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Monday 30 December 2013

Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings to you all from my poor neglected blog.  The last few weeks were SO chaotic (both in terms of a ridiculous workload at the end of term and lots of lovely Christmas stuff with family and friends).  My new year's resolution must be to post more regularly again.....!

Anyway, here's the edited highlights from December...  The harp moved out of the lounge so that the Christmas tree could move in.  I was very proud of the 'new look' silver and gold tree (63 baubles for £5 from a local Charity shop!)


The harp has taken up temporary residence in a corner of the dining room.  This photo was taken on Christmas morning.  There were five of us for Christmas dinner this year (my parents and Mark's Mum).  My sister and her family went to stay with her Father in Law in Derbyshire.


Thomas the cat has really enjoyed having his humans around.... in the form of open access to the sofa and an almost unlimited supply of treats!


On Christmas Eve we took my parents and Mark's Mum for a little drive around the Cotswolds.  This is the church in Temple Guiting.  Mum particularly wanted to see this village because she's recently read a murder mystery based in the area.


We then stopped off at the tea rooms near Broadway Tower..... A coffee break seamlessly moved into a lunch stop too!


The views from the windows were so gorgeous that it seemed a shame to move on..


Eventually we drove down the hill to Chipping Camden and stopped to explore another church.


The church was full of families rehearsing for the Nativity play and Christingle Service..... All very festive!


A very important, non-festive, development in our lives has been the arrival of another (!!!) Marcos.  You can probably see that it's another major project to entertain Mark for a few years.  (He gets as excited about Marcos parts as I do about wool and crochet projects!).  However it has to be said that family and friends are slightly bemused by the fact that this is Marcos number 3....

 
Anyway...
I hope that you are all enjoying the last couple of days of 2013
and all my best wishes for 2014!

Monday 2 December 2013

Birthday Celebrations

I celebrated my birthday on Friday evening.
A few of my oldest friends came round and we had a little 'carpet picnic'..


On Saturday I continued to celebrate with a lovely walk round some National Trust land,
just to the south of Bridgnorth...


The sky was a fabulous colour...


There were shadows and reflections everywhere..


At the top of the valley we tried a new route, which extended the walk by a few miles..


We picked up an old lane, which was in surprisingly good condition..


Eventually we reached higher ground and the views started to open up..


These two cottages have a stunning view towards Clee Hill and the Welsh borders..


We picked up another old lane and dropped back down to the River Severn..


By this stage we'd walked about 9 miles and had a huge appetite
for the 'eat ups' from the night before..
I even had a small glass of 'drink up' red wine (birthdays and all that!!)


The end of November is a funny time to have a birthday....
My cards always have to fight for space with the early Christmas ones
and work commitments can be a nightmare.
However, I loved my 'low key' celebrations this time.
Winter picnics are really fun!

~X~

On other subjects...
At the moment I don't seem to be able to access any of the blogs that I follow through my dashboard.
I haven't a clue what's going on - but I just can't get to your latest posts.
Is anyone else having the same problems...
I wondered if I'd missed an update or something.

Jx