First blog post for a while, mostly because I was on holiday over Easter, and have since changed jobs into one where I'm much busier than I was previously. I'll try to catch up from where I left off.

We took the week after Easter off and stayed in a cottage in Canon Pyon a few miles north of Hereford.

We approached it in a similar way to our summer holiday last year - lots of walking, some sightseeing, eating out, and generally spending time together as a family. It was really refreshing, and helped to get us all back together again.

I won't go over each day in detail. Here are some of the things we did - Severn Valley Railway; Ironbridge museums (kids favourite - Enginuity); Hereford Cider Museum; Dunkertons' Cider.

We also managed to fit in around 12 miles of walking, mostly in short 2 mile countryside strolls although we did manage one large walk covering 6 miles (!) at the Brockhampton estate - a National Trust property near Leominster. This was wonderful - a sculpture trail (which the kids enjoy) through mature woodland in glorious sunshine.

Since coming back, I've moved into a new job. Same manager as before, but I no longer have staff and I've given up all the finance responsibilities, which were never really me anyway. So my job is now more about gathering stats for the region and doing analysis, which is much more up my street to be honest. It helps that I've also been extremely busy, and that makes me feel much more comfortable. Having a quiet day once in a while is all very well, but if it happens every day I start to feel like I'm stagnating.

Kids are all OK, they are enjoying our new "play room" extension or "sugar cube" as it's been christened (it's all white). I should blog about this more fully, but it was finished in four weeks, and now contains our Wii and a television, although getting an aerial installed has turned into a bit of a saga.

That'll do for the moment, more to follow shortly.