25 November 2008
There's been some fiercely beautiful skies lately - some just before sunset and some after sunrise. Skies that look like they have caught fire, casting the shadow of their flames on the earth beneath.
These are shown as they were taken, no photoshop, just nature.
24 November 2008
Yorkshire is a wonderful county! Jenny and I had a lovely time at the Knitting and Stitching Exhibition in Harrogate on Saturday. Simon dropped us off en route to Leeds where he and Becky were going to do some Christmas shopping before watching Leeds trounce Hartlepool. A large portion of our day was spent wandering from stall to stall going 'ahh look at that' and 'oh isn't that beautiful'. I quickly exhausted my allocated budget and then spent the rest of the time picking up leaflets and business cards from places to follow up later when money allows.
There were alot of people exhibiting work they had made - beautiful wall hangings and pictures all of which had been stitched in one form or another. I had lots of inspiration and ideas of things that I want to make. I just need to manage my time better!
We had a short wander around Harrogate picking up a few more christmas pressies before getting on the bus for the hour long journey to Leeds. Simon picked us up from the bus station and we drove up to Headingly for the last stop of the day.
Simon went to university in Leeds, many, many years ago and used to frequent a pizza place called Salvos. He's been threatening for years to take us there and on looking on the iinternet we found that, not only was it still there, but that it had been voted UK Pizzeria of the Year by the Times last year.
Despite getting there early at 6pm the restaurant was almost full and was buzzing with chattering patrons. The staff were friendly and courteous and we had a lovely meal. It's another one of those places to go on the elusive 'eating out page' when I get around to sorting it out. Or maybe I will just stick some names up on the Links page - that might work better.
18 November 2008
Life here is always a case of feast or famine. We go months without seeing folks, then they all land at once, or we have a glut of places to go after hardly crossing the doors. We had a lovely weekend away in North Yorkshire without the girls. Helmsley is a lovely place, one of those quaint country market towns and we find ourselves returning every few years. I'll write more about it on my travel page (time permitting) as it was quite eventful.
Jenny and I are off to the Knitting and Stitching Exhibition in Harrogate on Saturday to get inspired and stock up on some craft supplies to see us through the rest of the winter.
There is also an impending visit to Newcastle on my horizon. We rarely get a chance to look around when we are up there as we are inevitably visiting folks so I thought I would take myself off there for a couple of days in December. I want to take my camera and hopefully get some half decent shots of various places I remember from when I lived there.
Other areas are just as manic though - whilst 'official' work has settled down somewhat, I've been asked to do 2 new websites and a web banner in the last week. Banner is done and dusted and I'm making in-roads into one of the sites but on the off chance there is still anyone around reading this thing, then updates, once again, will be sporadic.
12 November 2008
I am having a few adventures in on-line grocery shopping. Last week I somehow managed to order double the amount of vegetables that I needed, so last night I set about to make a shipping order of soup.
My favourite is Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup. Unfortunately, shopping on-line meant that the red peppers I had ordered had been substituted for orange ones. But you know, every cloud has a silver lining ... yada, yada, yada ... and I would like to introduce you to ... Sunshine Soup!
Guaranteed to cheer you up in the middle of winter and tastes delicious with some chunks of bread.
11 November 2008
5 November 2008
Thrilled to wake up this morning to the news that America has come of age.
1 November 2008
What's that saying ... if you can't beat em ...?
Took the girls to Chatsworth yesterday for a walk through the fields and a warm up hot chocolate at the garden centre. They had their christmas display up and running already so we did our traditional thing early and bought some decorations. Usually we have a trip out in December to do this. It really is ludicrous that christmas displays are in full swing on what was the last day of October, a good 7/8 weeks before Christmas itself. That said it is a particularly good display and they have the nicest tree decorations. We were oohing and ahhing all around the shop, and there were so many that we wanted to buy.
Anyway ... it got me thinking. I have been feeling decidedly Christmassy already, this has happened for the past couple of years and I try to fight it off. I find that by the time we get to Christmas Day that I've peaked long, long before.
So ... my solution is to just embrace the Christmassy feelings and I have decided that Christmas will last for 2 months this year. Starting yesterday. It will mean drinking a hell of a lot of mulled wine which is tough but someone has to do it!!
So I'm looking forward to spreading out all those treats that usually get consumed in the space of a few days - the chocolate log, dates and marzipan, mince pies, stollen and christmas cake. It will still culminate in the feast of feasts on Christmas Day, but I think this way, it will help winter pass much more pleasantly. And with carols and christmas jingles playing softly in the background throughout, it will be simply wonderful.
I may even get around to decorating the site too.
Blog History April / May / June / July / August / Sep / Oct