Summer Bucket List || An Update
About 4 months ago, I wrote myself a bucket list of all the things I wanted to do this summer, in an attempt to give myself direction every weekend and fit in as much fun stuff as possible. To stay accountable now we’re definitely at the end of Summer (boo!!) I’ve written a little update!
1. Fix the sail on the yacht and sail from Plymouth to Lands End
If any of you have ever owned a boat, you’ll understand that 99% of being a yachty is maintenance, and 1% actually sailing. Sadly Mvu not only needs her sail fixing, but also the boom, and engine. Sailing to Lands End with just the jib didn’t seem likely unfortunately, so instead of heading off down the coast, we drove up to Norfolk and spent time there instead!
2. Deck the garden, build a shed and plant tonnes of pot plants filled with flowers
YES! We did this, and what was estimated as jobs that would take 3 weekends maximum has taken us over 3 months. We turfed the grassy bit by hand, hauled that lot off to the tip, painted the red brick wall that didn’t match the other walls, constructed a frame for the decking, built a shed, ran electricity outside and down the side of the house underneath the decking for sockets in the shed and lights on the decking, decked most of the garden, graveled one end, boarded part of the wall, repainted the back of the house, angle-grinded the concrete off the stairs and made railings for half of it. Although we still have to paint the stairs, make a new door for the cellar and finish off the rest of the railings, it’s been such an accomplishment (mainly I might add, on Adam’s part – he’s turned out to be amazing at DIY!!) Ohh and I also planted some lovely hanging baskets, had sunflowers growing, our herb pot has not yet died AND I have a whole load of big pots and bulbs in the boot of my car ready for Spring flowers! Once it is complete I’ll show you all how great it now looks!
3. Visit Sally in Birmingham
I can’t believe I haven’t got to Bham yet! We’re heading up at the end of November for Adam’s birthday, but that’s more of a couple thing than a weekend hanging out with Sal. Will have to get this organised in the New Year, but she is so damn busy even though she lives there, she’s the one who’s also barely in Birmingham!
4. Grow my own vegetables
I’d have loved to do this, yet the garden wasn’t quite ready in time! Holding out for next year definitely when I can have a lovely raised bed filled with veggies!
5. Visit my grandma more
After I’d written this post Adam and I actually went to Grandma’s for Sunday lunch, which was so lovely! I’ve also seen her a few times when she’s come up to our house, and also when my brother Harry graduated, so it’s really lovely getting to spend time with her. Equally, I try and see Babcia and grandad often too as Mum goes frequently as well.
6. Do more exercise outdoors
Summer was a bit crap wasn’t it?! This didn’t really happen at all, but let’s blame the weather!
7. Poland with my brother and grandparents
This was AWESOME! We went in July, and I’m sorry to say I got swept up with writing Bake Off posts rather than many adventures, so I’m yet to make them a photobook of our trip, and I don’t think I’ve actually sat down and gone through all the photos ever either!
8. Cycle the Plym Valley Railway (and take a camera this time!)
We have cycled along the railway, in fact, we cycled about 30 miles one day, but this was actually before the list was written, and we haven’t actually been back again to take photos this time (it’s such a beauty!)
9. Reunion weekend with university friends camping in yurts
What was supposed to be about 51 of us (if everyone had decided to come) actually turned into 9, but it was so much fun all the same and we had s’mores over the camp fire, went on coastal walks, ate ice cream on the beach and slept at a cool campsite in a yurt!
10. Throw Katie an amazing hen party
In August we planned a lovely weekend with all her favourite ladies where we decorated her house with tonnes of old funny photos and homemade pom poms, had lots of drinks and silly games, a morning at a spa, a lovely picnic in the sun, afternoon tea, an evening at a funky Sicilian restaurant where we all dressed in black and Katie was in red, and cocktails at an art-deco converted cinema! It was boiling, literally the hottest weekend all year, but it was so great to meet everyone and we had a lot of fun.
11. Have a day out around the inside of Saltram House and have a picnic in the gardens
We never did this, despite meaning to loads of times – 🙁 PLUS my national trust card runs out on Saturday but I’m actually in Falmouth so I won’t get my chance to explore the house for free!
12. Re-tile the bathroom
We decided to leave this one for the winter as the garden took SO long to complete. It’s going to be tricky, and I still think it’s a shame as our current bathroom has very clean white tiles currently, but Adam wants to change it and put in underfloor heating and it’s his house, so I’m happy to help him do whatever he wants!
13. Spend the weekend at home with my family
We actually ended up doing this quite a lot more than I expected. Lots of weekends involved either going further up north, or being in or around home.
14. eBay my huge bag of clothes
NEEDS. TO. BE. DONE!!
15. Learn a new skill (no idea what this one could be yet!)
Does angle grinding count? Or how to re-wire a plug?
16. Go to Harry Potter World (it’s been on my wishlist every Christmas and Birthday since it opened!)
Alas, this hasn’t happened. However, exciting times are ahead…wink wink…
17. Host an al-fresco dinner party on a sunny evening
The perils of a rainy summer and decking that wasn’t really finished until Autumn! We did have a few meals on our little table and chairs, but no elaborate dinner parties outside until next year!
18. Weekend in Falmouth + Electric Beach Festival
Wow this one feels like a long time ago now, but it was such a blast! Whole weekend in Falmouth, I think I even blogged about it too! Yep – this post HERE. 😀
19. Go abroad with Adam. Requirements: great food, cheap flights, lots of sun
We’ve just done this! Mallorca 2k15…oosh oosh oosh…(that’s my impression of the types of people who usually go to Mallorca on holiday!) We had sun (mostly) we ate loads of tapas, drank tonnes of Sangria and explored our way around everywhere we possibly could!
20. Have high tea somewhere fancy
Not necessarily fancy, but it was pretty delicious and lovely. We had a bloody good high tea too at Bone China too. It was a Blogger Meet-up that you can read about HERE.
21. Do yoga at lunchtimes on the grass outside
I could barely even lie outside and read, let alone do yoga, what was I thinking?!
22. Practice my violin again after years of not touching it (all my grandparents will be so happy!)
Nope, sozza grandparents! Shhh…
23. Go to London and catch up with everyone I haven’t seen for ages!
I went to Loooonnnnddddoooonnn (and didn’t actually buy a heat magazine fyi!) but I did get to see all my old housemates from uni. I still have quite a few people I’d like to meet up with so I think a winter trip is in order!
24. Give up refined sugar for 4 separate weeks (1 week is just about bearable at a time)
Dayummm I like sugar too much. I’ve done this on two separate weeks, but I failed to do it on all four. i’m a terrible person, I know!
25. Bake successful macaroons (past experience = this one is tricky!)
I so should have included this as part of my bake off bake along posts, yet the last ones weren’t great and I didn’t want to be judged. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll try this weekend. Actually, I highly doubt that tbh as i’m going to Falmouth all day Saturday and then Plymouth on Sunday where hopefully the weather will be kind and we can *fingers crossed* finish off the last few bits in the garden!
Phew, so there we go, my accountability of my summer bucket list – well done if you’ve got all the way through it! I feel like it really helped steer me to do things, even if I only managed 11/25 (oof that’s poor effort isn’t it?!) and actually I ended up doing some pretty cool other things on top of this list too:
I went out for dinners, saw Frances live in Bristol, caught up with nearly everyone I know and like at some point or another, had a great day at Tom and Katie’s wedding, went to a food and drink festival, explored a local relic, baked all ten weeks of the Bake Off Bake Along, swam in the sea (multiple times), met Dawn French, attended an upcycling workshop, made a beehive cake, went on my favourite date of all time with Adam and spent a lot of time adventuring and keeping myself as busy as possible!
Also, since writing that list, I realised you already knew 90% of those things as funnily enough, anything interesting that happens tends to be blogged about, or at least instagrammed!
If you wrote a summer bucket list, did you manage to complete yours or are you forever copying things over on your to-do list like me?!
