Today it’s a bit of a case of ‘two birds with one stone’. I'm joining in with the last of Kate's final link up parties for 2020's photo scavenger hunts ... and starting a new annual blog post series.
The theme for today's scavenger hunt is ... My Own Choice.
I was really hoping to share some new photos that I was so looking forward to capturing during our Christmas break away in the lovely Peak District but sadly, events overtook us and we had to cancel at pretty much the last minute.
Having seen Sharon’s annual review of her year over on Sunshine and Celandines it made me think about something similar. I always make my own photo calendar each year and I tend to do it in November time, looking back over the previous 12 months for suitable photos for each month.
The photos chosen all tend to be meaningful in one way or another and I thought it would be nice to share them here as my entry for the scavenger hunt and as a way of summing up our 2020 ... so here we go ...
January
With no clue as to what the year would bring we started out by ticking off one of the 50 things I wanted to before I hit 60. Martin and I managed our second visit to Warner Bros Studios in January ... we wanted to visit Gringotts Bank and this time we took mum and dad. We were all very impressed and had a long, but lovely, day out together ...
February
At the beginning of 2020 Martin and I were both really hit by a new year lethargy which was just not shifting. I’d been suffering with a terrible dry cough, which had confined me to bed for a few days (mmmmm I do wonder) and I booked us a last minute short break to Windsor which I hoped would kickstart our year. It was a brilliant trip and another adventure ticked off my 50 things list. Little were we to know at the time that this would be our last trip for a good while ...
March
Our March holiday to Dunkeld in Scotland was cancelled and, like the rest of the country, by the end of the month we were confined to barracks and a spring of making the most of the garden kicked in. It was lovely to see everything else coming back to life and putting on a fabulous show for us when we most needed it ...
April
We were all still in lockdown but we were trying to make the best of things and decided that we would do a bit more on the veg growing front. Seeds were bought and started off and new raised beds were ordered ...
May
Since our trip away in February it was May before we really went anywhere again and this was a really short wander around our local castle grounds ... I really wanted to see the wisteria and was so pleased to find it still putting on a fabulous show ....
June
By June we were allowed to meet up with friends and we managed to go 'out out'. We had a lovely afternoon on a private visit to Felley Priory. We literally were the only people there ... apart from the gardeners. We finished off our visit with an afternoon tea out of the back of the car on the camping chairs ... which ended up becoming a bit of a theme through the summer for us ...
July
The weather was still doing us proud and we managed to make one of a number of visits to a local walled garden, where we had a wander, enjoyed the peace and quiet and took a posh picnic lunch ...
August
We were back in the walled garden, this time we took mum for a wander ... it was still lovely and quiet and absolutely stunning ...September
Things were starting to get a little more back to normal during September and we did manage to get out and about a little bit more and even managed a two week holiday in Devon. My calendar picture though was from a visit we'd made to Sezincote in The Cotswolds during July, which was a real treat and so different to anything else we'd ever seen before ...
October
My October image was from a walk we did in The Peak District back in August. It was a bit of an effort but did end up being a really lovely day ...
November
In November we were 'locked down' again and my photo for the month is taken from our two weeks holiday, back in September, on the very lovely East Devon coast ... This one is from the beach at Budleigh Salterton, our first big day out ...
December
And so we come to the end of the year, with a photo that pretty much sums up the best of it all ... a fabulous view and another picnic out of the back of the car ...
So 2020 ... it's certainly been different and brought plenty of challenges. It is always good to look back though as there are always things to be thankful for and new memories been made ... stay safe everyone and all the very best for 2021 πππ
***********************************************************************************