Milnes Family News – Christmas 2017

Hello,

Here we all are in March

welcome to our 2017 xmas update.

We continue to try to amuse ourselves with holidays, music and eating. Here are a few of the things we have been up to in the last year. Hope you enjoy viewing.

Merry Christmas to all looking here!

Heather x


What I have most enjoyed in 2017 are my trips to various coasts. We have visited Ben, in Exeter, several times, and have started walking the south west coastal path, bit by bit. The coast to the east of Exmouth is beautiful and we have had some lucky weather for our outings.

Matthew now lives in a house overlooking Old Portsmouth dockyard, which is where the local fishing boats moor, so we really enjoy visiting him too and hearing all of his news.

I had my 60th birthday in March which I celebrated,
mainly, by eating lots in various venues. Ben made me a
very extravagant Tres leches cake (3 tiers). A trip to Claridges
for afternoon tea involved even more calories…nice!

Being 60 gave me the excuse I needed to quit one of my teaching jobs and I now no longer teach at Lydiard Millicent Primary School. This has given me more time for some much needed tennis and badminton practice which I really enjoy. I have continued with the rest of my teaching at Kingshill School and at home, which still keeps me busy and will help to fund some of our more indulgent holidays. We have been of two cruises in the last year, to the Caribbean and to the Mediterranean and are very much looking forward to going on more holidays like these.

Something else I have really enjoyed this year is having the time to do a bit more painting. My most successful efforts have been using acrylics on quite large canvases.

I really hope I have time to do more painting and drawing next year.

Here are a few of the paintings I am most proud of:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin continues to play in his band, the Curious Little Big Band and plays
in some quite big venues, including Glastonbury (last year) and at Portishead Carnival. He also drives coaches all over the place and has some quite nice days out.

I still play in the Big Brunch Band (on the trumpet this year) and another little band called Harper’s Bizarre – in which, bizarrely, I play the drums. We were a little bit famous for half an hour in August when we played at the Phoenix Festival in Cirencester.

The autumn of the year has been brightened up, literally, by a new little kitten which we adopted in October. He is a bundle of energy and very friendly – just what everyone needs on a dull, cloudy day.

Matthew and Sophie like to travel and, in
November, went to a friend’s wedding in India.

 

Sailing training, November…brrr
Ben, Matthew, Sophie and Martin in       St James’ Park, London on 27th March
Malta in August