Milnes Family News – Christmas 2022

Back row: Delia, Michael and Heather / Front row: Jock (the dog), Matthew and Marley, Sophie, Callie and Martin
Hi and thanks for checking in!
We hope you have had a good year and that life has been good for you. As usual, our year seems to have rushed by and creating this record has given me a chance to stop and look back at what we have done. Hopefully, you will enjoy looking. Please send us some of your news via the feedback form, we’d love to read all about it. XX
On the whole, our routine is much the same as as it has been for the last few years. I am still teaching piano at home and for a few hours each week at Kingshill School. Martin is still driving coaches for days out and schools as well as playing regularly with his band – The Curious Little Big Band.

We do find time for lots of little special days and events though. The first one this year was a visit, in January, to the Royal Albert Hall to see the Cirque du Soleil. I found it fairly interesting although lots of it was a bit weird! We stayed near the British Museum so we popped in there the next day.
February made us very happy when our grandson, Marley, arrived. He is now 9 months old and he continues to be a very happy and relaxed little boy. Callie was 3 years old in September and she and Marley are beginning to play together quite well.
New born Marley Marley and dad Four months old – at the Ashton Keynes Music Festival brunch Baby it’s cold outside Callie and Marley
We were lucky to get onto a cruise in the summer. The week before we went was very stressful as if we had tested positive for Covid we would not have been allowed on the ship. We flew to Malta and from there we travelled to Corsica and Italy. It was VERY hot all the time we were there so we were quite lazy. We have been to Valetta (in Malta) a few times now and have established a ‘tradition’ of stopping at the Barrakka Gardens for an Aperol Spritz which always makes a good start to the holidays!
Aperol Spritz time Martin strollin on deck prior to our evening meal A coffee break in Porto Venere, Liguria
We have been down to Portsmouth for lots of weekends in order to look after Marley and Callie on Monday whilst Sophie and Matthew go out to work. A trip to the local coffee shop (which is on the beach) is always fun, especially in December when the decorations are up and the log fire is burning. We go to the beach often and have had lots of dips in the sea. Callie also loves the splash park and Marley loves the swings!
I have been a bit more busy, musically, this year as I have joined 2 new music groups. The first was the Cirencester Eclectic String Band, which is a string orchestra playing all sort of styles of music from Vivaldi and Mendelssohn to James Bond and the Pink Panther. We have done two concerts this year, both at the Goods Shed in Tetbury. Here is a little summary of our November concert:
The other group I have joined is a jazzy / pop band called Cocktails at Eight. Here we are at the Ashton Keynes Music Festival in June:
As usual, I have spent hours on the garden this year – especially during the heatwave when so much watering was needed. My fish liked the hot weather and so did my hanging baskets.
Hanging basket Cinnamon has a new method for hunting Callie and Matthew looking at the fish pond.
This autumn has seen us going to a few concerts, some bike rides, me playing tennis etc – just the usual. Martin has had quite a few gigs with his band, The Curious Little Big Band mainly weddings and birthday parties. They were coming along at around two a week for several months from around April time. They did a fund raiser a few weeks ago with Rory Bremner and another with Jon Culshaw not so long ago. Their biggest boast has to be Glastonbury in 2015. Three performances on different stages.
This Summertime video was produced a few years ago. The sound track was recorded in a studio in the Cotswolds over a period of 3+ hours. The video was shot at a wedding venue near Tetbury some time later.
There is one more thing that some of you may be interested in. Ben has been researching his family history and has produced a family tree going back a couple of hundred years. The most interesting ancestor is a John Shakespear who lived in Stratford in the 1700s. We like to think that he is a relation of William Shakespeare! (Which is actually pretty likely, although he cannot be a decendant of William as that Shakespeare had no surviving children).

If you got down to here then thanks for reading and we hope you have a very merry Christmas as a happy 2023!!
Love from Heather and Martin
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