I love getting reflective at the end of the year and writing up my wee annual round up. This year, it wasn’t hard to think of the theme because from day 1 it was nothing but love. I feel so grateful to have a life filled with so much joy, warmth and passion.

My relationship started on New Year’s Day, and since I have had the most wonderful time falling in love with my best friend. We spent this year sharing many long walks, poems, meals, creative challenges, dances (in the kitchen and at the ceilidh), card games, film seasons, exploring new adventures and homes. I could go on forever about how happy and grateful I am, but I’ll keep that between us 🙂 The love only continued to grow as we met one another’s people and spent time with our families.

Family time has, as always, been very important. I’m so grateful for chill time on the sofa and around the dinner table. I’m grateful for all the fun we’ve had, playing games and exploring new places, from a cosy weekend in the highlands and islands (Mull) and crossing the planet to spend quality time together (Melbourne).

My friends continue to fill my heart with sunshine. I made a vow to myself this year to try and host monthly Sunday dinners to gather my peeps together, hang out and feed them my love, and it has been so fulfilling. Across the months, we’ve also sang at the top of our lungs at karaoke, laughed on the sofa playing games, done scavenger hunts, played some questionable rounders at a picnic, picked berries and made a cake, ran muddy obstacle courses, met kittens, held hands and wept hearing our favourite songs live, talked about books, danced around a studio making things up together and had many dinner debriefs about life. And amidst all the fun, I’m so proud to watch them living their best lives and achieving their goals, whether it’s new jobs, moving cities, getting pregnant, or performing on stage, teching a show behind the scenes or running marathons. My heart glows after spending time with them because they are all brilliant.

My home renovations continue, from big to small. I’m loving adding little details like painting ‘stain glass’ on the windows above my doors and putting up these tiny tiles that each of my loved ones painted. I finally finished my bathroom renovation – it’s so beautiful and spa-like, I love it. Then I embarked on the journey of redo-ing my bedroom, which was complicated but so worth it, and I love the cosy result.

When away from home, I had some really cool trips. Spending time with my boy Ethan and exploring gorgeous Seville. Seeing the unique vibes, delicious food and experiencing a lot of heat in Marrakech. Enjoying great theatre and a shiny outdoor pool in London with my mum and sister, and my big month-long Australia trip with Ejay to visit my brother and sister-in-law.

2025 has been a good hobby year for me. I’m now two years into training aerial and still loving it, getting stronger and learning new things. I also got myself back into swimming and find so much joy splishing and splashing around (although it was much easier to get myself to the pool in the summer). The other new thing this year was a self-defence course, which was pretty fun and reassuring. I got to do some dancing in the studio, choreography for the panto and a bit of running too.
A pretty big year for me on the concert front. I saw Loreen (of Eurovision fame), Tyler, The Creator (SUCH a good gig) and Chappel Roan (communal, affirming and hot). I don’t have any gigs planned for next year yet, but I’m hoping a few more pop up. The festival was another busy lil time, and across the whole year I saw some brilliant theatre and dance.
And as ever, there was a lot of reading which I’ll be wrapping up in my next post.

It’s a lot, isn’t it! I can’t put into words how much gratitude I feel for all of this so instead I’m going to shout out some of the tiny, delicious things I loved: finding the perfect shell on the beach and acorn in the forest, taking lamplit bubble baths, finally trying lobster and going to town with all the tools, feeling peaceful enough to pause therapy, the early spring sun shining in the dance studio after a long winter, a swimming pool lane all to myself, kitchen dances, hanging upside down in the park as the sun sets, many funny 0.5 photos, the cat choosing to sit on me, reading in the park, making lots of cookies and chocolate mousse, indoor fireworks made of molten steel, watching the sea, finding tiny poetic frogs hidden in my home, and lots of time outside.

Wonder what next year will bring!