June 2025

We started the month off on holiday in Majorca. After a week of beautiful sunshine and cloudless skies, we arrived home to much lower temperatures and a little rain. The weather picked up again mid-month and we've enjoyed some glorious days culminating in some very hot weather at the end of the month.

The big event in June has been Jack's first birthday. What a blessing that little boy is, he's such a wonderful addition to our family and we love him to bits. His birthday was on the 20th so we spent some time with him and gave him his card and gifts and then Eleanor and Jacob held his party the following day. He had such a wonderful time, that little boy is so loved.

We've haven't had many days out this month as we've been quite busy with other things but it's puffin season at Bempton Cliffs so we had a drive over there one Friday, we didn't want to miss them. It's a nice walk along the coastal path but it was such a hot day with a warm breeze, we didn't walk too far. Afterwards we drove the few miles to Bridlington and had a walk there too.

We've been making an effort to get out walking more just lately. We used to take Archie on long walks when he was younger but as he aged, he couldn't walk so far which resulted in our walks being much shorter. We've been discovering new places to walk, some even very close to home. Of course, Archie is missed very much, it still seems odd for him not to be by our side.

I've read seven books this month.

I usually read a lot on holiday but having my family with me put a stop to that, I read just one book. I started The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides on the plane going and finished it by the pool on our last day. I loved this book and would have devoured it in one sitting had I been reading it at home, I'm sure. I like the short punchy chapters which keep you intrigued and wanting to know more. I almost figured out what was going on so the ending wasn't a total surprise but I thoroughly enjoyed the story and would highly recommend this book.

I've never read anything by Adele Parks but I saw the cover of One Last Secret and picked it up to take on holiday with me, it looked quite apt. I didn't get round to reading it in Majorca but I started it on the plane coming home. It started off well, I was intrigued by the story and it sucked me in but it just got too unbelievable, it was ridiculous. It was an okay read for what it was but too far-fetched to make it plausible.

I'm enjoying the Dr Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths so much. The Woman in Blue is the eighth book of fifteen and every one of them so far has had me gripped. Set in Norfolk, the stories centre around a forensic archaeologist who is often called upon by the police to help solve crimes. There are a good group of recurring characters who appear in each book and whose lives evolve as we get to know more about them. A great read.

Dani Atkins has written some great books, I've read them all and often need a box of tissues by my side as she's a great one for pulling on the heartstrings. Always You and Me is her latest book but in all honesty, I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her others. It was an okay story but nothing new.

When I picked up Sanditon by Jane Austen, I didn't realise that this was three books in one. Lady Susan, and The Watsons are also included in this edition, books I've never heard of before. Lady Susan was published over fifty years after the death of Jane Austen and is told through a series of letters. An entertaining read about a young widow who is set on arranging advantageous marriages for herself and her daughter. Filled with the humour and wit for which Jane Austen is known. 

The Watsons was unfinished at the time of Jane Austen's death and there have been several versions of the ending written by different people since. Having now read Austen's beginning of the story, I wonder if she left it unfinished as it wasn't one of her best. I thought it had a good storyline and beginning with Emma, having lived with her wealthy Aunt for many years, returning to her family to live in relative poverty, however, the latter part of the tale seemed to read as an account rather than a story, which is a shame.

Sanditon is, again, an unfinished novel. There has been a recent TV series which was based on the idea by Austen but I haven't watched it so I had no idea of the story. The tale centres around the new up and coming seaside resort of Sanditon and it's inhabitants. An engaging story, I enjoyed what there was of it and I'm sure Austen would have certainly done justice to its ending.

Cricket has always been a part of our family life. Mick and Daniel both play and have done so for many years, and even Jasmine plays for a team now too, yet despite this, you could count on one hand the number of matches I've watched over the years. I decided I'd surprise Mick and Daniel one Saturday this month and turned up to one of their home games. Here's Daniel showing off his bowling skills, he took four wickets that day. Mick didn't take any wickets on this occasion, though he usually does, me being there must have put him off, though he did score some runs and was not out.

I started the Vertices Unite shawl by Stephen West at the very end of April to join in with the Spring Shawlathon, a knitalong which was being hosted by Fran at the Franny Do Makes podcast and Helen at the Giddy Knits podcast. The pattern is written for two sizes of shawl and I decided to make the largest size, which apparently is huge. Unfortunately, I haven't got all that far with it. It's a modular pattern but I'm still on the first section and have only used two of the five colours needed so far. The shawlathon ends today but luckily, you don't have to have finished the shawls you've been working on in order to enter. I haven't been doing a lot of crafting just recently as my time seems to be filled with other things but I just love this shawl pattern and I know it will get finished at some point.

Our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary is coming up in July, along with Eleanor's birthday so we'll be celebrating these in the month ahead. There's also going to be big changes as Eleanor returns to work after her maternity leave and I shall be looking after Jack three days each week. Lots to look forward to.

Merlin

I'd been meaning to download the Merlin app to my phone ever since my lovely friend, who blogs at Crimson Kettle, mentioned it back in March. Merlin helps you to identify the birds you see or hear. I finally downloaded the app just over a month ago and I've been enjoying using it since.

The first thing I did was sit in the garden for a couple of minutes while I recorded the birds I could hear. Just in that short time (less than two minutes) it identified house sparrows, greenfinches, starlings, blackbirds and wrens.

A couple of days later we went for a short walk down the lane which runs at the top of our street. There's houses and stables running along one side and farmland along the other, at the bottom it opens out into woodland but we didn't get that far. We walked for half a mile, turned round and walked the half mile back again and the app identified the calls of sparrows, starlings, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, wrens, robins, greenfinches, goldfinches, dunnocks, blackcaps, collared-doves, blue tits and skylarks.

It's fun seeing what birds the app identifies on our different walks. We visited RSBP St.Aidan's, a nature reserve a few miles from where we live. There, the app picked up reed buntings, cetti's warblers, black-headed gulls, moorhens, coots, swifts, reed warblers, willow warblers, blackbirds, robins, greater whitethroats, blackcaps, sedge warblers, wood-pigeons, chiffchaffs and dunnocks.

We often see different birds on our walks at Lotherton. We did a two mile walk one afternoon and the app picked up wrens, blackbirds, robins, rooks, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, chaffinches, great tits, wood-pigeons, yellowhammers, firecrests, song thrushes and blue tits. 

I thought it would be fun to see what seabirds the app picked up at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. Unfortunately, there's an error and the app won't allow me access to the list of birds recorded, however, it was rather disappointing as there's literally hundreds or thousands of gannets, guillemots and razorbills there but it didn't record any of these. It did pick up common gulls, eiders, kittiwakes as well as skylarks, house sparrows, tree sparrows, reed buntings and blackbirds in the surrounding fields from what I can remember, as well as some others which have now escaped my memory.

I'd only recorded in the garden for a couple of minutes so I decided I'd try the garden again. I sat out there for ten minutes this time and the calls of house sparrows, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, goldfinches, magpies, kingfishers, linnets, thrushes starlings, greenfinches and wrens registered this time.

There are birds we see which the app doesn't pick up, for instance at St.Aidan's we saw ducks and geese but the app didn't pick up their call, though I have to say that they were remarkably quiet as we walked by. I've seen nuthatches and treecreepers at Lotherton but unless they're singing, the app won't register them. We have red kites flying over our house every day, we often hear their distinctive call, I must turn the app on and see if it picks those up.

Knowing what birds are around is becoming a bit of an obsession. Do you use the Merlin app?

Calas De Mallorca 2025

I mentioned in my last post that at the time of publishing it, we were on holiday in Majorca. We arrived home on the 4th having had a wonderful time.

The weather has been fabulous, blue skies and not a cloud to see, until our last day when it was a little breezy but that was rather nice actually as it had been so hot all week.

We stayed in Calas de Mallorca, a purposely built resort with three sandy coves. It's not a busy area, there isn't very much to do here, but we've stayed in this part of Majorca before so we knew what it was like before we arrived. We'd gone all-inclusive so we knew we'd be hanging out around the hotel, it's exactly what we wanted, a relaxing holiday without having to move far. This photo was taken one evening, the beach was still quite busy.

The hotel was spotlessly clean and the staff very helpful. There was an entertainment programme which ran throughout the day with poolside games, sports, quizzes, dancing, cooking demonstrations etc. You could be as involved as much or as little as you liked. The evening entertainment was a mixture of singers, dancers, a disco one evening, karaoke etc. Eleanor even got up on karaoke night and gave us her rendition of Somebody to Love which attracted a rousing reception.

The food was okay. Nothing really to write home about but it was adequate, you'd have to be very very fussy to not find something you could eat. Pizza and pasta was available every night as well as different meat, fish, vegetables, salad, cold meat, cheese etc. The cakes and desserts were very good, this is just a small selection of what was on offer. As we were all-inclusive, breakfast, lunch and dinner was included as well as snacks throughout the day. These consisted of burgers, hot-dogs, pastries, cakes, cookies, crepes, crisps, nuts etc. There were also packets of sandwiches and tubs of ice-cream available.

We were in and out of the pool, it was nice to take a dip to cool off. There were some water slides at one end which Daniel especially enjoyed. Yes, he's thirty, but do they every really grow up! You can just see Eleanor, Jacob and Jack in the background here. My family are real water babies so they also went snorkelling in the sea and saw lots of fish. I'm not a water baby, I can swim well enough and I enjoy a dip, but I can take it or leave it so I stayed back at the hotel looking after Jack.

It was Jack's first holiday abroad and he loved it. Here he is with his Auntie Jasmine, another water baby in the family.

It's been so lovely to spend the week with all my family, especially as it wasn't something we'd planned, the holiday was only booked the week before we went. So many precious memories made. I'm glad we all enjoyed this carefree time together as unfortunately, on the day we arrived home Jasmine was informed that she's being made redundant. She's got eight weeks until her job will end and she will only receive statutory redundancy pay so she'll now be job hunting in earnest.

Not the greatest end to such a lovely week together.