Todays icy walk....

We didn't get much sleep last night as hubby is still poorly and he went to bed early but was fidgeting and coughing most of the night. I didn't go up to bed until 12.30, but couldn't sleep either. I locked up last night and let the dog out and the stars were really bright, but it was sooooooo cold out.
Hubby too poorly to walk Woody this morning as well, so I took him over the Nature Reserve. I have to admit to not walking there on my own for a while, but enjoyed the walk this morning. I wrapped up warm and off I went.

Woody had to be wrapped up as well of course, after his fur cut.

This nature reserve is at an old quarry and brick yard site, but very pretty.

The lake was frozen over. But I could still picture the lady of the lake appearing holding Excalibur!

Look how white the sky is.

The pretty field looking out to the river hamble.

Even the poor old ducks were sliding along the ice.

My Handsome boy.

I love this gnarly old tree, very LOTR.

Most of the rose hips have gone but a few hangers on remain covered in frost.

When I got back from my walk I had a quick cuppa then did battle with T~sco, which I regretted, it was packed, and I knew half the people in there and had kids calling my name. I work locally with kids and can't go anywhere without getting recognised.

I might make some lemon curd later as I'm having withdrawal symptoms. lol :o)

Have a nice evening, and don't forget that the new series of Larkrise to Candleford is on tonight. xxx

A banging my head sort of day.......

Hi folks, Thanks for all the lovely comments about my home, they did make me giggle, as my house is far from immaculate really, I just take pics of the good bits. :0)

Hen, I'm so glad you liked the gingerbread man hangy and couldn't part with it, made me smile.

The above pic is my latest buy. It's a Gisela Graham tea pot and goes with the jam pot and salt and pepper shakers I already have. It was in the sale at Haskins for £6.30 and was picked up for me by my SIL, she knows what I like. My SIL and BIL came to dinner last night and bought me one of her handmade xmas pud bears, isn't he the cutest.

As the title of my post suggests I feel like I've been banging my head against a brick wall today, trying to sort out pet insurance. I managed to get my existing policy a little cheaper, but it would appear changing insurers isn't an option as we made two claims on the dog last year, which is not an ongoing illness but new insurers now won't insure him if he gets a tummy upset in the future, which is the only thing I'm likely to claim on. I think this is ridiculous as what pet doesn't get tummy upsets at one time or another. AARRRGGGHHH.

My other issue today was trying to understand the person on the other end of the phone. The call centres always seem to be abroad and we both had trouble understanding each other, so it takes 10 times longer to sort out and I'm still none the wiser. OK rant over now.

On a brighter note, thanks to Mrs L on the CL forum, I've found wellies that will fit my legs, I'm so excited I've been looking for years for wellies that will fit. They are a little expensive but will last me ages so I'm looking to purchase a pair in the near future, and will pop a pic up.

Have a nice stress free afternoon folks.

All De-Christmased

Well first of all Happy New year to you all, and heres hoping 2009 will be a good year. We bought woody a new bed for Christmas, which he completely ignored for a while, but now happily curls up in.

Today has been spent taking down the decorations and de-christmasing the house. It does look bare now. It took ages to get straight and the more you tidy and clean the more you seem to find to do. I felt myself getting quite cross gggrrrr.

It didn't help that hubby's in a bad mood today and its rubbed off on me and I definitely have the New Year blues now. :o(

But I'm now sat blogging with a glass of cava and feel a little better. Although already thinking about going back to work on Monday which makes me feel :o(.

I have so much I want to achieve in the coming year, far too long to list but I hope I get somewhere with my plans for this 2009. On the top of my list is to be more more organised, especially with the house and the shopping and plan meals. Save money, Loose weight and get fit etc. I'm sure I will be a much happier person if I can achieve all of these.

You never know we may get to decorate our lounge and get rid of that ghastly gas fire. :o)

I've got some lamb in the oven for dinner tonight which I'm hoping will be tasty, and then a DVD I think.

Have a great evening folks. xxxx

Happy New Year....

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends.

An Award....

I would like to say a big thankyou to Jan at Cinnamon Cottage for this award.

I'm just off out in a moment so will do the five things I love about Christmas later. xxxx

Edit

Five things I love about Christmas

A, is for alcohol, well you gotta a few glasses of white wine or champagne

F, is for family, its so nice to spend time with the family over Christmas. We had the best Christmas day in ages this year.

T, is for time off work, well we all love it don't we?????

B, is for baking, I just love the Christmas smells coming from the kitchen. Orange, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, roast turkey.

D, is for decorations. I love the house looking all festive and pretty, with fairy lights strewn everywhere.

Well I'm supposed to pass this on to five people, but as a few of you have already received this award, just feel to have a go yourself, and pop the award on your blog. xxx

No more Turkey Please.....

Look at the great solstice gift I received from my friend Sharon, isn't it great. Shes really worked hard and put a lot of thought into her presents. She made a few different hampers for solstice/Christmas presents. Mine contained home made sloe gin and rose hip syrup, home made green tomato and apple chutney, an orange studded with cloves and home made aura cleansing oil and a bag of homemade marshmallows and the river cottage 2009 diary in a lovely basket. What more could a girl ask for. Thanks Mate. xxx ( I did sample the sloe gin before the pic hic hic).

Well we had a homemade turkey and leek pie for dinner last night and we will be having the same tonight. I have a freezer full of turkey stock and turkey in stock for stews. We had turkey Xmas day, and boxing day and have eaten numerous turkey and stuffing sandwiches, but thank god after tonight no more turkey for a bit. that's what you get when you buy a 5kg bird. It was from the farm shop and cost a fortune so I wasn't going to waste a bit. Well tomorrow night I have my sister in law and brother in law for dinner and no turkey. So what are we having......CHICKEN......lol. Will I ever learn.

We had a lovely walk around the nature reserve this morning. Jack frost had been out in force and it was rather chilly. But I did enjoy hearing the ground crunching under my feet, and Woody really enjoyed the huge stick he found. I remembered this morning that its soon Seville Orange time so will definitely be making some marmalade this year as I missed it last year, so watch this space.

Have a good day all. xxx

A Great Christmas......

Well we had a great Christmas here. Christmas day was a success, all went well. It was the first year I've hosted Christmas, and my parents and my brother and his girlfriend came to dinner. We ate, drank and made merry. Its the first proper dinner I've eaten in ages, as I haven't been very well of late, due to sickness bugs and flu, which I'm still getting over, that's why the blogging has lapsed. I got some great Christmas gifts. Hubby got me the Merlin TV series on DVD which I love and the latest enya CD, bliss.

Also from hubby was this soft and squidgy hot water bottle cover, and these cow wheatie slippers which you heat in the microwave and they contain essential oils.

This little sign was from my sister in law, very apt I thought.

Woody has been on fridge patrol guarding the turkey.

Here's a pic of the Christmas table. The dining room really did look lovely.

I've also been busy making another sheep, which was an order for a Christmas pressie. Its the towelling one.

She took a while but I was pleased with how she turned out.

So all in all a really enjoyable Christmas, drank too much and have enough chocolate to open a shop but I'm sure it will keep.

Hope you all had a good one. xxxx

A cosy night in swap.....

A big thank you for my lovely swap parcel from Josie-Mary, what lovely goodies I have......

Look at this beautiful mug warmer, complete with mug and hot chocolate, not to mention a bar of green and blacks, and a green and blacks chocolate book, yummy.

Also this cute little knitted stocking. Thanks so much Josie.

Frosty Wednesday...

I didn't know what to call this post, so I called it frosty Wednesday cos it is. Its absolutely freezing outside today and the roads are like an ice rink, didn't like the drive to work this morning. My car had completely frozen over again once I came out of work aggghhhh. But until 2.00 I'm staying indoors in the warm nursing my sniffles. Look at the great buys I got on my little exhibition to Winchester on Saturday. I just love the tea towels and oven gloves, and I've always wanted one of these roasters with a rack. All these were from the sale at BHS which was fab.

I can't show you the presents I bought, in case they get spied by there owners to be. I'm off out to dinner tonight with a load of old work mates from my old job, so that should be nice, haven't got a clue what I'm going to wear though, I'm a bit short of clothes at the moment.

Catch you later folks.

cards and mince pies....

Well I sat down briefly earlier, put my xmas cd on and made a start at writing the xmas cards. Of course I had to have a cuppa and a mince pie too.
which was quickly spotted by woody.......

who then did the sad eyes and guilt trip on his mummy. So I did give him a little bit of pastry. well look at him.........

Took my cosy night in swap to the post office today, and then popped in the shop and picked up the next issue of sew hip, and two home mags.

Well off to work now folks have a nice afternoon. xxx