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

Autumn Views Challenge week 7 and some reasons to Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Hello everyone, hope you are keeping warm during this cold snap!  We had quite a sharp frost last night, but found a way to keep nice and warm - more of that in a second!

But first, here is the autumn challenge view for this week

More leaves left than I had expected after our recent windy weather, but the leaves in the background are now starting to change colour as well.

Well, back now to how we kept warm last night!  My bestest friend Sue held her yearly Guy Fawkes Night Bonfire and Fireworks Party.  We look forward to this so much as we have so much fun.  Sue cooks a lovely meal (no photos as far too greedy hungry to stop and take pics!!) so after filling our tummies with yummy food we wrapped up warm and went out to the garden where her OH had lit this amazing bonfire for us all

The sparks flew up into the night sky, a little something to get us in the mood for the fireworks to follow

The fire lit up the apple trees - these are still hanging on to a lot of fruit, we have already had some this year they are absolutely wonderful

Then Sue started to light the fireworks...oooooo....

ahhhhhh......

....and you are never too old to enjoy the sparklers:)

A wonderful evening with a wonderful group of friends!  If you would like to see even more and better photos, please take a look at Sue's daughter's blog, Hermione's World, where you will see wonderfully creative photos as well as some samples of her cooking!

I absolutely love this time of the year, so much to see and do, so many excuses to spend time with dear friends.  And now look what has just started to roll into our little town today

its our annual street fair!  Believe it all not, by tomorrow, the crane will have been packed away and a roller coaster will be standing in this spot!  So exciting! 

Helenxx

PS - here is a photo which slightly freaked us out when we looked at it - what can you see in the flames? (no its not photoshopped/pic monkey-ed or anything clever like that).  I thought it looked rather Tim Burton-ish (for those of you who have ever seen the extras disc for Sleepy Hollow!)