of all the extended Hall family

Alice, dear Alice, will be 100 on Thursday, 12th November. The queen has been reminded. Alice is a very special person, who has touched many lives since she was born a century ago during the 1st World War, and there will be many many other people near and far – as well as the queen – wishing her a very happy birthday.
Continue reading Alice is 100 years old…

A Gluten-Free Delight:

Almond and Coconut Flourless Cake

At last! This is another very special recipe, from my secret stash of delicious maximum impact/minimum effort trusted favourite recipes. I have been promising to put it up for weeks, ever since it won 1st Prize at the Parwich Bake Off!  (Don’t inquire too hard about how many entrants there were.)

I am a fan of the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine, and cut this recipe out on one of our trips to Australia to see our daughter Sara and her family, husband Derek and their son Tom. I was interested merely because it was advertised as both delicious and easy to make. The fact that it is gluten free has proved an added bonus… Continue reading A Gluten-Free Delight:

New beginnings in Nagoya

We are delighted to include a post by Guest Blogger/our friend Shelley, who moved to Japan a few months ago. We asked her to write this post as we were intrigued to learn how they were getting on.

Shelley is a very talented photographer, and she and her husband Jonathan helped us a great deal a few years ago when they were staying in Douglas’s Barn and John was wondering what camera he should get.

We spent a delightful evening with them as we drank wine and they let John try their cameras and talked him through the pros and cons of various models. Their advice has proved invaluable.

Shelley’s website is http://www.www.shelleybray.com. Do have a look. She tells me she hasn’t had much time on it recently, as they have been rather preoccupied with getting to grips with all that is new for them since their move to Japan.

After an amazing 3 years in Hong Kong our Japanese visas finally came through.

We could pack up and make our move to Nagoya, Japan’s 3rd largest city, our new home for the next 3 years.

The start of Shelley's stint in Japan
All set for Japan
This was a day to celebrate, getting to this point had taken the best part of 7 months, at times it had been hard to believe we would ever get approval to be resident in Japan, but the months of paperwork and hurdles we’d had to jump were now passed and at last we were in our new home reunited with our belongings. Continue reading New beginnings in Nagoya