Daily Snappers Photo challenge Day 1 "Gives You Hope"

Not sure how long I can keep this going as life does tend to take over, but it is a new year and I might as well try again to take a photograph each day and collect them up so we shall see.

Daily Snappers Challenge  Day 1 post from me.  This is my first photograph of the year.

A reading challenge to start the year

Alphabet 2014 Book Challenge


Might just have a go at this, but first of all need to learn all about the links etc.

So here goes

A 

B  Breakfast at Darcy's Ali McNamara  Found this on the good reads site as a recommended read and then thought would have to have a go as it was supposedly set off on an island off the coast of Ireland.  Am enjoying it so far so will have to see what happens. Just finished it today as I couldn't put it down and loved it.  I want to read more by this author.  Just a lovely magical tale of Celtic magic. (5/01/14)

C   Cupcakes at Carringtons  Alexandra Brown  An okay read but wanted to finish it rather than enjoy reading it.  Too many characters and not enough of a "real plot" for me.  (3/01/14)


D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

A Quiet New Years Eve

What horrible weather to end the year on!  Rain, rain and more rain and heavy showers as well.Even got soaked walking to the post box!

  A day to get some work done and some other chores but eventually you need to get out and about so went off for a mooch around the shops.  Still miserable out there then though.  Went off to get the animals some supplies - new water bottles this time.  A little look in M and S, nothing much around there and drop off a parcel at the Post Office for Martin.  I lead such an exciting life don't I? 

We were having an evening in so just got a few bits of food and we were all set.  Daniel, at the last minute, decided to go out to a friend's house.  Martin drove him as I didn't want Daniel out on the roads later that evening, I always worry about spiked drinks etc, other drivers on the road.....shall I go on? Martin will pick him up when he needs to get home but he decided to stay the night.

Sitting down, relaxing, watching telly and the door bell goes.  Our porch is open so I went out to find a mysterious box sitting there and when opened revealed a lovely bouquet of flowers from my friend Cheryl and family as she thought I had had a dreadful start to Christmas with no electricity and wanted the old year to end with something nice.  A lovely, lovely thought which certainly brought a smile to my face.

Very lucky to have such good friends.
We stayed up to watch the fireworks on telly and roundabouts although why some people start at about 11.15 I don't know.  In truth it was more a case of going to bed with my book and then getting back up nearer to midnight as there is nothing much of interest on telly on New Years Eve really.  I did sit down and watch Holby City which I enjoyed but apart from that my book held my attention more tonight.  The fireworks were lovely but I was tucked up in bed by 12.30 again with my book by my side. 

A day of lists, time to ponder.

Had to make a start today on all the jobs that needed doing so of course I resorted to writing lists as I usually do - the satisfaction of crossing jobs off that list is amazing.  First job was to unpack all the shopping that the Tesco man delivered in the pouring rain....the weather again was not pleasant at all.

So today was spent booking hotels for Sarahs university interview visit as we have decided to drive up there on the day leaving nice and early and then staying overnight as the whole interview process does not finish until 5.15.  I don't fancy driving back in the dark on unfamiliar roads if I don't have to.  We have booked into the East Midlands Conference Centre at the DeVere Hotel.  Got a good price for dinner, bed and breakfast for us.


  I think it is a better idea and I know I will be more relaxed about the whole thing.  She could take herself up there but I thought it might be good for to have company and it is in half term as well.

Next job was to finish those dreaded  writing targets and pop them into my literacy planning.....tick.  Then came the maths planning... a week on time for us to plod through.  Always a good one to do as useful in the real world.  Spent quite a bit of my own time looking for the work I wanted them to do but that is another thing done.  I might try and spend a bit of time this week getting another week or so of planning done and then I can relax a bit at weekends when I am back at school.  Spent some time also doing bits sorting out some of the children's finances from years ago and completing Sarah's CRB form for her for her to take to the university interview.  best to get these things sorted now rather than hunting for them when we needed them in 7 or so weeks.  Yes I also spent time counting the weeks to the next half term....you can tell I am not happy in my job when I do that before I even go back.  Only time will tell though as what 2014 will bring....

Managed to get everything I wanted done.  Late nights were catching up with Daniel so he took him off to bed early...yes 7.30 is early for him.  Sarah seemed to spend her evening flitting from one room to the other to have a chat to who was around and I spent my time reclined on the sofa watching a film.  Bedtime was around about 9 with my cosy pjs, my comfy duvet and my latest book.




Not sure what I think of this yet, still getting into it but it is light reading and I do enjoy a little light reading.  Tomorrow will be another day of lists I think.

A sleepy Sunday but relaxing and a good way to meet neighbours.

Didn't plan much for today as I just wanted to get some school work done and dusted, I don't want to let it all pile up until next weekend and then be rushing around at the last minute. 

So literacy planning was done and dusted this morning in readiness for our new book.  I read this a couple of weeks ago and wasn't sure what I thought about it but then when I looked at the planning for this book I could see how the children would become engaged in the story.  With all the flooding at Christmas this book is quite appropriate for the children to study, not just in literacy but in our geography topic.  I am sure we can bring other subject areas in as well, PSHCE and art no doubt will feature in our planning around this book.  We had great success when we worked on our last book with them - "The Princess' Blanket", even the boys were engaged and were quite happy to write love letters, news reports etc.  Let us hope that this book creates the same activity with both boys and girls.

We woke to a lovely frosty morning, rain is forecast for the rest of the week though so cold was good today.  I had to just take a few pictures of the lawn with its coating of white.

Even the rabbit run was frozen

Back garden

Front garden 

We spent the afternoon looking at trees in the back garden with our new neighbours and the neighbours from the house behind ours whom we hadn't met before.  Hopefully we will be getting someone in to remove the fir tree that is in the back garden and has developed a bit more of a "lean" than it had before the storms.  
This evening I intend to sit down and watch some films and have a relatively early night with my book.

And the sun is now shining!

After a particularly windy Christmas, I look out the window this morning and see relative calm out there. The sun is even shining.  We have just dropped mum off to the coach station for her coach home, have spoken to my cousin on fb and he is going to pick her up at the other end - not that she knows this, so it will be a surprise for her.  Martin is talking about, note I said, talking about sorting out the fence in the front garden.  It will be the first time he will have been outside over the Christmas period as laziness seems to have set in.  Daniel is still tucked up in bed and Sarah has retired back into her room to read I think.

I am considering a trip to the local garden centre to see what bargains can be had..... looking at a jacket I spotted before Christmas..... you never know.  I also need to make a list of things to get done now over the next week as I don't want to leave school work and things like that until the end of the week rather than do bits here and there as I go along.  Looks like I could be heading out to collect fencing bits and pieces as well as I know Martin will not just do it himself.  He needs that extra kick up the behind.

Had some lovely gifts over Christmas though and am very luck.  Some I have put away others I need to sort out today.

This is my stocking that my lovely daughter made for me with some of the things I love best and supplies of hot choccy for next term.

  

This is a selection of the gifts I received, some from my family and some from friends and the children at school.  Clothes have already been placed upstairs in the wardrobe and I might just remember to photo them later.

Just had to nip out and help the menfolk sort out the fence which is now laying on our front lawn.  Sarah was called into action as well.  They find it difficult to do things independently around here......May even have to go shopping to get the metal posts to go into the ground next...

Also have had a chance to nip to Tesco and pick up some quick essential supplies and the local garden centre to buy a jacket that I have had my eye on for a little while now - just a waterproof regatta jacket that was reduced and will be good for wet playground duties!

Oh going to be called for duty again.... I heard the inevitable words "Where's your mother gone?"  Looks like I am off out to Sainsburys Homebase.

Christmas 2013 after the storm and before electricity.....

That's not totally true as thankfully due to the staff of UK power we did have electricity for some of Christmas day  and we were very thankful for it.  Many of their staff didn't get home to celebrate with their own families and despite the frustration of the lack of information, I also have to say that my thanks went to Tammy in the call centre who kept her word and kept ringing us back even if she could not get any more information to us, it was nice not to feel as if we have been forgotten.

The storm hit us on Monday 23rd in the evening, we lost power just as mum and I were sitting down to watch a film, don't think I will be watching that one again in a hurry!  The weather had been bad along the route for mum but got to pick her up from Gatwick and get her back home where we had an early dinner thank goodness.

Christmas Eve was a washout as we had no power, no heating, no hot drinks apart from meeting our neighbours in the evening and finally getting a flask of hot water as they had a gas hob.  The less we remember about that the better especially since the evening went so slowly and the number of times we bumped into tables etc..... well.  Sadly because of this power cut we lost a number of our fish from our salt water tank but Martin stayed up all night and agitated the water every twenty or so minutes and we kept at least half of them alive.  It was quite sad to come down the next morning and find a number of them dead.  I know they are only fish but you hate to see any living creature suffer.  We were all safe and well so we were very thankful.  We also found that we had lost much of our front fence and a tree had fallen across our new neighbours lawn at the back .  We will sort all this out at some point but all in good time, no one was hurt.

Christmas Day dawned, a cold and bleak one at first.  Mum, Sarah and I stumbled off to church not feeling our best, as with no hot water, we could not shower..... we smelt fairly sweet though so no one backed away.... Church was quick and would you believe it there was no heating in it, despite the fact that they had power.  To say mum was disgusted ..................well she uttered her disgust as soon as we entered.  Thank goodness it was over quickly.  The season of goodwill was not extending too far at this point.

Sitting in church I thought that I might just get the bbq out when we got home.  I knew I had sausage and bacon in the car..............well not much point putting it into a warm fridge so I had left it in the car overnight...Off came the cover of the bbq, on went the gas bottle and soon it was alight with the smell of sausage and bacon and a pan of boiling water.  Breakfast was yummmy although I did question what I had done when the sky emptied in a rain shower whilst |I was cooking...

  

They were very well received by one and all and Sarah even said it was one of the best breakfasts yet on Christmas morning.  We thought we would battle on and think of other ingenious things to cook later in the day.  About 11 ish I went upstairs to get something, can't remember what and I saw a UK Power van go past our house and stop.................. well I ran downstairs without whatever I had gone up for..... Daniel and I went off on a reccie to see what was happening and met four very nervous looking engineers and lots of neighbours whom we had not met before.  Got all the info and thankfully they managed to connect some of us back onto the power supply.  Sadly some people are still off as I type, we may go off again when they try and reconnect the other people.  We were so pleased I went back down the road with a tub of Quality Street to share.  I did ask if it was safe to put the turkey in?

Christmas was back on..................................  Turkey went in, Daniel did the sprouts, mum the potatoes and swede and Martin sorted out the fish tanks.  Sarah went to check on the rest of the menagerie.  We then decided that if dinner was back on the rest of Christmas was, so mum finished wrapping her pressies she had bought and left here, bit difficult to do by candlelight the night before.  We sat down in our back living room, gathered around the tree about three and opened away and left the turkey cooking.

 

Daniel is seen with his blanket around his knees as he had resorted to clean shorts......he had been asked to bring his washing basket down on the Monday but hadn't and was recycling clothes....think he has learned his lesson.  So after all the trauma we had a lovely Christmas and ate our dinner and relaxed in the warmth.....Not too bad after all.