Turning the corner - a review of 2025

When I think of 2025 I feel a wave of fresh air and relief due to the fact we finally said 'enough is enough.' Enough of the Nanny state running our lives, enough of the virtue signalling, enough of the accusations & war on words.

After decades of passivley accepting our fate Great Britain turned the corner and set off on a new path.

My highlights for 2025 started in January when President Donald Trump and his crew of brilliant clever individuals brought back some common sense to the West. I watched his Presidential opening speech with a bottle of bubbly and celebrated a man who is willing to state the obvious, there are only 2 sexes, male and female! The pomp and ceremony of the State visit to Britain later on in the year was a joy to behold. America was in charge and Britain agreed to not invite the Mayor of London to the proceedings. America has led the way in peace negotiations in multiple countries. A breath of fresh air after all the war mongering.

The institutionalised church had a brilliant year - the Roman Catholic church voted in a new Pope as soon as Pope Francis had passed. A Muslim prayer room was added to the Vatican & a white Arabian stallion gifted to the new Pope. In contrast the Anglican church took nearly a year to replace their resigned leader and decided to celebrate their new female Archbishop by covering Canterbury Cathedral in graffiti!

In my smaller but just as relevant world we had a dry Spring which went on forever and a dry hot summer which left the lake parched and empty for most of the year.

The dry barren cracked earth became a painful eyesore with the lack of rain but the hot weather meant it was wonderful wearing summer clothes again. My bright red dress finally saw the light of day and had lots of use!

The weather just kept on giving. I grieved the deserted wilderness that the lake had become but when the rain returned in the Autumn it returned to its old beautiful lush state. ( Last Winter trees were cut, the island cleared, all of the lake water drained and the reinforcing wall inbetween the two bodies of water reinforced with corrugated metal sheets)

My spirits soared when I finally saw the brilliant bright blue flash of the Kingfisher as he returned to his nest on the island. I finally managed to get a clear viewing of the green parakeets that I could hear every time they flew over the courtyard. I named them - Chiquita & Eduardo. As usual my delight in the wildlife that surrounds me kept me company all year. I even discovered a huge grass snake as thick as my arm living in a hollow willow tree down by the pub.

Autumn arrived and a never ending ocean of acorns fell, a mast year. Walking down by the lake now meant being careful not to slip on the marbled sea of little round nuts lying in a thick carpet on the ground.

A late summer holiday with friends in North Devon at Lee Abbey in September was the weekend that Charlie Kirk was shot - confirming that our virtue signalling 'tolerant society' was just a shallow fake facade, in reality having a different opinion might lead to murder -whether in reality or via social media - the accusations continued unabated.

The Bible names Satan as 'the accuser' - His minions did his bidding and carried out a war of words.

The same week that Charlie was shot, Unite the Kingdom held the biggest march in London ever recorded - ( Unsurprisingly the mainstream media played down the numbers and ignored & misrepresented the reason over a million people took to the streets of London.)

2025 was the year that my French family returned to England and resettled in Dorset. This was also the year that the horses were back - meaning warmth and noise returned after decades of living above quiet dusty empty stables.

Talking of horse power - a new motorbike workshop moved into the shed space alongside the bakery.

The annual 'Gentlemens's ride' raising money for men's charities occurred again and the park lawn was filled with men wearing suits and boots on motorbikes.

The music was flowing in 2025.The Big Church festival sold out for the first time ever and this year I managed to get 2 tickets to Chilworth Manor Picnic and Pinks Saturday night concert. Standing in the throng of the worship tent at Big Church festival where a huge crowd gathered inside and spilled out onto the grass was incredible. The atmosphere was beautiful. Dripping in honey and warmth. Closer to home we had a second - 'Live at Loseley weekend' of fireworks and live music.

The dry Spring & Summer led to a fire above the property on the day there was a large gathering of Porsches old and new on the front lawn.

Nearing the end of the year the ever so high and mighty intellectual arrogance at the BBC had to apologise for false and biased reporting. Can you believe it, the BBC who we were meant to trust and pay our TV licenses to turned out to be the purveyors of fake news!

Men and women began speaking about God. There has been talk of a quiet revival. Young people and particularly men returning to church. The media dismissed many of them as white working class Christian Nationalists, uncouth, and therefore not to be associated with. We can clap for the National Health Service but being proud of our nation has to stop there. Nationalism is associated with bad things like being a fascist and football hooligans. It's time we reclaimed pride in ourselves, we are an amazing nation of wonderful people. Our flag belongs to us, the hard working, cheerful British people who are generous and kind.

This year the Union Jack and St Georges cross flew on motorway bridges and from household flagpoles in a spontaneous wave of national pride.

Israel and Gaza were hot topics this year. The national institutionalised church made sure everyone towed the line & supported Palestine. Stepping outside this box was frowned upon and only for those who did a little more background research than the BBC who happily screened all the footage sent to them by Hamas.

.... Why was Jesus born a Jew, it would have been so much easier if he wasn't associated with that piece of land and those people. Maybe God has made a very big mistake!

From the headlines you'd think the Jews had taken over the whole earth - colonising continents. Their tiny miniscule piece of land is surrounded by a vaste sea of Arab nations who have made their own empire building desires very clearly known. All the way across Europe & Africa and America the cry of 'Allah is great' goes out from mosques.

If you say the word 'genocide' enough people will swallow it. I've never heard of any country that sends flyers to warn the civilian population when they are coming and gives directions to areas they will be safe. Or a country sending in food supplies estimated at 3000 calories per civilian per day to those they are supposedly killing?

'The accuser' continues his campaign and his minions do his bidding.

This year people were thrown into prison for social media posts and prayers were legally categorized as a 'thought crime' in parts of the United Kingdom. In other parts of Britain 'Sharia law' was implemented.

'2 tier Starmer' became the catch phrase of 2025. One law for Woke & Islam and another for everyone else.

It would all be very depressing if there hadn't been a huge kick back to the way things have been progressing.

The year closes with the new political party - Reform now considered to be the opposition party and Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe competing in the popularity stakes to be the next Prime Minister.

Upside down, we never saw the complete overhaul of the British Parliament party system that has occurred this year. We now have 3 new independent parties and possibly more to be birthed on the horizon.

We are no longer naive, we do not think these new political parties will make any difference unless they have leaders brave enough to overhaul the whole system and refine the unelected civil service and elite who run the show from behind the scenes. The old BBC series 'Yes Minister' followed by 'Yes, Prime Minister' couldn't have been more accurate in it's portrayal of how the country is really run.

So the year is ending. At work we lost our beloved Catherine and I painted her favourite place in her memory.

The year has been momentous and epic, just this past weekend I attended an Advent service at a Benedictine Friary where people arrived 45 minutes before the service just to get a seat. There was a que to get in, a crowd so large that more people were standing in the aisles and at the back than were sitting. They couldn't fit everyone in and people listened from outside. Who would have seen that coming - we really are living through a quiet revival !