Jennie and Ian had been skiing again, this time to Mayrhofen in Austria. And Samantha, Mike and Elizabeth have had their skiing holiday in the French Alps.

Here are a couple of new pictures of Tommy, who we've been looking after between working. This mat in the kitchen is his favourite spot!

---

The rest of our life moved on a bit in the first half of the year. We had a nice weekend in the New Forest while Rhys did a course and Jean got some horse riding in. Inspired Rhys to have some riding lessons. We stayed at Rhinefield House, which has joined our list of places to go to again. Very nice indeed.

Jean finished her contract in Liverpool and Rhys finished his contract and lecturing at the University, leaving us pretty well retired and only Rhys' photography business still going. We're keeping that up as it's portable, and should make a nice part-time business to keep going for as long as we want. We've a new website to sell its services - www.image-inspiration.com. 

We had a short holiday in France in early July - in Provence - which we enjoyed very much. We stayed at Les Bories in Gordes, in the Vaucluse, for a few days and moved on to Abbaye de Saint Croix, between the Alpilles and the Luberon, near Salon de Provence for the second part of our trip. Both good hotels but Les Bories was by far the better. The Abbaye was rather let down by occasionally poor service in the restaurant, the limited menu and poor breakfast selection. This time we flew out to Lyons (BA Connect) and hired a car from there, to save us the long drive from home and back, and this worked well.

David and Lynne had a week in Cornwall and Jennie and Ian had a relaxing week in the Algarve, Portugal. Peter, Lianne and the boys have been to Orlando, Florida again and Sam, Mike and Elizabeth have had their holiday on the west coast of France. We've also been down to Dorset a couple of times to visit Rhys' mother.

---

Big News of the Year - Charlie

Lynne and David had a baby boy - Charlie - born on Saturday 12th August at 8.46 in the evening and weighing 7lb 2oz. Mum and baby are both doing well, we're delighted to say. We all (Rhys & Jean, Dorothy and Jennie & Ian) had a trip down to see him on Sunday 13th, when he and Lynne came out of hospital, and here are a few of the first pictures:

Charlie in his cot at the Royal Worcestershire Hospital - he wasn't there for long though!	Auntie Jennie with Charlie, and Grandad Rhys with Charlie at Lynne and David's house, Sunday afternoon 13th August

All on Thursday 24th August

Click here for Lynne and David's website page of pictures of Charlie.

---

We had a holiday in Dorset in September - web rented a cottage at Worth Matravers near Swanage - so we could spend some time with Rhys' Mum as well as get a few days of relaxation. David, Lynne and Charlie came down too for a few days, which was great, so here we have a four-generation picture - L to R: David, Lynne with Charlie, Rhys, Edna (Charlie's great grandmother / David's grandmother / Rhys' mother) and Jean. We treated ourselves to a horse riding morning out on Purbeck Heath from a stables between Corfe and Studland - very pleasant.

Jennie and Ian were on holiday in Italy at the time, and had a good time there.

Samantha and Elizabeth came over for a short break in October; it was nice to see them again.

We've been thinking about moving house and taking on a project to do one up. We'll have to set up a BLOG if it gets off the ground. Now we've pretty much got our house up to a great standard there is nothing much else to do, and we'd like to take on something (even) more challenging. Meanwhile Jean is also looking at a new part-time business opportunity! We're still looking after Tommy two or three days a week, and he's coming on very well.

By the end of the year we were supposed to be retired, but it seems that everything we look at we can't help turning into a business. However, we're definitely going to keep anything else we do as part time. (Honest!)

Rhys' photography business is getting up and running now, with a few bookings for weddings and portraits and a lot spent on up to date equipment! Need a few more sales to pay for it all.

Jean is taking up the new business opportunity she was looking at. You'll see more about it on the 2007 page.

And, we're still trying to sell the house and buy a small farm / project. We have a place in mind and we've had an offer accepted on it, so we just need to sell ours. The buyer that we thought we had has had to go into hospital, so that's delayed everything. Still, we'll keep plugging away. The new place is near Hayfield in the Peak District, and (if all goes well) we might make it into a B&B. It's great walking country there so should be popular.