Mick's 60th - January

It's Mick's 60th birthday in August so I had an idea that we'd have a year-long celebration, doing lots of fun things for the whole of 2026. I'd like to think we could do something each month, but we'll see, I've got a few ideas, I'm keeping everything a secret from Mick.

For January I decided that we'd have a weekend away in St Annes-on-the-Sea. It's a place we know very well, we used to have short breaks there with my parents, my sister and her family and my brother and his family before we had children. Of course, when Daniel and Eleanor came along, they came too. It holds many fond memories for all of us.

We arrived at lunch time last Friday but as we couldn't check-in to the hotel until 2pm, I decided we'd head straight to Lytham Hall. An 18th century Georgian house, it's situated in 78 acres of parkland. The hall itself is closed at the moment but it was a lovely place for a walk.

Admission is free, we just paid a nominal amount for parking. There's plenty of space to stretch your legs, a shop, a cafe, and the animal hub where you can see the resident bunny rabbits, Charles and Camilla, and visit the mischievous goats, Bogie and Toby.

These are the first snowdrops I've seen this year, a welcome sight, surely spring can't be all that far away now.

We arrived at the hotel, which was situated on the promenade overlooking the beach, and found we'd been given a room with a balcony and sea-view. We were just in time to see the sunset.

On Saturday after a lovely cooked breakfast, we ventured out for a walk on the beach. It's a wonderful place for a stroll, so open, the sea always seems to be so far away at St Annes.

The promenade is a nice place for a wander too, there's well tended gardens complete with waterfalls, a playground for children, a pitch n putt and par 3 golf course, and in the summer months, you'll find trampolines and a miniature train, fun for all the family whilst still retaining its Victorian charm.

The beach huts are closed up for the winter but they look so well kept and taken care of.

The Lifeboat Monument commemorates the death of thirteen lifeboatmen from St Annes who were lost during a rescue in 1886.

I definitely chose a good weekend for our little jaunt, the weather on both Friday and Saturday was very mild compared to the freezing temperatures we'd had beforehand.

The comedian, Les Dawson, lived in St Annes. He died in 1993, this statue was unveiled in 2008 and stands in the Peace and Happiness Garden just by the pier.

After a little rest back at the hotel, we decided to spend the afternoon in nearby Lytham. All the years we've been visiting St Annes and yet we'd never once visited this nearby town. Although they're often grouped together as Lytham St Annes, they're actually two separate but adjacent towns. Most of the shops in Lytham are situated on Clifton Street, a bustling thoroughfare with both independent and high street names. I really enjoyed visiting Stringers, an independent, family run, department store. It's good to see a business such as this thriving in today's world.

I came across a yarn shop in an arcade. I could see through the window that Habs & Dash stock a good range of quality yarn, including hand-dyed, but I resisted entering the shop, after all, I've got enough yarn in my stash to open my own small shop.

This pebble mosaic is called Paradise Garden and it was created by Maggy Howarth, it can be found in Clifton Square. At its centre is the red rose of Lancashire, and set around it is features of Lytham, including the windmill. Isn't it a beautiful piece of art. My photo doesn't do it justice.

And speaking of the windmill, here it is. This windmill stands on Lytham Green, it was built in 1805 and now houses a museum. Unfortunately, it's closed during the winter months, opening again at Easter.

We arrived back in St Annes to see another glorious sunset, this time we were on the beach by the Victorian pier. Perfect.

We stayed for two nights and had bed, breakfast and evening meal in the hotel. It was the perfect winter getaway, I'd worried about having a weekend by the coast in January but it was actually lovely. Yes, we were very lucky with the weather, we've had snow in the UK this month but the weekend we were away was mild and though I did have a woolly scarf around my neck, I didn't need a hat or gloves. This was the perfect start to Mick's birthday celebrations, stay tuned to see what's next!