Beamish .....

I can't believe today is the last day of January already .... where did it go ??  I had meant to do this post about 10 days ago but time just completely went too fast.

Apart from both mine and Degz's birthday being in January and the fact that I've had two meals out this month , which is completely unheard of , I think the highlight of the month was going to Beamish Museum on a school trip with Milo's class.

If you follow me on Instagram then I apologise for the photo repeats but it just looked so lovely in the snow. Where we live we had a teensy tiny bit of the white stuff but just that little bit further inland it looked like this .

Milo's class are learning about the second world war so they had to dress up like evacuees for the trip . I couldn't find anything for him to wear so ended up knitting him a tank top . Normally I don't like making 'big' things as I get bored but on this occasion I made an exception.

The museum puts on special classes for schools so they were made to pretend that they had actually left their homes and were now living on a farm in the countryside. They were shown how to make carrot cookies and how to 'blackout' the windows of a house. I loved it all and could quite happily have stayed there but I think the highlight for most of the children was the visit to the sweet shop where they actually make all the old fashioned sweets ...

If you ever get the chance to go I would thoroughly recommend it .

A Weekly Recap .....

Brrr it's cold out there and the wind is blowing a gale. The forecast at 2pm said it was going to snow so we sat and looked out of the window in anticipation but saw nothing ...... not one flake.... oh well.

I took these photo's on a short walk we did last weekend before the boys went back to school . I was looking for something a little different and the lichen on all three caught my eye.

Yesterday was my birthday , it's a bit pants having your birthday so close to Christmas and in a month where the pennies are always stretched due to getting paid early in December . I still had a lovely day though, a lie in until 8am as Degz got up to get the boys ready for school. A beautiful bouquet of flowers from all my boys and then a trip to the cinema to see the Hobbit , I'm a bit sad that all the films are done now as it was something we've looked forward to every year ,

So all in all a bit of a quiet week but that's not such a bad thing , I like the routine and I've spotted quite a few of my Tete a Tete peeping through the soil so that is something to look forward to.

Icy .....

On a clear frosty night in Winter soft ice crystals might form on an object or vegetation that has been chilled below freezing point.
These ice crystals are known as ' hoar frost ' and sometimes might be so thick that it looks like snow.

Just before New Year Milo and I took a quick walk around the fishing lake to feed the ducks with some stale bread . Yes it was cold , very very cold but it was oh so pretty and so peaceful .
We haven't had any snow this Christmas and I think I remember that we didn't have any at all last year either . If we can't have snow then this hoar frost will most definitely do.

New Years Eve 2014

So , as the sun sets on 2014 I just wanted to pop in on my neglected little blog and wish you all a very happy New Year .  

Here's hoping that 2015 will be filled with love and laughter .

Gabe........

 

Last weekend the rash on Gabe's chest turned into clusters of tiny blisters so we took him to A&E . It's just at the end of the street so we didn't have far to go.

He was diagnosed with 'Shingles' which we were told could either spread all over his body and be really painful or 'fingers crossed' could stay in one spot and not be too bad.

It is contagious but only by touch so the school said he couldn't come back until all the blisters had scabbed over.

Luckily it didn't spread so that meant we could spend some time down the park..... I think he kind of liked being off school just me and him.

Queen Anne's Lace

Such a beautiful plant and did you know that it's edible ?

It's recommended that you use a first year plant but the thin woody roots can be used in soups, stews and for making teas.The leaves can be chopped and tossed in a salad as can the flowers which can also be fried. The aromatic seed can also be used for flavouring soups or stews.

You learn something new every day.

The Last Day..........

Monday was the last day of the school holidays . It was still warm and very overcast but we went to the beach.

After a breakfast of bacon sandwiches we went to see what we could find.

I think we did pretty good .......