Favourite things 2025
Some of my favourite things this year. In no order whatsoever.
- I keep forgetting that this time last year my garden looked very different - in spring we added two new raised beds and five trees
- Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) was one of three P&P stage adaptations I saw this year and absolutely hilarious
- this was my Sylvia Townsend Warner year. Lolly Willowes (which I wrote a little about) and The Corner That Held Them
- going to the woods a lot
- obligatory Bearblog shoutout, and starting this blog
- Sorry Baby was probably my film of the year. Also really enjoyed Sinners
- the three neighbourhood cats keeping me company in the garden and occasionally in the house, especially the one we have dubbed Cheddar
- my wife baking cinnamon rolls
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid because I'm dumb and soppy. I had it from the library but I might have to buy my own copy
- getting back into camping
- new dining chairs. Saved my sanity and my back
- omg.lol
- figuring out how I can listen to audiobooks
- A Complete Unknown. Bob Dylan was a big deal in my house growing up. I wasn't sure about seeing this, but I thought it was great
- my Marianne North project, even though it turned out enormous
- chard. I wouldn't buy chard from a shop but I grew it and ate it and it was great
- my wife's four-day week
- mini adventures in the summer
- Holland Park opera - opera under a massive awning, which was really good fun
- lots of amazing music this year
- big Mario Kart party
- the surprisingly great tiny kitchen purchase: a mandolin
- Gertrude Stein An Afterlife by Francesca Wade, which I wrote about
- fairy lights
- zines
- jailbroken kindle
- de-googling and de-amazoning - I've not shopped at Amazon since
- the local concert hall has an enormous organ I'd never heard and the symphony orchestra put on a special organ recital. It was incredible
- reading Jane Eyre is always a pleasure but this time I read it with my wife and shortly after my sister which made it extra fun
- got shelves for my greenhouse and I love them
- had a dance party in the kitchen with my nephews
- Finally saw Jeanne Dielman and I'm so glad I went to the cinema where I had to concentrate and could get fully immersed. It was amazing
- getting my mother-in-law's record player working and playing my dad's records even though it's hipster as hell
- all the times hanging out with the niblings
- The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
- my wife getting into DMing more and us spit balling games together
- Slow Horses, especially the Five Fs
- democracy kind of won? Our local library wasn't closed down
- homemade pizza
- went to the Birmingham Back to Backs
- sleepovers with the kids
- Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey by Rachel Hewitt
- pushed myself to do some stuff, like a new volunteering and a new group. It wasn't so much those things as the pushing that was really good