New Year's Day 2009!

Phew, 2009 already. What a year it's been. A trip to Australia, my 60th birthday, my brother getting married, Russell and Caz getting married and finally, Ali and Joe having their gorgeous little girl, Poppy Rose. Jim's first 'blood' Grandchild. Oh, and we acquired Buster. We remarked today how he has changed our lives.

We've spent the past few days gathering wood to keep warm and generally chilling between Christmas and New Year. I've taken Buster for several walks and he's taken himself for some more.

We've managed to avoid the troublesome neighbours but on the 30th December we were invited for drinks and nibbles to our lovely neighbours, Joe and Hilary. We had a great time there, most of the Dylan clan were there plus twin girls in the care of 'Gran' for the evening. They are only a few weeks old, absolutely tiny and gorgeous naturally. Jim drank too much and can't remember getting home! He wobbled his way up the hill quite successfully and was in bed soon afterwards, sleeping until the following afternoon, when he felt human again. Joe and Hilarys' daughter Cassie played her guitar and sang for us. She's very shy so it was brave of her. She has a sweet voice and it was a delightful interlude.

A couple of my Christmas presents hadn't arrived by 25th but turned up yesterday. My wonderful 'High performance, Ergonomic and Compact Felco Pruning shears. I tried them out today and they sliced their way through thick and thin twigs and sticks with ease. Brilliant.

The other exciting present was the brand newly published book, 'An Ungodly Child' written by my daughter's partner Rachel Green. Her very first published book. I can't wait to read it. You can buy it on Amazon.

We've had a little visitor in our front porch. Here's his photo, before I rescued him:
















Sandy and Buster have been vying for the use of the chair in our kitchen/diner:

I have put a cat bed by Stanley to encourage Sandy in that direction, but he still prefers the chair. Buster looks pleadingly at Jim!




Eventually Sandy moved but Jim just missed the actual 'jump'. Can you spot Sandy in the photo below?













I took just a few photos from my walk with Buster by the lake yesterday. It was fairly late afternoon and rather dull and dark.





I am amazed at both the size of these oak leaves and their gorgeous markings. You can gauge the size by the beech leaf at the bottom of the photo.



















I could not resist one photo of the bull rushes. Even on a bad day they look magnificent.










The lake shores were all frothy yesterday. Maybe the locals had been doing their washing....



















Buster was quite a way away from me when I took this, so it was very dark. I've done my best with it. How handsome he looks!











How walkers are supposed to work out which way to go, I have no idea!
















This is the road that cuts Dillons' wood in half, snaking through the middle. Oh, and Buster's there too...








Jim has just made some muesli bread to go with our ham and chicken stew for dinner. It was just chicken stew yesterday! We have eaten all our Christmas pudding and mince pies so now it's the chocolate biscuits to go. Lovely.

I do hope all my blogger friends have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and that 2009 is happy and healthy for everyone.