31st December 2010

We went for a walk this morning and as you can see the snow has all gone. In it's place just grey and wet ... who cares about a bit of mud , I mean, isn't that what washing machines are for.

Anyway , just popping in to wish all of you a very Happy New Year and to say thank you for all your comments and friendships this year.

Next month I'm going to try and do a post a day again like I did this year and also might even throw in a little giveaway as I haven't had one this year.

Now I'm off to empty all the rubbish bins , can't be having dirty bins to see in the New Year !!

23rd December 2010

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year..........

16th December 2010

Just thought I'd share a few pics from our week. We put the tree up and this year it was Gabes turn to put the star on .... just look at the concentration on that face.

Try as I might I couldn't get a decent photo of the tree but I kind of liked these.

I've been furiously knitting these hand warmers as gifts for the teachers/assistants at school , that's 10 pairs just to start with. It's a good job that they only take a couple of hours to do . The pattern is really easy and is available from here.

Gabe was the innkeeper in the nursery nativity - bless.

With my Christmas money from my parents I treat myself to a couple of little things .

Little mushrooms from here and a little Maileg pixie from here .

You will have to excuse my lack of words as Gabe has kindly given me the lurgy and my head is banging so much I can hardly think.

10th December 2010

Just thought I'd share a few photos taken on the way home from school last night ... the sun was setting just after 3.30pm.

We had a huge thaw last night and lots of the snow has melted , unfortunately what was left was all the ice that had been compacted underfoot. Getting to school this morning was really dreadful and quite scary . It was literally like walking on a skating rink, so bad that I actually took the car to pick up Milo from school tonight as the roads were better than the pavements. But hey , guess what ............ yep , we have more snow forecast for next week !!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

9th December 2010

Today it's a balmy 3 degrees , the warmest it's been in what seems like forever. We've been getting as low as - 12 some nights and that was around about 10pm so it probably got a lot colder. We've been wrapping up nice and warm whenever we go outside.

The snow is melting slightly but as you can see we still have plenty .

With all the freezing temperatures there are icicles everywhere but it's been impossible to get decent photos of them , even though some of them are at least a couple of feet long they are just too high up .

I took these in one of the school gardens this morning.

Beautiful aren't they ?

7th December 2010

Last night I made a start on putting the Christmas decorations up , just a few things as hub is on late shifts this week and I didn't fancy putting the tree up by myself. I was intending to wrap some green foliage like ivy or holly around the light also but it's all hidden again under the snow that fell last night.

There are still quite a few berries on the trees but every morning I've been chopping up a couple of slices of bread and throwing it into the back lane for the birds to eat. We only really get seagulls and pigeons but there are a few starlings still knocking around and a family of crows. I've been chopping up bits of fruit too , every little helps in this weather I think.

We are still sledging to school. It is soooooo much quicker for Gabe to get pulled because if not he stops literally every two seconds to throw what he classes as snowballs.

Dobby doesn't mind the cold as he is safely tucked away in a nice warm drawer just waiting to go into a certain someone's Christmas stocking .

The pattern is available from here .... it's a really easy pattern to actually knit but I wasn't concentrating as I was sewing him up and as the bits for his feet and ears look pretty similar I ended up sewing his feet to his head !!! They don't look too bad though I think ? His eyes were a pain to do and I just couldn't get them right , this was as close as I could get.

Now I have to get on and finish the 8 pairs of wrist warmers I've got earmarked for presents and also a little green someone for Gabe.

6th December 2010

Woooo Hoooo and it looks as though normal service has been resumed - fingers crossed. Finally I can post pictures , send and receive e-mails and read blogs again. Oh I have missed you all.

Thank you for bearing with me .

These pictures were all taken on Saturday and as you can see we still have plenty of snow although with temperatures of at least -10 during the night a lot of it is now turning to ice .

Walking anywhere is pretty lethal . You can't walk on a lot of the paths as there are piles of snow/ice everywhere not only from the paths being cleaned but also where all the snow has fallen off roofs. As for the icicles, I've never seen them so big ....

A few streets away from where we live the snow is causing lots of damage to the old houses . Can you see the big crack on the right hand side of the window and where the windows have buckled ? Scary.

We only had two snow days from school although other schools close by were off for the full week. One day we only had 8 pupils in the class and the daft thing was that some people who live on the same street as the school were ringing in to say that they couldn't make it !!

I don't think that this is the last we will be seeing of the snow this winter and to be honest I don't really mind it . I am dreading when it starts to melt though as we'll probably have rivers running down the streets and need a boat to get to school instead of a sledge.

Oh, and that is me waving my arms at the bottom of the hill and the little dot beside me is Gabe... that was one heck of a ride .