Arctic Expedition

Hello again from a snow covered Manchester. I did have the bonus of a day off again yesterday but I had an annoying headache for most of it, hence the lack of bloggyness. I woke up to a phone call from the dentist at 7am who said she was going to attempt to drive in and would pick me up on the main road at 8am. I got ready for the snow with my hiking boots and gaiters and set off on my Arctic expedition :) It's so lovely walking in snow (apart from when people throw a bucket of water out their door in -17 temps-hello ice rink). My new winter love today is icicles. I don't think I've ever seen any as amazing as the one's I've seen today. These were the first I spotted,
and these were on the pub I waited outside.
It looks like something out of Disney :) We made it to work and I got to see minty again. He was covered in a lovely blanket of snow but still didn't want to start (love the colour of the sky in this one).I called out the AA again and the nice man said minty needs a new coil (didn't realise he was on birth control) and that he could tow me to a garage but they would charge me £200! He said we could buy the part and fit it ourselves for £40 so obviously that's what we decided to do. Brian rang a scrappy and they've got one for £20 so even better! Brian's going to get his car sorted tomorrow and then hopefully sort out minty. We only had about 4 or 5 patients turn up so we went home at 1 o'clock (I could get used to this) but I decided to walk as I needed to go to Tesco for supplies. It was such a lovely walk. I took so many picture but I'll share my fav's. This is the best I could get of the hills with my phones camera, they also look pretty but now they look amazing,
this is an arty one of a berry bush that looked lovely
and (yay) more icicles on our drain pipe.It's weird how everything looks so nice with snow on. I can't stop looking out the window. The photo's just don't seem to do it justice. I'll be back in tomorrow but only for the morning again. It looks like we'll probably be cancelling the chicken keeping course this weekend as we may not have a car and it's probably not worth driving out in the snow but there should be another one we can book on to soon. I'm pretty sure anyone reading this (if there is anyone) is pretty bored of reading about snow now so this is my last snow picture......for today anyway :) I took it from the same place as when I took the picture on this post back in October,

I love snow!

Well I guess the finger crossing on my last post worked as it's 2 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon and I'm at home :) Yes I woke up to the biggest snowfall I think I have ever seen!We must have had at least 8-9 inches overnight on top of what was there already. It looked amazing as it had all built up on the tree branches. I knew I wouldn't be in work as the dentist hates driving in snow and lives on a hill and most of the patients wouldn't come in anyway. I was actually up and awake earlier than normal as I was so excited about the snow. I checked with my boss at 7.30 that we weren't going in and then settled down to watch Moulin Rouge with Hayley in the warm.

Brian knew his boss would be in so he decided to walk to work as he thought it would be easier and he was right!
There were car's abandoned everywhere apparently. He did get some lovely pictures in the park though,
and some before anybody had walked through, I love fresh snow:)He was sent back home at 12.30 so we've been taking the Christmas decorations down and doing all the jobs we've been too busy to do. It's still snowing now and has been since last night which I know a lot of people are moaning about but I love it! The only bad things are that we haven't got any shopping in and my car is still at work but never mind. I'm sure we've got some tins in the cupboard.

I had been planning to nip to the shops yesterday lunch time to get myself some knitting needles but minty breaking down meant that didn't happen so I'll have to wait but I can't help thinking it would have been lovely to be sat here knitting whilst the snow fell outside. I'll just have to do a bit of reading up on what I'm going to make first :) I've just looked outside and it's coming down thicker than ever so cross your fingers again and I may just be back here blogging tomorrow :) The picture I'll be leaving you with will actually be a change to the snow as I think there's enough of that on this post already! It's the view from the Poets stone in sheet (Hampshire) which Brian took when we got up to it on Saturday afternoon. I can hardly believe the difference in weather from then and now. Bye for now, hopefully see you tomorrow same time :)

The weekend of lovely gifts :)

Well here I am back again in the new year and excited to be blogging still, especially as I've had my first ever comment and not from family but from the lovely Lorilee of Cackleberry Cottage blog all the way over in Texas, USA :) so thank you for the message and the encouragement to keep blogging Lorilee.

Me and Brian had a lovely quiet night in on New Years Eve with a Darling buds of May marathon accompanied by lots of cheese and wine. We headed down south on New years day as it was my Mum's 50th birthday weekend. We had a great time with lots of surprises. My lovely mum had prepared a mini Christmas for us when we got there (with a full roast!) so even though we had lots of presents at Christmas we had even more to open! Luckily I'm truly my mothers daughter and had bought them all some extra presents too :) Along with some other lovely things they had got me a new purse from none other than Cath Kidston and I can't explain how much I love it! It even matches my new red roses hand bag I got in the sale :) Look at it, isn't it amazing? :)My parents also got us a great book on Alpaca farming which will come in very useful soon and they very generously gave us some money which me and Brian have decided to use to buy the Chicken Ark I blogged about last time so needless to say I'm very excited! They also got me this pretty red jumper from Joe Brown which I am wearing now as I blog :) Aren't I lucky? :)Saturday we went to visit our friend Sally (who I miss loads) who has just moved on to a farm in such a pretty location. We went for a walk to the poets stone (a very high hill with stunning views) and then had some stolen loaf and hot juice back at her house. Saturday evening was my Mum's cheese and wine birthday party which was great fun and I got to wear my lovely new dress I got from Next in the sale which you can see here (not modeled by me!) which went perfectly with an antique style white rose necklace my sister gave me.Sunday was my Mum's actual birthday and we went for a lovely meal at the pub up the road. I'm happy to report my sister is doing well after her hip operation and is whizzing around on crutches and should be back in college tomorrow. We travelled back Sunday afternoon and came home to yet another blanket of snow. I managed to make it in the work this morning but minty decided he'd had enough after the 500mile round trip and stopped working at lunch time today! This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that Brian's car died last week...

...as I wrote that sentence Brian called me downstairs to let me know he fixed his car with a new battery! Hooray! At least we have one car working now :) Minty is currently sat outside work waiting for the AA who can't come out till tomorrow so I will let you know how he gets on in a later blog. At least I don't have to walk to work in the snow tomorrow :)

My final pieces of exciting news are all crafty really. I spent a few evenings last week reading through the whole of Diary of a Tiny Holder blog and getting so inspired by Sian and her amazing craftiness so I have decided to start knitting. I have also been wanting a sewing machine for a while now but her blog really got me wanting one and by sheer coincidence, whilst I was down at my parents, my God mother offered me hers as she is getting a new one for her birthday! How amazing is that!? My Mum and Sister are going to be bringing it up for me when they make their first visit up here in Feb. My final bit of news is that my Mum has in trusted me with her 30 year old kenwood mixer (which was a gift from my Great Nan) as Mum got a new one for Christmas. I am so excited about this as it has so many memories of baking and cooking from my childhood so I cant wait to use it :)

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of the ice skating ducks in the park across the road :)P.S. Brian has just told me that he has handed the notice in on our flat so we are officially moving! Hooray!

P.P.S. I just looked out the window to see a blizzard falling out the sky! Fingers crossed we're snowed in tomorrow :)