My 18th Birthday

I celebrated my 18th birthday this weekend with some friends and family so I thought I would share some of the gifts I got (in case you wanted some birthday/ Christmas list inspo) and some photos so that I had a record of my birthday.

My actual birthday was on Friday, so I spent most of it at sixth form but I got to see lots of my friends so it wasn’t all that bad! When I got home I went for a meal out with my family. It was a really nice day and I had some lovely gifts from my family.

My mum and dad got me a new laptop as my old one was in pretty bad shape and I’m going to need to take one to uni with me next year. They also made me a photo book, a recipe book and got me some other bits and bobs like the Canadian farmer's almanac from the year I was born.

My Aunty gave me some money so I could get a new hacking jacket, I picked this one from Equetech and it seems like it is really good quality and it will last for a long time.

My sisters got me a Longchamp Le Pliage bag, a Rydale polo belt and a picnic blanket.These are both really thoughtful presents that they know I will make good use of!

I'm really grateful for all of the presents I got so thank you to all of my friends and family.

Lots of family members and family friends gave me money for my birthday which was really kind, I am still deciding what to put it towards but at the moment I’m leaning towards a long sleeved schoffel.

On Saturday I had a party at home and invited some of my friends and family. We put on roast pork, lots of cake and cider. My sister and my mum made me a tractor cake that was bake off worthy! There was so much attention to detail, my sister even made shredded wheat bales with strawberry lace baler twine. It was a really good night and it was nice to see lots of my friends and family.

I want to thank everyone who came to celebrate with me, sent a card or present or a message. I had a lovely weekend!

Is it nearly Autumn yet?

As I was taking a breather and having a cup of tea today, sometime between frantically filling in my UCAS form and starting my Chemistry revision, I popped into Google ‘when is the first day of Autumn 2017?’. The 22nd September, which also happens to be my eighteenth Birthday, is the first day of Autumn this year.

Autumn is often regarded as back to school season, a time not many students look forward to, that awkward season between the end of the Summer holidays and the start of the Christmas holidays but in reality, it is the season of so much more. It’s the start of the hunting season (hooray!), the start of jumper season and time to crack out the neoprene lined Le Chameaus!

As well as all of that, shooting starts up again properly, Halloween rolls around, and the leaves start to change colour.

Another calendar event for Autumn is the start of the new Young Farmers year. I’m sure lots of members are filling in their forms for another year, clubs are meeting to elect their new committees and planning for new members night is well underway. It’s my first year as an intermediate member this year too! My club will be having our annual Harvest supper at the start of October, this is where the old chairman hands over to the new chairman and all of the awards and trophies from the last year are presented. Last year it was a really good night and I got the Best Junior Girls Member trophy and the Stockjudging cup. Fingers crossed for another good result this year!

This was officially your Autumn-is-coming-prepare-for-lots-of-hunting-posts warning, so I hope you’re looking forwards to it… Apologies for the lack of posts recently back to school has been hectic, but hopefully, I will be back on track now!

p.s. If you haven't already seen, I have a new profile picture on my social media! It's a custom drawing of me and my goats from www.lizsmithillustration.co.uk She also does family portraits, Christmas cards etc. and they would make great gifts!