uk roadtrip part 1: brownhills



Did we go on our traditional UK roadtrip this summer, despite having broken up six months ago? Of course we did, except now, we went as friends instead of as romantic partnerns. And it was such a great trip.

It was everything I want from a summer vacation and more. I got to see loved ones, I got to spend time in spectacular nature, I got plenty of alone time, I got so much quality time with my favourite human. It was the best.


We started our 18 day roadtrip with a few days in Brownhills with Liam's family. I took loads of photos, but most of them I can't show here, because they have kids in them - So. Many. Kids! Liam has SEVEN niblings now, can you believe it? (There were only two when we met!)



I did manage to get these of Liam and his youngest sister Joelle though. These photos are representative of that whey normally look like when they get together. :)


Roxie is the most photogenic one out of all of us as always!


The constant tea making going on in this house. :) I was astonished by the Britishness of it back in 2018 when I first visited. I'm used to it now, but it still delights me.



I went for a lovely evening walk by myself along the tow path around the village.


It leads to Chasewater where Liam picked me up, an old tradition we have.


One of the days that we were there, I got to make flower cupcakes with Anne. I love picking the colours.


Liam took one million photos of us (I trained him well!), here are a few:


How are her roses so perfect?! Oh, because she's a pro.


I'm learning, though! I was quite pleased with this!






This is such a joyful way to spend time together.


These little gyps around the rose are my favourite to make.


And I like making the hydrangea to the left, but the tulips are KILLING ME.


The only downside to these is that they are really hard to eat (and this one I even cut in half first. A whole one is a bit too much sugar, even for me :)).




Yes these two are related, can you tell? :)

Thee Sinseers | Like I Can Give

life update!



Just in case you hadn't heard: Liam and I split up around New Year's. We were not as in love anymore as we would have liked to be, so we decided to reshape our relationship from a romantic relationship to a close friendship. We are still each other's favourite human, love each other dearly, and will continue to live together as platonic life partners (in Swedish we've come up with the portmanteau "plambo", for "platonic sambo", because "flatmate" just doesn't cut it for what we are to each other) for the foreseeable.

We're both happy and thriving in this new situation, and I can honestly say that I can't believe my luck; that I get to keep someone as awesome and loving as Liam, even though we are not in love anymore. It's been seven incredible years; beautiful, hard, heartfelt, authentic, loving, sometimes straight up magical years.

Just a tiny bit of that magic, in photos:


2017






2018



2019





2020




2021




2022




2023





2024



2025

Here's to keeping each other for the rest of our lives.

Labi Siffre | Bless the Telephone