A walk in the grey

It's very grey around where we live at the moment, but despite my DH nursing a cold and a cough we wrapped up warm and braved a breath of fresh air this morning.

I decided to take my camera despite the gloom and was rewarded with this lovely log, the textures are almost like skin.



And the cows were enjoying the morning, so we felt we should be too.





And on our way home we found a short cut and passed this lovely little brook, so it was worth making the effort. I wonder where we'll go tomorrow.

Celebrations and thank you's

Well that seems to be that for another year, onto the new one.

We had a wonderful round trip with our family this year spending time with each our DD's in turn, no cooking or veg prep for us, yippee. Well actually it did feel a bit strange but we both felt very cosseted, thanks to all of you.

To top the festivities off our DD3 hosted a gathering of the clan yesterday which was brilliant and we are very grateful to all her family's efforts to make it go with a swing, including the cleverly devised raffle.



Very popular with all concerned.

As was this wonderful gingerbread house made by our DD2 and her family, it was scrumlicious.



And of course Christmas wouldn't be the same without bucks fizz and smoked salmon on Christmas day morning .



And Father Christmas did come after a very long wait.



Thanks to our wonderful family for making it such special treat this year.

Stuck

Hi there! I know everyone is very busy with it being only 1 day to Christmas eve tomorrow, but i just wondered if there were any clever knitters out there that might know how to recreate this diamond pattern as I've forgotten how I did it. As you can see I sketched it out to see how many stitches there were to a diamond and how they work together, but that's as far as I've got.

I'm off to watch The Young Victoria now as my brain needs a rest.

Escaping

Having got very bored with being at home by Sunday having been holed due to this:





followed by a 24 hour bug that tuned into a 5 day stay:

We decided to go down to the South coast to a wild life reserve Pagham Harbour . It was bitterly cold but sunny so we took a walk along the estuary trail and while my DH was photographing this little chap,



I was busy photographing this,



you can see why we get on can't you, opposites attract, so they say :-)

But I think we both liked this,



And now to a happy ending. We thought we didn't need a Christmas tree this year as we're in a flat and probably won't be around a lot, but when it came to the festive season proper we realised that it would the first time ever since we've been together that we haven't had one. So I voiced our thoughts to our girls the other weekend and lo and behold our lovely DD3 produced this perfect 6' fibre optic tree, which fits our flat perfectly. Aren't children wonderful, thank you :-) I had to post a video because the lights don't show in the photo.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to all the lovely bloggers who've been visiting both my blogs over the past year.
And a big thank you to DD 3 for hosting a brilliant creative weekend.

Pyjama top made yesterday by DD2 for her DD

Something a little more scenic

The other weekend we took a trip to Cardiff for a visit to our DS and DIL, and as usual we were treated to a wonderful relaxing time. For once we had some lovely weather and took a walk from the Mumbles to the next town along the coastal path. It was superb, especially as we were treated to a lovely lunch when we got there.



Looking back towards the Mumbles.





Half way there, getting hungry all this lovely fresh air.



And a final walk along the beach for lunch.

I did take a lovely shot of our hosts, but managed to delete all my pics off the camera instead of just one, so these are courtesy of my DH.



Just found this one from the DH collection, our hosts are striding across the beach eagerly anticipating lunch, they must be even hungrier than me!

We were all excited over the weekend as we're expecting another grandchild in March, so it was good to catch up with our DIL in person and know that mum and baby are doing fine. We know he's a boy and he's very active now :-). He will be number 13 for us. So we now have enough for a football team plus reserves LOL.

Thank you both for a great weekend.

And now a creative link for all textile enthusiasts Chelsea degree show
I was so excited when I found their web site, I haven't been this enthusiastic about an exhibition for years, I just wish I'd seen it early enough to go in person.

And finally, how about this for a winter warmer, my DH's corned beef hash...... yummy !

Home again

Well Dungie worked her magic and we're back home feeling refreshed, it's such a shame we have to come home via the M25, all those lorries and so much traffic, after spending a few days in 'the land that time forgot' it's a bit of a shock!



This is what they do best there, we had a wonderful fish supper on Monday, I had pan fried whole plaice at the Pilot pub, amazing!



And this is the relaxing way to do it.



And this is where you could live if you have a spare £250,000, I wish!



And this is what gives light to an otherwise black piece of land once it gets dark.

I don't know why we love it, but it always brings us peace and quiet in a sometimes mad world.

But as with everything else these days, nothing is sacred. There are proposals to remove huge amounts of shingle from the beach to protect the power station, there will be up to 50 lorries a day from October to March for 12 years on this wonderful peaceful place, if the powers that be have their way.

Chilling out

Dungeness, an unlikely place for R&R I suppose but we love it and come here often when in need of a wind down.

Just a few pics while on quick internet connection.





Bit cold and scary up there.



Alas poor fish.

Good to be back