What the Fran

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• 30 Dec, 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