The Year in Books

One of my 'should do"s for 2014 was to improve the quality of my reading choices.

I love to read. All my life I have had my head stuck in a book.

As a child I had a small treasured collection of books including some classics passed down from my Mum and Auntie..... Little Women, What Katy Did, The Railway Children and so on.

But books were expensive to buy so I voraciously read everything in my local library... counting the days till the next Saturday when I could go and choose some more.

As an adult one of life's greatest pleasures has been reading .... although when my children were small it was The Hungry Caterpillar and Frog and Toad, Where's Spot and The Walker Book of Bedtime Tales! As a busy working mum I could only really indulge in mammoth reading sessions on holiday, and I used to love browsing in bookshops and stashing away a collection to take away in our caravan each summer.

Reading kept me calm at numerous hospital appointments in the last few years, and I never went anywhere without a book in my handbag. But, I've sort of slipped into the habit or reading light weight   nonsense ... nothing too taxing or hard hitting. Nothing sad and miserable. Lots of cupcake shops and romance in Paris. You know the sort of thing. Perfectly pleasant stuff!

Now, I have much more time available to enjoy reading but I find I'm still stuck in that place. A friend in work passes on everything she reads to me. .... and I take them home not to hurt her feelings. But as she says "Oh it's just the sort of book that you don't need to use your brain to read it!" She reckons that after a day teaching Year Four that's all she can cope with during term time.

Well, no more!!! I'm ready to start using at least some of some of my brain in 2014.

I've found a sort of on-line book club through Karen at A Quiet Corner, linking with Laura at A Circle of Pine Trees. You are invited to just choose a book each month and do a post about it. I thought I'd give it a go.

Starting as I mean to go on, right now I'm reading The Goldfinch which is a massive book. There's been a lot of hype about this, and the fact it's taken ten years to write. I'm more than half way through so I'll let you know how I get on.

Then out of the blue this week, a colleague in work was talking about a book club she belongs to. Joining a book club has long been on my 'list' of things to do so I've asked if I can join in too, and will be going to my first meeting at the beginning of February. Again it's one book a month, and the choices are already set. There's a few genres on the list that I would never normally select, so it will get me out of my comfort zone!

I'll have to do a lot less faffing around in blog land and get reading!

Works in progress...

I've got a few creative projects going on right now.

Work on the knitted throw continues ....

It has now got one quarter all sewn up, and there are lots and lots of knitted squares waiting to be connected in their rightful place. It's a slow task, but I'm really enjoying it.

For Christmas I was given a Project Life Kit, which is a new ('to me') way of scrapbooking.

I figured that this year will have lots of nice things going on, so it would be good to have a memory of it all as it happens.

I don't think I'll be using it as it's intended, where life is recorded weekly (or even daily). I'm just going to add to it as and when things happen. I've had fun sorting out all the card inserts and making new ones of my own.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a special scrapbook project to celebrate Mr B's retirement. My colleagues in school wanted to make a memory book of the last twenty years, and asked me to collate it all together because I'm the 'crafty' one on the staff.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy scrapbooking, as it's been a while since I've done it. There was a time when I scrapped everything that moved!!!! It's been lovely delving through my stash again.

I have to find little pockets of time when the man is not around, and I'm keeping it well hidden away.

I've been dabbling in art journaling for a while, and have just discovered a new project I want to join in with. It's called Journal 52 and you follow prompts to create a piece of journaling each week for a year. I'm hoping to doing this every week .... but I'm notorious for starting things and never finishing them, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

Finally, this year I have to create a garden.

We've had the garden landscaped over the winter, and there's lots still to do.

Come spring time we're hoping it will be ready for planting up. I'm really looking forward to this project. I foresee many visits to lovely garden centres coming up over the next few months.

Hello January

I'm running a bit late on this one, 

but welcome to a brand new year, full of hopes and possibilities.

Normal life is slowly resuming on the Paradise Peninsula after the Christmas slump.

The decorations have been stowed away in the loft for next year.  

The house is looking decidedly bare.

The boy has gone back to uni.

School starts again this week.

All uneaten chocolates will be put on the staffroom table to remove temptation from this house,

and I will be aiming to cook healthier food again.

Some resolutions have been made .... more a list of 'shoulds' and 'coulds' ...

I should start to read more worthy books 

and less about 'cupcakes and chocolate shops in Paris!'

I should try to lose a few pounds

I should try to improve my fitness

I could get the bike out and actually ride it!

I could walk up Catbells in the Lakes by the end of the year.

(This has been on my list for about four years now so we shall wait and see!)

One thing that WILL definitely be happening in 2014 is very exciting ..... 

we are both retiring in the summer!!!! 

Mr. B will be is having a big birthday in June and is retiring at the end of the school year, and I am going too. (But I insist on telling everyone that it's early retirement in my case, as he's a bit older than me!) 

So we're on a final countdown ......

119 more get ups for Mr. B and 73 for me in case you were wondering.

After a few years of just talking about it, it's finally happening!

Looking back ...

I've had a few tries at writing a jolly review of the past year, but gave up.

The downs outweighed the ups this year, so I've decided to just say....

You gave us some difficult challenges to deal with, 

but we've come through in one piece.

I hope it's a good one for every one of you!

Blowing away the cobwebs

 This morning's rain of biblical proportions finally dried up leaving us with a clear blue sky for the first time in days. We pulled on our warm coats and wellies and headed down to our favourite part of the Wirral Way at Calday Beach.

 The sun was going down over the Welsh Hills shining like gold on the River Dee.

 Inca was delighted to be out and ran like the wind along the sand.

 We had about half an hour of daylight left as we walked along quickly in the blustery wind.

 It was so good to be out and about after days trapped indoors by the stormy weather.
The cobwebs have been well and truly blown away!

Festive Highlights

Here we are in that strange time between Christmas and back to work, when it always feels like Sunday. I'm enjoying these days when we are all cosy inside away from the winter storms, eating far too much and just chilling. Christmas was good, with our house being 'home' again for a short time for our two children. It's been noisy and untidy again, and full of laughter.

 We giggled at the boy's attempts at wrapping our presents .....

We were all truly spoiled by Father Christmas, and there was lots of clearing up to do after the grand opening ceremony

There was lots of silliness at the Christmas lunch table

But, I think the highlight for all four of us was a trip to see the wonderful "War Horse" at the Lowry in on Christmas Eve. I've wanted to see this play for so long and it was well worth the wait.

We were all moved to tears at the end ... it was so emotional.
It is a 'must-see' if it comes near you!

Our Christmas was a quiet family time, spent with our children and parents .... that's all I need really.

And we get to do it all again, this time next year!!!!

Advent Calendar - Day 25

Advent Calendar - Day 24

Wishing everyone

a 

Merry Christmas 

and a very

Happy and Healthy 

New Year

(and a big wuff from Inca)

xxx

Advent Calendar - Day 23

A beautiful stained glass window in Chester Cathedral.

A Fourth Pause in Advent

It's time for my fourth and final pause in Advent, linking with Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup.

Today, I thought I would just show you our nativity set.

These little figures are called Santons, and were bought in the South of France on our holidays. More than twenty years ago, a little white van pulled up on our campsite and a guy set up a stall. 

I was intrigued to see a nativity set in the middle of a hot summer's day, and bought a few of the main characters. We found Mary, baby Jesus, the angel and the kings but no Joseph. So we bought the man with the rather fetching trilby hat as a 'stand in'.

In following years we added to the collection, we found a shepherd and the sheep and the ox and the ass in shops. It took us about ten years before we finally tracked down Joseph. 

More recent additions have been the hen and the goose, and the wonderful camel which is probably my favourite.

These sets are very popular in Provence, where local workers are added to the groups of characters visiting the stable, so you find the butcher, the baker, the seamstress, the farmer and so on all wearing traditional clothes. This is where our random guy with the hat came from I suppose, though I don't actually know who he represents. 

Our little set comes out of its bubble wrap every year, and is the oldest Christmas decoration we have in our house. Our children have grown up with it, and loved playing with it (carefully) when they were small. I also take it into school every year for an assembly as we retell the Christmas story.

For me, it's just a very simple reminder of what Christmas is really about.

Last night we lit the fourth candle on our Advent wreath. 

The fourth candle stands for love.

I thought I'd share something that made me smile a lot this week.

Its a card from one of the infant children in school.

I hope you are surrounded by love this Christmas.

xxx

Advent Calendar - Day 22

The shopping is done, the house is decorated 

and I'm just waiting now for our two children to arrive. 

One will come today, one tomorrow.

Then Christmas can begin!

Io Saturnalia

On Thursday evening we were in Chester to see the annual Saturnalia parade.
A legion of Roman soldiers march into the centre of town with torches lit to ward off the evil darkness.

"Saturnalia was a popular Roman midwinter festival celebrating the god Saturn, which lasted for several days. Saturn was the god of agriculture and worship of him hopefully encouraged prosperity to come. It was a time to eat,drink and be merry and there was a tradition of tomfoolery and role reversal, where masters became servants and vice versa in a  similar way to the Lord of Misrule of later Christmas celebrations. As Chester was a major Roman centre in the UK and the residents are proud of their heritage, it is celebrated here with a torch-lit parade of Roman Centurions to the beat of a drum with dancers and entertainers as well as rites to Saturn himself".

The rows were packed with people watching the parade, but we were too late to get a good vantage point up there. As we were racing along the city walls we could hear the chanting of the parade, and I thought we were going to miss it all.

We were still by the city clock when the legion marched right underneath us.

Luckily, we managed to get really close up to the soldiers by just following them as they marched up the main street.

We were all encouraged to join in with the chanting to chase away the darkness of winter. As the winter solstice was fast approaching it couldn't come at a better time.
By this time we were freezing, and a meal in a restaurant round the corner was a great way to warm up.
It was our special little way of celebrating the last day of term, and the beginning of the Christmas holidays!

Advent Calendar - Day 21

Christmas lights in the Grosvenor Precinct in Chester

Advent Calendar - Day 20

                                     An illuminated snowflake at our local garden centre.

Advent Calendar - Day 19

A Christmas Film

We had a last day of term treat today. 

We took all the junior department to the cinema to see Frozen.

What an enchanting film .... and stunningly beautiful to look at too.
We all sighed and laughed and cried in the right places
and the children broke out into a round of spontaneous applause at the end.

It's a Blue Christmas ....

Last week our school entered a competition to win a special visit from Santa and a premiership player from our local football team .....

and we won!!!!

So Santa came along this afternoon ......

all dressed in blue ..... no reds allowed here! ( Our rival team play in red)

 Leon Osman was so lovely with the children. He spent ages chatting with them and signed so many autographs his hand must have been aching.

Santa brought lots of goody bags for everyone, full of hats, badges and

these masks of our new manager. They were really funny, but just a little bit spooky too.

I don't know who was more excited - the children or the staff.

This is our headteacher, (who also happens to be my husband), arm in arm with one of his heroes.

He had a big smile all afternoon!

I know I'm biased because we all support Everton in our house, but they really are a smashing club and do such a lot of good work in the community, especially with local schools and youth organisations. 

Well done Everton - you were amazing!