April was a month of two halves.  The first two weeks – the Easter holidays – went SO fast and the second half of the month felt like it dragged on forever.  It still astonishes me how time stretches and expands and shrinks and contracts on a minute by minute basis at the moment, let alone day by day or week by week.

Our annual little holiday in Cornwall feels like forever ago already and we had the expected typical seasonal weather while we were there – April showers interspersed with occasional glimpses of spring sunshine.

Here are all the little things I’ve been loving lately throughout April…

READ

Maps Of Our Spectacular Bodies:  by Maddie Mortimer.  This was a total impulse buy – I spotted it on the shelf whilst browsing our local bookstore, liked the sound of the title and the blurb intrigued me.  I read it whilst we were in Cornwall and I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything like it before.  It’s about the complexity of mother/daughter relationships; cancer; life and death; love; growing up; marriage; and language.  It was phenomenal.

It was written from different perspectives throughout the story – mostly the main character and also her body from the inside, plus her mother, plus her daughter, plus her husband’s points of view.  I’m going to need to read it again as I’m sure there will be parts I missed along the way.  It made me think a lot.  I’m still thinking about it now, three weeks later.  It’s one that’s going to stay with me for a long time for sure.

Ugly Love: by Colleen Hoover.  This one was an easy read, I didn’t need to think about it and I finished in a week.  I needed to give my brain a break after reading the book above (which was pretty heavy-going, deep and meaningful), so this was just the sort of light-heartedness I needed.

Then work got ridiculously busy, I couldn’t decide what to read next and I didn’t pick up a book again for the whole of the rest of the month.

‘Maps Of Our Spectacular Bodies’ by Maddie Mortimer and ‘Ugly Love’ by Colleen Hoover

WATCHED

Easter Egg hunt:  My girls may all be teenagers now but two out of three of them still love our annual Easter Egg Hunt and squeal like toddlers when they get a clue right and find some hidden chocolate.  (The eldest prefers to sit back and watch them do all the hard work before reaping the rewards once all the eggs are found).  Watching them have fun, just being kids, in the age of exams and social media and the news, makes my heart happy.

Sunsets:  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… sunsets in Bude are my favourite.  I chased the sunset for three out of the seven nights we were there and watched some absolutely spectacular ones.  I managed to catch a couple of sunrises this year too.

Sunset over Bude Sea Pool

HEARD

Dermot Kennedy:  If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know all about Ella’s obsession with Dermot Kennedy, and how I was able to make her dream come true back in September last year after a chance meeting and choosing to strike up a conversation with a stranger on the aeroplane on the way home from ClickAway in Chicago.

That conversation has continued over the last nine months or so and my new friend has been an absolute angel in disguise – he got us on the guest list for one of Dermot’s big venue events on his Sonder tour!  It’s the first live music gig we’ve all been to together as a family, and the first big venue gig for all of the girls.  I wasn’t sure how they’d manage it – I wondered if all the noise and lights and crowds might get a bit overwhelming – but they loved it.  It was at Birmingham Resorts World Arena and it was SO GOOD!

He played all of my favourites – ‘Outnumbered’, ‘Homeward’, ‘Innocence and Sadness’, ‘Kiss Me’, and ‘Better Days’. ‘Rome’, when everyone held up their phone torch lights, was magical.  I even got a bit emotional.  The support act, Noah Kahan, was excellent too.  We had front row seats in the VIP area, really close to the stage and I’m just so grateful to have been gifted this opportunity and to have been able to share the experience with Neil and the girls.  It was a night to remember for sure and we made memories that will last a lifetime.

MADE

An escape to Cornwall:  As I mentioned before, we made our annual escape to Bude in Cornwall for the first week of the Easter holidays.  Sophie and Jack joined us for most of it and it was exactly what we needed.  There were lots of beach walks, a couple of games of crazy golf, plenty of sunrises & sunsets, and copious amounts of ice cream.

Taking in the view at Crooklets Beach. I’ve taken this photograph (or a similar variation of it) every year for the last decade.

Enjoying an ice cream at Scoop!

WORE

Sonder hoodie:  We couldn’t resist buying a bit of merchandise when we were at the Dermot Kennedy gig.  Ella, Mimi and I all got matching dark green ‘Sonder’ hoodies.  Lola decided she didn’t want one and then promptly stole mine as we walked back to where we’d parked the car as it was late at night and rather cold after the gig.  I’ve lived in mine (well, ever since I claimed it back from her!) – it’s so soft and comfy and snuggly – and I feel it represents the collective memories we all have about the shared experience we had together.

AND FINALLY…

Visiting Mum:  It was my Mum’s birthday in April and I didn’t get to see her on the actual day so I headed down to London a week later and took her to see the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum.  Every image was stunning and we both really enjoyed the whole exhibit.  The photojournalism collection was my favourite – I love storytelling in a visual way like that, the smaller details of the individual pieces making up the whole.  The lengths and effort people went to in order to capture some of the images is astounding.

We went out for dinner, I stayed overnight, and the next day we went for a wander around some local lakes and had lunch out together too.  It was so lovely to spend some real quality time with her, just chatting.  I’m determined to make it happen more often.

Mum at the ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ exhibition in the Natural History Museum

Questival:  I was back in London just a few short days later, this time on a work-related visit to attend Questival – a one-day annual conference run by the people I did my therapy training with.  It’s not happened for the last three years because of Covid, so it was really good to be back in the room, feeling the energy and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in person for a long time.

Sadly I only managed to stay for about 2/3 of the day as I wasn’t feeling very well – I had a horrid cold that had gone into my sinuses so ended up heading home early as I felt so rotten.  Still, the two talks I managed to listen to were incredibly interesting and useful and I’m glad I made the effort to go.

Dress fitting:  Ella’s Year 11 Prom is only two months away now (give or take a few days) so we went to have a first fitting for the dress she’s chosen.  It needs a few adjustments but she looks absolutely beautiful in it.  She’s already sat her GCSE Photography exam this month (the creative subjects are scheduled a little earlier than the academic ones) and it’s a very real reminder of how close it’s all getting now.  The rest of her exams are just two weeks away.  Time is marching determinedly onwards so I’m filling it with as much fun stuff as possible.

Chapter four of 2023 is now closed and it’s been a good one.  Next month is insanely busy – there is something fun/exciting/important going on almost every single day for the first two weeks and then Ella’s real GCSE exams start.  It’s going to be intense but I’m really looking forward to it all.

I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout April and that you are excited for whatever May brings.

With love,

Chloe x