Short Breaks to see family and friends.

The first trip of the year was in February to Gothenburg – to see the Colourists exhibition at the KonstMuseet, and to spend the weekend with Verity. We managed to squeeze in lunch by the sea and our favourite fish restaurant.

This was followed in April by a trip to Castleton (where Andy and Cathy went for their engagement weekend many years before) with our Loughborough friends Martin and Fiona, Dave and Sally. Poppy came too and was a great help dragging Andy up Mam Tor…and a hot tub was on hand to ease those aching legs.

May saw a return trip to Marbella to see Mark and Kent and meet up with old uni friends Chris, Angie, Mike and Anne. Lots of fine food and equal amounts of wine made a perfect trip.

To recover Andy and Cathy spent a few days in fabulous Granada, finishing in Malaga which was lovely….

……before flying back to Great Gransden. Arriving back home about 10:30pm, we were met by our neighbour who asked us to turn around and look at your house … no it wasn’t on fire but haloed by the Northern Lights- all those years chasing the Aurora in Sweden and we finally saw them in Cambridge !

Great Gransden Culture

For a small village there is so much going on! The Reading Room (CommunityCentre) became a pop-up pub once a month from March-December which we had fun both volunteering at and supporting. It also hosted a number of Bluegrass American musicians, building GG into their European tour, But the peak of the cultural calendar came in May when Fox Cottage was chosen to host the Church Garden fete. The pressure was on and the weeds were banished in the nick of time. The front garden had the plant, bric a brac and toy stalls and the skittle alley, and the back garden hosted the jazz band, pop-up afternoon tea cafe, cake stall and “croquet lawn”. The house was certainly blessed – the rain held off (just) but when it did come, even Noah and his Dove turned up !!

Dr Juliette

After 4 years and lots of hard work – Juliette submitted her thesis and jumped for joy… passed her viva voce in March and graduated from the University of Cambridge. Verity, Fran, Steve and Axel were there for the graduation in October and after lunch in Queens, the day finished with dinner at Mercado Central

Summer holidays

The Allotment is a work in progress and we definitely need to retire just to be able to find the time to do this properly and not end up on the naughty list for too many weeds! The rabbits ate the beans and carrots but we did manage to grow potatoes, garlic, onions, courgettes and lots of beetroot!

Verity came for the summer, and in July we celebrated Francesca’s birthday all together, We visited family and friends in Wells and Cathy and Verity fitted in a quick trip to Bath and the Jane Austen experience made their summer!

In August we had a quick trip north to the Wirral to see Cath and Michael with a short stop off in Ludlow on the way.

For the last of the summer wine Andy and Cathy chose a trip around Tuscany and Liguria, mainly on the country’s railways. Lucca was their first destination and what a wonderful city it is – complete medieval walls – great restaurants, galleries and churches – and just a 20min train-ride from wonderful Pisa, the least remarkable feature of which was the tower with a lean!

The following week was spent on the Italian Riviera in a Michelin starred restaurant-hotel close to Cinque Terra, following in the culinary footsteps of Mr Tucci,

The autumn arrived with another trip to Gothenburg and a visit to Hexham so Cathy got to ‘go home’ for a few days.

and finally Fran, Steve and…

So that was our year, Andy and Cathy even managed to fit in a bit of work in between, Andy still full-time at AstraZeneca and Cathy part-time at the University of Cambridge Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre. As they plan for a family Christmas in Fox Cottage they are looking forward to an exciting New Year !. Fran and Steve are expecting their first baby in January, Everyone is super excited, and the whole famaily are involved in preparations – with prams, crocheted blankets and hats and birth announcement cards in the making…Can’t wait to bring you the news of 2025,

But before then, all at Fox Cottage wish you a very Merry Christmas !