I always welcome March with open arms after the annual challenges that February brings.  The arrival of Spring, the world starting to wake up and the light beginning to reappear makes such a difference in so many ways – mood, energy levels, motivation and more.

Neil returned home from his epic three-week long trip to New Zealand at the start of the month and it was good to have him back – we all missed him.  I loved him telling me all his stories about what he got up to, and seeing all the photos and videos on his phone from his adventures on the other side of the world.  It’s taken him a while to re-adjust back to regular life, although I guess that’s to be expected after such an intense experience.

March is the last quiet(ish) month before a very busy upcoming season of travel, exams and events, so I tried to embrace it and read as much as I could in between working and school and supporting Ella through her mock GCSE exams.  My strategy worked – I read four books in the space of a month, which is unheard of!

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

READ

Chain of Thorns:  by Cassandra Clare.  ‘Chain of Thorns’ is the final book in ‘The Last Hours’ Shadowhunters trilogy and it only came out very recently.  It’s a big, chunky book and somehow I managed to finish it in just two weeks.  I enjoyed how the characters and their stories all developed throughout the trilogy overall and it was good to escape into a fantasy world for a while.  Everything got pretty neatly tied up for a happy ending after the relationship drama and action-packed adventures that took place throughout the plotline, which pleased me – I like having closure at the end of a series.

‘Chain Of Thorns’ by Cassandra Clare, the final book in ‘The Last Hours’ trilogy

Everything I Know About Love: by Dolly Alderton.  After finishing ‘Chain of Thorns’, I wanted something completely different from the fantasy world, a bit more centred in real life.  ‘Everything I Know About Love’ is a memoir that has had some fantastic reviews, and I knew that the author grew up in the same town that I’m originally from.  I thought it would be interesting to get her viewpoint on it and figured that I might connect through that common thread.

I dived into it with enthusiasm and quickly discovered that it was mostly about university life, drinking and sex.  As I don’t drink and I didn’t go to uni, I found a lot of it quite hard to relate to.  In fact, I’d go as far as saying I really didn’t like the way she came across very much and I almost gave up on the book altogether.  I really hate not finishing books I’ve started though, so I persevered and at about 2/3 of the way through some part of me began to connect with her.  Perhaps it was because she got older as the book progressed, perhaps it was because she went to therapy, or perhaps it was because it became less about her drunken exploits and more about the power of female friendship.

The final quarter, from the chapter titled ‘Homecoming’ onwards, was utterly brilliant.  I finished it feeling… empowered?  I’m not sure that’s the right word.  Maybe just grateful – for the few friends I do have who have been there through everything.  I’m glad I kept going with it and saw it through to the end.  It was relatively easy to read, despite seeming to bounce around the timeline of her life non-chronologically, which I found a bit confusing at first before I got used to it.  The chapters are quite short so it was easy to pick up and put down, and it only took me a week to read.

‘Everything I Know About Love’ by Dolly Alderton

Maybe Someday / Maybe Now: by Colleen Hoover.  After reading ‘It Ends With Us’ last year and really enjoying it, I knew I wanted to read more books by the same author.  I was given ‘Maybe Someday’ as a Mother’s Day gift and it was exactly what I wanted and needed to read.  I didn’t realise until the very end that it was a two-part story – I immediately went out and bought the sequel then promptly finished both books in the space of a week.  They were easy to read, a little bit sexy but also dealt with real-life challenging issues, like deafness and terminal illness.

‘Maybe Someday’ and ‘Maybe Now’ by Colleen Hoover

WATCHED

Outer Banks S3:  On the insistent recommendation of Ella, we worked our way through Seasons 1 and 2 of Outer Banks during January.  Season 3 was released whilst Neil was away in New Zealand last month.  Ella and Mimi had been desperately waiting for it with eager anticipation – they both watched it immediately (all ten episodes in one day!) and it nearly killed them not being able to talk about it in front of me for three whole weeks so they didn’t give away any spoilers.  We promised them that we would watch it as soon as Neil was home.

It took us about a week in total, watching two episodes a night in between his work shifts.  I found it to be much the same as the previous seasons: there was adventure (which got progressively more ‘Indiana Jones’ style as the episodes went on); romance and friendship.  A good teen drama which kept kept us guessing (whilst not having to think too hard about it), plus it’s easy to watch.  I’m already looking forward to Season 4.

HEARD

Ed Sheeran:  Ed Sheeran recently announced that he will be releasing a brand new album in May this year, which I am very excited about.  There was a special offer whereby if you pre-ordered the album you could get early-bird access to tickets for the only UK dates he’s playing this year, which happened to be this month.  It was a bit of a spontaneous decision, but we managed to snag tickets for the gig in Manchester for Neil and I.

It was SO good!  Similarly to when we saw him last June, he played a mix of his favourite songs from all of his old albums.  He told the story behind a lot of them and also shared how his new album, ‘Subtract’, came into being.  He played his new song – ‘Eyes Closed’ – for the first time ever in front of an audience.  It wasn’t being officially released until the following day so we were, in essence, amongst the first members of the public to ever hear it.   I loved it instantly – it’s about losing one of his close friends, who died of a heart complication after taking drugs.

The warm-up act, Cian Ducrot, was excellent too.  I can’t believe I hadn’t come across him before – I loved several of the songs he played, and he also performed a preview of his new single – ‘Part Of Me’ – which is also about losing a close friend, this time to suicide.

The gig was at the AO Arena rather than the Etihad Stadium where we saw Ed Sheeran perform last year.  It was a slightly smaller venue which I thought was better overall – we had similarly good seats but there was a more tangible atmosphere, we could really feel the vibrations of the beat in our bodies and it seemed like more of a collective experience.

Clickpro:  Twelve days after submitting my application to become a ClickPro artist within Click Community, I heard the outcome of my application.  I got accepted!  And yes, I cried happy tears when I read the email.  I got 32 out of 42 possible total points so I only just scraped in but it doesn’t matter, I did it after months and months of hard work, sweat and tears.  I can see so much growth from my previous submission in 2020 and I’m really proud of myself for achieving it.

Lola Parent’s Evening:  I went to Lola’s Parent’s Evening at school this month.  It’s the first one of her’s that I’ve been to since she’s been at high school.  This time last year, in Year 7, she wasn’t even able to attend school due to her sensory issues and being horribly bullied.  She was off for three months altogether, then chose to go back to school of her own accord after May half term, which was a very difficult and brave decision to make.  We got some amazing feedback from her teachers about how she’s been doing since she’s been back and I’m incredibly proud of her.  Every single teacher commented on how much her confidence has grown throughout Year 8, which feels like a huge amount of progress.

Photo taken this time last year, when we were on holiday in Cornwall during the time she was off school. She’s come so far since then, I’m so proud of her.

MADE

Heartfelt photos:  I had my first official photoshoot through my new business, Moments In Between Photography, this month.  It was an in-home shoot for a friend of a friend: parents and four children aged six to eleven years old.  There were copious tickle fights and lots of giggles, they baked flapjack (and gifted me some pieces to take home with me, which was absolutely delicious), and told me anecdotes from their travels.  Their home was beautiful – I honestly felt like I’d stepped inside the cover of an interior design magazine when I walked in through the front door – and every single item of furniture had a meaningful story behind it.

I was with them for a few hours and took almost 450 images.  I’m still working my way through editing them and I’m pleased with the ones I’ve finished so far.  I hope they love them too because making heartfelt photographs like this, full of natural connection, really is one of my most favourite things in the world.

One of my favourite images (so far) from the in-home family photoshoot I did this month

Updates:  I made some updates to an old blog post I wrote about a property we stayed in a couple of years ago during one of our annual visits to Bude in Cornwall.  The Old Bakery has since changed hands – the new owners got in touch with me and were keen to let me know of all the improvements they’ve made so far.  I’m very excited that we get to go and stay there again this summer so we can see the changes for ourselves.

I’ve updated my blog post about The Old Bakery in Bude

WORE

Beanie hat:  We had an unexpected little flurry of snow for a couple of days (snow! In March!) so I took the opportunity to wear the ‘‘Stay Wild’ beanie hat I got for Christmas. It’s by Atticus Poetry and I love it, it’s so cosy.

AND FINALLY…

Ella’s mock exams:  Ella’s final high school exams are fast approaching and this month she sat her Mock GCSEs.  These form the basis of her predicted grades (needed for her college application) and will count towards her final grades if she can’t sit her actual exams for any reason, for example through illness or if Covid re-emerged and schools closed.

She had an exam every day for two weeks straight, with regular subject lessons in between so it was pretty full on.  She’s good at managing a balance between revision and down-time so I wasn’t too worried about her, I just made sure I was available to keep up a steady supply of cups of tea.  She seemed to handle the exams well, even with a couple of friendship challenges going on during them.  They were definitely good practice for the real exams in six weeks time and if the results she’s had back so far are anything to go by, she’s going to be absolutely fine.

Mother’s Day:  Mother’s Day is always a quiet day.  I was given some thoughtful cards, a couple of books I’ve been wanting for awhile and a beautiful bouquet of Bloom and Wild flowers in pretty spring colours.  They lasted for well over a week and made me smile every time I walked in the room and saw them.

My beautiful Mother’s Day flowers from the girls, ordered from Bloom & Wild

Visiting Mum:  I had an unexpected (and rare) day of no clients booked in so I took the opportunity to scoot down south to visit my Mum for the day just after Mother’s Day.  We didn’t ‘do’ anything as such – it was simply lunch and chatting together; I helped her with something on the computer; we went for a wander around town and a drink in a local coffee shop – and it was really lovely to spend some time with her and my Stepdad.  I’m trying to make it down there more often to see her – I don’t like living so far away.

Chapter three of 2023 is now closed, and we’re a quarter of the way through the year.  Next month is ridiculously busy in the best of ways (actually, it’s going to be busy pretty much all the way through until September!) and I’m looking forward to everything we have planned.

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

With love,

Chloe x