Welcome 2015!

Good morning and Happy New Year!  A whole New Year spread before us - hopefully we can all make the most of it and grab every new opportunity that comes our way.

Yesterday was a lovely day.  First there was some happy pootling about with some crochet in the morning (yes, I was the first to get up again, I love that quiet time before the household wakes up).  I had quite a lot of scraps of yarn left after completing my challenge blanket (which will have it's own post soon) so I am making a lap blanket for me - this is my progress so far...

I will make it as large as I can with the yarn I have left.  The rows are completely random in order as I am going with the smallest scraps to the largest left over to make the most of every bit of yarn.  But I am quite happy with the colour scheme so far.

Then my 3rd eldest son woke up and helped in the kitchen to make some veggie sausage rolls...

I had some puff pastry and home made mincemeat left so had a go at making pinwheel pastries...

These little treats didn't hang around for long because the rest of the brood were woken up by the cooking smells!

Then DH suggested a little trip out to the Peak District in Derbyshire - neither of us had been out of the house since Sunday so we thought we needed a change of scene.  In-between days are the best, enjoying being at home and just having time to "be", but eventually even the best of loungers can start to feel slight cabin fever looming on the horizon!  We love driving up to Derbyshire, sometimes if we just want to get out for a couple of hours we just drive up to Bakewell and back, the route is so scenic and there is always something different to see.  This time, being the festive season, the little villages were all dressed up for Christmas.  We ended up at the Peak Village retail outlet in Rowsley.  This is based on the site of an old railway station, with the old buildings preserved as shops.  The courtyard looked so pretty with all the lights...

I love how the old stations were heated with real fires, just look at those chimneys...

The snow was still laying thickly on the ground as you can see, but on the way home the temperature started to rise and rain started to fall.  This morning all the snow has melted away.

Once back home, DH cooked tea (he is an amazing cook!!) whilst I finished working on a little heart for my bestest friend Sue...

I wrote "2015" on the larger of the two buttons in permanent ink...

We always go to Sue's house on New Year's Eve to see in the New Year with her and her family, and I like to make her a New Year gift in the shape of a scented heart as a little "thank you". 

As usual, we had a lovely time, catching up with the gossip news, talking about plans for trips in the new year, nibbling on delicious treats.  When the clock struck twelve, DH cracked opened the alcohol-free bubbly.

Then we watched the firework display from London on the TV, as ever these were amazing...



image courtesy of BBC News

I would love to go to this display one year, it looks so spectacular.

Later today we are going to visit my Darling Mum to have a New Year's Day meal with her, DH and I will prepare it as she is still fairly frail after all her recent illness, but thankfully improving.

Happy New Year!

Helenxx

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Good morning all, hope you are having a great weekend.

Yes, we really did have snow here in the UK, and yesterday DH, DD and I went on a lovely afternoon walk to make the most of it.  Yes, our noses were chilling, and the lanes were indeed glistening...please be prepared for a very photo-heavy post coming up, cuppa and a biscuit may be needed ;)

Just two minutes from home the camera was already busy capturing these beautiful birch trees...

The horses were wrapped up warm in their winter coats and nibbling on treats given by caring owners...

Amazing winter wonderland...

The grand old house looking stately in winter...

I thought this tree trunk looked like a fox...

The rooftop of the grand old house looked magical, I love how the whiteness of the snow really showed up the redness of the brick...

Another birch looking astonishing in it's white bark...

We walked through a lovely old village with many cottages and a quaint little church...

More winter fields and sky...

The sun was setting so it was time to head back home...

Past old the old gravestones.. these put me in mind of the scene in Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come points Ebeneezer Scrooge towards his own epitaph...

The moon was rising...

More snow clouds rolling in...

And mist started to form, eerie in it's strange formations...

Eventually we were back at the birch trees we had spotted as we left home...

Such a wonderful walk, we enjoyed every moment of it (especially the short stop for coffee half way around the circuit!).  The scenes I managed to photograph seemed to me to be, and I hope you will excuse the pun, frozen in time - many of the scenes would have been so familiar to our ancestors 150 years ago. 

Helenxx

Christmas and Snow

Hello everyone - I hope you had a great Christmas Day, and that you are continuing to enjoy the festive season.

We had a lovely time at my Darling Mum's house on the Big Day, 8 of us all together, laughing, eating good food, opening presents...

Santa had been very busy!

The drinks are alcohol free as we don't drink alcohol (we are quite lively enough without it LOL!!).  The day was judged to be "one of the best Christmasses ever".

The tree lights shone brightly...

And we were treated to a wintry sunset...

We went home in the evening, all tired but happy, and just sat and watched some films on TV.

Yesterday though I got up with a nasty pain in my shoulder (I have no idea how I managed to get it) and so had a fairly easy day at home.  I finished reading Little Women and re-read a book of Christmas stories by Dickens.  I made a big crock pot of veggie stew.  Dozed a bit in the armchair (painkillers probably helped with this!) only to be woken up by a commotion - it had started to snow...

  
The flakes became bigger and bigger...

and quite a large amount fell for this part of the UK.  The kids (even those in their twenties) got very excited about it! 

This morning, the sun is out and the sky is blue...

snow covers the garden...

little footprints adorn the fresh-fallen snow...

and my back feels much better so hopefully we will get out for a walk later on once everyone is up and about.

I hope you all have a lovely Saturday, whatever it is you are doing.

Helenxx