Summary – January to March 2024

Beginning of this year I did a summary of what happened for us last year and I was mentioning as well some of my wishes for 2024. So I thought I will try to do a similar posts every three months to summarise what happened in our life.

Read the 2023 summary post here.

Eskdale valley in the distance. Photo taken in January 2024

Personal Life:

Since coming back from maternity leave I have decided to change my working pattern to have more time with Marcus. Since January, I am doing my 37h5 in 4 days (Mondays to Thursdays) instead of working 5 days/ week. This allows me to have a 3 days weekend every week, which I have to say I love. It is a bit intense when I am at work but I love having my Fridays with Marcus.

More importantly the main thing of the past three months was Marcus’ first birthday, which we celebrated with some friends. It is incredible how fast the year has passed. Master Marcus is now crawling and standing up. Let’s see if he walks by this summer.

Skye also celebrated his third birthday and it was a 35 for Matt.

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Walking:

The weather has been very wet and windy this winter; however we still managed to do some great flat walks and we discovered new areas in Cumbria. Let’s hope spring is better.

Skye enjoying his life at Gelt wood in February 2024

Travelling:

Beginning of January we spent 4 days near Arrochar in Scotland with Matt’s parents. It was a great sunny weekend and we visited the Cowal peninsula.

Read our adventure around the Cowal peninsula here.

Beginning of February, we went to visit our friend Tania near Glasgow. However, Matt started to feel really sick during the Friday while driving there and was unable to get out of bed the Saturday. So I just spent some time with my friends chatting and cooking asparagus risotto. We did a little walk around her estate but really nothing worth sharing with you. We drove back home on the Sunday morning as Matt was still feeling rough. We did promise her that we will come back.

End of March / beginning of April, we went for a week holiday near Windsor. I will tell you everything about it soon.

View over Loch Ruel, January 2024

Blogging:

I have now managed to write all the old blog posts from our holiday in Northumberland and our summer walks in Cumbria, which means that I am up to date with my writing. Hurray!!!

Read all our adventure in Northumberland on this page. For walks in Cumbria it is here.

I have also published a first poem that my mother wrote in french and that I translated. It looks like people have enjoyed it and we are thinking to do another one.

Find the poem here.

I am still working on updating my blog to have a consistent formatting between all the blog posts and I am slowly writing all my walks in French and English on the Visorando website so you can easily download GPX files and PDF to do the walks.

See my Visorando profile here.

Dry stone walls at Cunsiwk scar, February 2024

Books and TV:

I have been mainly listening to audiobooks since the beginning of this year as I find it easier. I can listen when I walk Skye, when I cook or relax in bed after a long day at work. I have managed to listen to six books so great some less great. Here the list in reading order.

TV wise I devoured season 2 of Vigil on BBC iplayer. Any TV shows to recommand?

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Loweswater in March 2024

Blog discoveries:

Finally I thought I would share some great blog posts written by fellow bloggers in the past three months.

Let’s see what Spring will bring !!!


Find all our adventures in Uk on this page.

26 thoughts on “Summary – January to March 2024

  1. What a lovely little lad! It’s great that you can work a 4 day week to spend more time with him. They grow so fast and those days are precious. Many thanks for the link. Have a great week! 

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  2. Thank you for the mention Mélodie. Yes, we have had awful weather so far this year, I’ve not managed to get to the Lakes at all. I enjoyed the poetry and I like the French alongside the English! Let’s hope the sun starts to shine soon!

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  3. Being a parent means changing your lifestyle but you’re certainly keeping busy, which is a good thing. Changing your working pattern sounds like a good move.
    Book choices say a lot about people. One called “Sulphuric acid” – mmm sounds like somebody’s a chemist (which of, course is what you are, of a sort). For a similar reason I’ll have to look that one up

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    1. Yes we have changed a bit especially our bed time no more night out / watching TV series 🤣.
      To be honest we are fortunate that Marcus is flexible and loves being out which means that we can travel by car and go hiking.

      Amelie Nothomb has a strange writing style and her own world. People like her books or not at all. I try to read all of them.

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  4. J’ai hâte de voir ton article sur Windsor, c’est sur ma liste pour cette année !
    J’aimerais bien tenter la semaine de travail sur 4 jours si j’en ai l’occasion. Mon dernier employeur était contre de par la nature du travail. Il fallait être joignable 5 jours sur 7, dommage.
    Merci pour la mention 😉

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    1. J’ai la chance de travailler pour une entreprise qui fait passer le bien être de ses employés en premier. Peux être que tu trouveras une entreprise aussi flexible avec les horaires 😉.

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  5. That’s awesome that you’ve been able to adjust your work schedule to work the same amount of hours, but over four days. Glad to hear that despite the weather, you’ve still been getting some walks in. Here’s hoping for a nice spring!

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  6. Thank you for your summary, Mélodie. I’m impressed by your blogging accomplishments (up to date with your writing) while working and having a young family. Of the books you read, I’ve also read Small Bodies of Water. I always enjoy reading your blog in English and French. I think the PDF of your walks in both languages would be a great asset to locals and visitors. I hope you have a beautiful spring.

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    1. Thank you. I am trying to write a post per week and set aside some time for it. It is nice to hear that people like to have both languages. I hope that the PDF will be useful. Thank you have a great spring too.

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