Winter - ish!

Although it has been a remarkably clement winter so far the weather has started throwing a little bit more cold at us recently.  This has given us crisp beautiful days with a arc of blue above and a rare sighting of that sun thing myths tell us inhabit the upper regions of our sightable sky.  It's also been welcome to see the nights slowly drawing out as I do get miserable when it's permanently grey and dark when I'm walking home.  Whether this is the cause of my lackadaisical posting recently or something else is to blame for my paltry offerings over the last month I'm unsure but I do intend to get some catching up done on here before too much longer.  That said - right now I must return to work so toodlepip and happy Friday!!

Ahoy there!

I must apologise for my apparent absence.  Much to my startlement it's already the 10th of the new year!  Been quite busy hiding under umbrellas and trying to not get washed or blown away!!

Work has also been fairly hurly burly with the new intake for January; students from hither and yon have been pitching up at my work!
I've also been putting the slow cooker to good use with a new batch of winter soups that I have yet to write up in full so there's that to look forward to and I think we're due a rugby round up on the Chiefs performance this season thus far.

New Years eve was blimmin close though...

Chrimbo - good thoughts to all

What to do when the shop ran out of sprouts - Chrimble is the time for friends sharing...
Our friend - having heard the Chaps awful situation of zero sprouts; posted us a wee care package...

Bless her.  (Personally I couldn't hate them more if they were basted in Marmite but there you go -that's just me!!)  At least the Chap was happy.  Hope you all had a lovely and good festive period with your family and/or friends and/or family that is made up of friends - they're there for a reason so treasure them.  Merry wotsit all. xxx

Path passable, christmas comes, girly shock!

Water levels have dropped a bit now...  if only I had a wood burner there's plenty of fuel just needing drying out left behind.
Weather's still grotty but I shall venture forth into it later for one small item of giftedness followed by a chrimble catch up with a good friend.  Starting to actully feel a bit more festive now - hard to when you have to concentrate on work rather than being able to wind down.  Might even get the tree decorated tomorrow!  (Bought it last weekend!!)  Looking forward to the lovely coloured lights and my pretty things to hang on it.  Yup - I'm a bit of a girly at heart.  :-D

Delightful weather!

In common with most of the rest of the UK we've been getting a bit clobbered by the weather this week.  Admittedly nothing like as bad as further north and Scotland have but we've had a wee bit of rain...

This morning we had a wee bit more...

Anyone want to take the riverside path?

No, I thought not!!

Cold beauty

The lovely sunrise this morning on my way to work.

Makes up for all the nightmare trying to get round shops at the moment!!  I must have spent a good 15-20 minutes queuing in a shop on Sunday for a couple of items.  It was only the thought of having to go through it again that stopped me dumping my basket and scarpering.  You'd think we were expecting a siege the way some people are going at it.  Ok-  if you're having to cater for ten extra family members then yes - you need a wee bit more in the way of food but otherwise - do we really need so much more stuff for a whole day when the shops are shut?  No - I really don't think we do!

Upcycling

Spotted these in a local shop a couple of weekends ago.  Love them but £49??!!!  Repurposed items can look great but I kind of think that as recycling is a frugal thing so the price should perhaps reflect that too.  Now I just need a strong workbench with vice and I too can bend spanners with my bare hands...