Sadly Neglected Blog

It's been nearly a couple of weeks and a lot has happened which I've not had a chance to spend typing at the computer.  I really miss that I can't post from my I-Pad as Google no longer has an app to compose blog posts.  Anyway, which David is watching American football catching up from games shown last night and will be seeing more of today's games I thought I would take the opportunity to spend time on the 'Big Mac'.

Week before last saw us go to Middlesex for the funeral of my Aunt and David and I went with my sister and brother in law.  My aunt had been having respiratory problems for a long time and the last two weeks were spent in hospital before she passed away.  She was my Mum's younger sister and was well loved by family and neighbours.  The service was taken by someone who grew up next door to my aunt's family and so knew my aunt well, which was a nice touch.  Anyway unfortunate circumstances lead us to meet up with cousins that we've not seen for a long time, must have been 17 years ago and it was good to see them all.

Last Sunday was our 40th wedding anniversary.  David had arranged for us to stay near Stratford-Upon-Avon.  We were able to see the Victorian Christmas market going on there although it was bitterly cold.  We managed to find the Nutcracker Christmas shop and we also had a look at the shop next to Shakespeare's birthplace and added to our Christmas decorations.  I joked before we went that I hoped to get a Christmas Bard, and David bought it for me!

There were Christmas parties being held at the hotel that Saturday and felt like gatecrashers going through the bar to the restaurant! That's the only problem with having a December anniversary!  Anyway, on Sunday morning we were greeted with this....

Snow! We put a brave face on and went to Stratford town centre and the roads weren't too bad, if really pretty with the snow covered trees.  Here's the view from the car.

Needless to say there some shops open, but not that many so we consoled ourselves with some coffee and cake in a lovely warm coffee shop and later went back to the hotel room to hibernate!  Any thoughts of going out to a nice restaurant to celebrate our anniversary were out the window and we stayed and had the hotel buffet dinner, but it was good to get away.  On the Monday we returned back home, leaving a little later in the morning fortunately once out the hotel car park the roads were ok to drive and the snowy scene on the roadside did look pretty.

View from the car again, this time with a promise of a wee bit of blue sky, but that didn't last long.  The snow line stopped at about Marlborough, where we had a coffee stop before heading further south to Poole.  I'll be there still won't be any snowfall for Christmas though!

Last month on the UK Quilters United postcard group there was a Christmas swap announced and I made a couple of cards one of which went in the swap, the red one on the right.  My card went out on Monday.  The one on the left has gone to my friend Brenda.

I received this one from Sharon on Thursday

On Thursday I went to the Christmas dinner with the Bourne Quilters and at the pub there were also my ex-colleagues from Borough of Poole so it was good to see them too.  Today David and I met up with a friend of ours for dinner, which means no cooking today!

This morning I made a quick postcard which will form a Christmas greeting so I won't show that here just yet.  I've also recently joined together some hexagons from last year's hexie swap to make a wreath shape which will be sewn onto a background, will make a table centre.

Will it be done in time for this Christmas?