Over the hills and far away

Happy New Year everybody!

Thankyou for your messages, I think we can officially say that I'm totally rubbish at replying to them..oops, sorry, I did try and reply to lots though, honest!Well, we are home from Northumberland and home to a New Year...Oh how I love that place,the sight of that wonderful range of hills in Cumbria that you have to drive through on the M6 to get there makes me feel in awre of this wonderful, diverse country and it's amazing landscape. We always play spot the highest (barmiest) sheep as we go whizzing past. I get the same feeling seeing those Cumbrian hills as when I come home and see ours. The sky was bright blue and they looked like crumpled velvet as the sun hit them. (these photos were taken on the way back home to Malvern)It was lovely being able to spend a few days with some of my family, walking round the pretty stone village of Corbridge, having the most delicious cream tea at the wonderfully nostalgic Watling coffee house where my niece works and visiting the fabulous shops again..particularly RE , where I spent some of my Christmas money from my dear lovely Grannie on a fab little vintage-style mirror, complete with shabby writing and speckled glass! I was very restrained in RE, anyone who has been there will know what wonderful quirky stuff you can find in there. Old flags,rusty letters,cake stands,vintage eiderdowns and gorgeous cushions, candles shaped like cabbages of all things (and very 'phallic' looking asparagus candle as my sister kindly pointed out..yes, it was us sniggering in the greenhouse part of the shop, a smutty sense of humour runs in our family I'm afraid) The rest of my Christmas money has found its way to America and I can't wait for the purchases to arrive from there..'utterly fab' doesn't even come close to what will be winging its way over at some point.(well, I couldn't spend it all on boring old bills and food could I..?) My sister was looking at the most gorgeous vintage haberdashery cabinet (she's a dressmaker/soft furnishings maker) last I heard it was a perfect fit for her sewing room so I hope that means she's going to buy it...how jealous am I!!
She must have been bonkers having 18 of us to sleep but it was great fun, a few mad family days to forget about the impending court case and all our worries, worries that it seems a lot of us are sharing at the moment judging from the heartbreaking emails I received from some of you last month...and I thought we had a lot of problems..I do hope we all find a way out of our mess with jobs and the doom and gloom hanging over some of us at the moment. I guess we were one of the luckier ones in that Pete still has his job for now.

Coming home from our visit 'up north' we walked into the house and I can honestly say it was colder in than out. The blooming boiler had stopped completely whilst we were away and there were five shivering cats huddled up together on the sofa to keep warm..poor things.(well ok, 4 cats,Winnie is out of shot as she refuses to cuddle up with the other cats..no matter how cold it gets, snooty old thing!)
Two roaring coal fires and lots of cuddles later they finally warmed up, I think it has taken 3 days to heat up the house again, you could see your breath inside it was that chilly! It would have to be one of the coldest winters I can remember having in this house, when the boiler decides to well and truly go on the blink..if the hot water is running the heating goes off and vice-versa..hot-cold showers are not my favourite pastime..if you were walking past our house at the time I apologise for the rather blue language and screams that sprung from the bathroom!
Today it was minus 7 and the pond was frozen over..for the first time in 9 years..not a temperature you want to experience really without heating!! I think I may know what poor old Tracy cupcakes was enduring too..chiiiiilllly.
We've got a new feathered lady who has come to live with us after a very nasty experience with Mr.Fox (talk about traumatised, poor thing) and lots of lovely and very unexpected Christmas goodies to show and tell, as well as a very late tag to do from Happy (loves Rosie) I've also been painting and had a move around on Christmas Eve..yes I know..Christmas Eve, 8pm and I decide to swap furniture about and wallpaper backs of cabinets..barmy. I was making cushions for Christmas presents on Christmas day believe it or not! disorganised ..who me??
So I shall pop back with some more pictures and posts hopefully later in the week.I have a lot of catching up to do with everyones blogs too.
Tomorrow I'm in court with the oldest stinky boy..this is the 'fisticuffs at school with a so-called friend' fight back in May which we never thought would get this far. I hate this part..hanging around in court for hours usually to be told its adjourned or someone hasn't turned up..Talk about wasting taxpayers money..best of luck if they are wanting some money out of us, there's already an orderly queue!

Oh and by the way ..does anyone know a cheap way to ship eiderdowns (over 2kg) outside the EU? If so, I'd be ever so grateful if you could drop me a line..£79 is the cheapest I've found so far....£79!?! sounds ridiculous doesn't it?