winter white

Bets are on that it will be a white Christmas in parts of the UK this year. In our part of the land we had 12 hours of snow over night and everything is white this morning. The sun is out too which makes it beautiful. No photos as John has taken the camera with him to Whitley Bay...
The last day of school was cancelled today, so the girls are meeting up with friends to play in the snow.
John opted to go north to see his parents as his father has been in hospital again. The good news is that he comes home today, but we will not be going up for the end of year celebration this time.
Emily's table tennis club had its Christmas party last night which was a hoot. Lots of pizza, all eaten....and everyone (mums included) playing table tennis. A raffle to raise money for the club attrated very enthusiastic participants, one group of lads bought £16.00 worth of tickets and of course walked away with most of the prizes. Hannah and Em did not come home empty handed, which was nice.

The lull before Christmas

Things seem quiet....no need to tempt fate, but we have had a peaceful few days. We took the girls and a friend to T'Wells on Saturday to do some shopping. John started coming down with something and by the end of the morning was very miserable. In bed for two days after that.
But apart from his ills it was a lovely day and I had a warm glowing feeling as we drove home, laughing and being really silly in the car.
We had our work Christmas lunch at the Griffin Inn in Fletching on Sunday, which I went to on my own. http://www.thegriffininn.co.uk
The food is excellent and it is a cosy pub, with a roaring fire. I want to take John to it now. I had breast of wood pigeon....and lamb. Yum.
The girls put up our Christmas tree when I was out and it looks great. I am off work now for three days and plan to get the Christmas cards up and wrap some presents.
I ordered our organic turkey and pork at the butchers...even that felt festive. So may people were in there ordering food and talking about turkey. Having said that I am very tempted by goose too....
I have not been able to finish the rabbit that I was making for John to take to his Christmas party. There is not enough time.
Last night I shopped, collected the girls and some friends from the school disco, took the friends home, then came with Adam and Ben to the office to get keys for one of our flats. We moved a chest of drawers out of it, which the boys are going to use in their new home (when they get it) and as I was not home until nearly 10:00 did not feel like crocheting. Which is rare.

Time

I have had a day and a half off work this week and just LOVED it. Not that anything special was done. The home insurance policy had to be renewed and that was done with a saving of £72.00 on last year...More Christmas presents were ordered on line and for the first time EVER, I think I am ahead.
I crocheted too. It is becoming something of a passion. I am impatient and need to pace myself better. My head is full of things I want to make and of course, that means I am going to have to make my own patterns. Seems a bit ambitious when I have only just learnt the basic steps. BUT I am working on my own koala at present. He is looking ok, not great, a bit gappy on his lower belly, something to do with the way the stitches are decreased. More research on that revealed that there is another way to decrease invisibily...my way is partially visible so it is time to learn the new method. I always admire the tight knitted look of other people's work and think mine looks amatuer.
I have been talking about doing something with these little creatures and as I have a history of planning and getting fired up about something then letting it fizzle out before anything gets started, I don't want to not do it this time. There has been a lot of encouragement. I am going to have to post pics here for everyone to see and you can tell me what you think. Honestly!
In the meantime John's days as a diplomat are winding down and he is winding up. There has been a fever of activity and he has been seeing lots of people and talking about opportunities for the new year.
All I can say is that I admire his gusto. Wonder if I am biased in any way?

Birthday

It was my 49th on Saturday....don't feel ANY different. I worked in the morning and had my hair cut short in the afternoon. (Norah Jones was the inspiration for the style).
In the evening I cooked a pheasant with a sausage meat and fig stuffing, wrapped the bird in smokey bacon strips and cooked it in a casserole dish in the oven. On the side I made braised red cabbage with apples cooked in red wine vinegar and mashed potatoes. John opened a bottle of Cloudy Bay and we had a lovely meal - sans enfants who were all out socializing.
On Sunday Em played in her first table tennis tournament and did well. We only went to the morning session, and spent the rest of the day on chores and Christmas cards.
We went to dinner at The Old Mill in Dunnings Road for my birthday night out and again was treated to superb food. Yum...

Very Big News

It is sometimes hard not to tell, but this one has been under our hats for a while now.
John has accepted an early retirement package from the Foreign Office and that means from Jan 1st he is out there on his own.
We are both very excited as a big change like this in life does not come along all that often.
John now has a chance to do something for himself and it means we will be in the UK for a while, probably!! The girls will be pleased as they are not too keen on being uprooted.
As he winds down after 30 years, there is so much to look forward to. The man has a lot to offer.

Winter Concert

John sang in a Winter Concert at the Sackville School last night. (Sackville is the 'other' high school in town, but like Imberhorne, full of talented kids) John's choir sang with the school's choir and on their own and they were brilliant. Medleys don't really appeal to me, but I got quite excited at the wonderful selection of songs from The Sound of Music. It is great to see John get so much joy from his singing. We were very proud.

First frost

There has been 9 days of rain and wind and storms, until today. The sun is shining, the air is crisp and there is a frost. Beautiful. It does mean however, having to scrape the windscreen of the car, a chilly job!

http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/britishbirds

Apart from that, the birds were flitting around the garden and nothing is nicer on a white morning than to see the robin.

This link has some great shots of British birds.