All posts by Daisy's Life

Happy Friday 22.01.16

So, Friday is here again, and it’s been a pretty quiet week – not that that is a bad thing! Here’s a little round up of it:

Dogs

  1. Eventually the rain, and therefore the field, dried up enough by the end of last week for me to be able to let the dogs off their leads to run around like crazy things! It had been a complete quagmire for the past few weeks, so it was a real treat for them – and so nice to see them having so much fun together!
  2. Christmas may be well and truly over (four weeks ago already – what?!?) but fairy lights and candles are still being lit just about every night in our house – simply because they are so pretty. Love them!

Living room Snowy garden

3. Obviously a big highlight of the weekend was the snow! I do love it, but not when it disrupts work and school, so it was great that it came on Saturday night so that we woke up to these lovely scenes on Sunday morning – and then was all gone by the start of the working week – perfect!

Snow

4. The cold snap in the weather has meant that the woodburner has been put to very good use this week, as we have lit fires every evening. Installing this is definitely one of the best things we have done to the house – by far!

5. I started my volunteer training at the hospice last week, and I’m really enjoying it. The first session was the foundation course, in which we were given lots of information about all different aspects of the hospice by the CEO and the directors in charge of the various areas – operations, clinical, retail, marketing, finance, etc. So interesting. This week’s session was the first of the actual volunteers course, and it gave us a better chance to get to know each other a little more whilst discussing various questions and topics.

6. I believe that I have mentioned this one previously, but I am so grateful that my job allows me so much flexibility, as came into play on Wednesday when G was unwell at school and I had to collect her at 11am. An afternoon of sleeping on the sofa in front of the fire made her feel much better fortunately, but I was so grateful that I could collect her and carry on working at home without any difficulty.

7. There have been some stunning sunrises this week, especially on Tuesday. The photo really doesn’t do it justice – it was possibly the brightest pink sky I have ever seen, which certainly helps to start the day off nicely!

Sky

8. We may still be two months away from Easter, but I couldn’t resist the hot cross buns on my way home from work on Thursday! A truly delicious lunchtime treat!

Hotcross

9. Tilly was trimmed yesterday, which always seems to put a real spring in her step for some reason, which is so lovely to see (as she is often a bit of a crotchety old woman!). It will mean she dries far quicker after our walks too, which is definitely a good thing.

10. Last one for this week – it’s Friday and I’m going up to fetch B home for the weekend! Hurrah! We are all really looking forward to having some full family time together, so are very excited.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Friday 15.01.16

Well, that’s the first complete week back in the work/school routine done, so my first Happy Friday post of the year. It’s been a pretty good week, all in all, despite being a little worried about B having his first cough and cold whilst away at school, but I’m sure that the matrons are keeping an eye on him for us.

So, here are the highlights of my week:

  1. D came home on Friday night armed with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and bottle of Prosecco – what a fabulous start to the weekend!

Flowers Tea

2. I discovered a lovely new tea at the weekend – Three Ginger from Pukka. I love all things ginger and this is definitely no exception.

3. I had bought some new bedding for our room just after Christmas and so I put it on at the weekend, and I absolutely love it. It’s pale grey, with a delicate white floral design, so looks perfect with our grey and white walls.

4. We used some lovely little mugs which we had been given for Christmas for the first time at the weekend. They aren’t large enough for tea, but are just perfect for coffee, and are the most lovely pastel colours.

Bedding Mugs

5. D and I had a good planning session whilst G was climbing on Saturday morning, making plans for all different aspects of life, such as health and fitness, home and finances, family, etc. It felt really good to have some proper plans in place which we can review regularly and will hopefully keep us on track to achieve what we’d like to this year.

6. We had a very successful trip to Dunelm Mill, with the aim of buying some new mugs and bedside lamps for our room. Not only did we come away with some beautiful, simple white China mugs with an embossed daisy (!) design and a couple of lovely white bedside lamps, but we also happened to purchase a slow cooker in the sale! We’ve never used one before, but are very much looking forward to trying it out at the weekend.

7. We had a lovely trip to Trentham Gardens on Sunday, which I described in more detail in my mid-week post.

8. I had tried to get some new pyjamas after Christmas but couldn’t find any that I liked, but then stumbled across some lovely, cosy ones whilst shopping last Friday. I absolutely love them – so much so that I have been in them by 8 o’clock every night this week!

9. We received a pastoral report about B this week, which was great. It wasn’t too lengthy but had sections completed by his form tutor, housemaster and head of year, and was so positive. It referred to how well he has settled into boarding life, how conscientiously he is working and just what an all round superstar he is (okay, that last bit was my interpretation of it, but it was lovely!).

10. “Death in Paradise”!! We all absolutely adore this programme and so were thrilled when it returned to BBC1 last week. We can’t watch it on the actual day it is on, as G is at cadets then, but it is becoming our family ritual to all sit down and watch it together on a Friday night, as an “end of the week” treat. Can’t wait for tonight!

We are hopefully (dependent on G’s homework load) going to venture to Stratford-upon-Avon this weekend, to visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace, which should be really interesting. I hope that you have a fabulous weekend, whatever your plans are.

Trentham Gardens

lakesun2

It eventually felt as though a proper winter’s day had arrived on Sunday, rather than the dull, grey, wet weather we have endured for the past two months, so we decided to make the most of it and head out for a trip to Trentham Gardens. This was also partly spurred on by the fact that we had some Tesco Days Out vouchers which expire at the end of the month and can be used at Trentham, but it also transpired that the entrance price is currently reduced until mid-February, so it is a really good time to visit. As many, many people evidently thought, as it was really busy (despite how it looks in these photos below)!

fgdogs ddogs

We had a lovely walk around the lake, a route which takes you beside the River Trent, past the bird hide, through the cascading weir and along a selection of woodland trails. It is a very dog friendly place to visit, which, of course, is exactly what we look for, and there were lots of different things to spot along the way – all sorts of statues and sculptures constructed out of various materials – wicker, metal, wood, etc.

swans fairy

statue stars

Tree_sculptureThere are plenty of different areas to visit once inside the gardens, including the great adventure playground if you have younger children with you, but we stuck to the lakeside walk, which happily concluded near to the Italian Garden Tearoom, which enjoys beautiful panoramic views of the lake and garden. We sat outside, as we had the dogs with us and sitting in the sun was actually really pleasant by that point, and had a spot of lunch – pots of Earl Grey and bacon ciabattas for me and D, whilst G plumped for the Staffordshire oatcakes with bacon and cheese.

gardens food

We then headed out, with a brief potter around the various shops which make up the Trentham Shopping Village, returning home to get on with the rest of the weekend.

gardens gdbridge gdwalking lakesun

It was a really lovely wintry trip – one which we will definitely be repeating.

 

A Happy Christmastime

Well, it’s been three weeks since my last post, due to the Christmas and New Year break, so I thought that I’d do a quick round-up of the past couple of weeks – which were just so lovely!

Here are our Christmas and New Year highlights:

1. 18th December – a Christmas meal with friends from the village in which we used to live. It is always good to catch up with them and we had a delicious Christmas meal.

2. 19th December – the pantomime, Aladdin, at the Birmingham Hippodrome. This was absolutely amazing!! I have not laughed so much in a very long time, and I have seldom seen the children laugh so much either. The performances were fantastic, especially by my favourite Lee Mead, Matt Slack who played Wishy Washy and also Widow Twanky. Julian Clary was, of course, hilarious, and Marti Pellow made a pretty good “baddie”, and the 3D section was incredible. An absolutely brilliant night!

Panto sign Outside panto

Stage

3. 20th December – our annual “present swap” at my sister’s house. As we were not going to see each other on Christmas Day this year, it was even more important that we got together to catch up, eat mince pies, drink mulled wine and swap presents – a lovely afternoon.

4. 21st-23rd December – a lovely, relaxing few days with the children, doing little apart from playing games and watching Christmas films – perfect.

5. 23rd December – another meal out (we had had one before seeing the pantomime in Birmingham) before a theatre trip, this time to see Cinderella at Derby Theatre. This wasn’t a panto, but a re-telling of the story by the mice, and it was brilliantly done, so another very lovely evening.

FDmeal6. 24th December – the Christmas Eve service at Derby Cathedral, which was so nice – it’s a very traditional service, with plenty of opportunity to sing the old carols, so we love this. This was then followed by a roast turkey dinner at home, finished off with roast chestnuts in front of the fire.

7. 25th December – as usual, Christmas Day was enjoyed by all. We were all very lucky with the presents we received – my new wax jacket and Hunter wellies have been put to very good use plenty of times already. We had a Caribbean-themed lunch – lime and ginger marinaded seabass, sweetcorn fritters, spicy ribs, jerk burgers and saffron rice, followed by pineapple upside down cake. D’s parents arrived late morning, so we ate together then spent the afternoon mainly playing the new games we had received – Family Fortunes, The Logo Game and Suspend – lots of fun. The day was nicely finished off by a couple of hours in front of Downton – a great end to a lovely day.

B present G present

Lightbox

Christmas fizz8. 26th December – we went for a lovely walk at one of our favourite places, Calke Abbey, on Boxing Day. Plenty of other people had had the same idea – I’ve seldom seen it so busy – but we had a great walk and blew the cobwebs away!

Boxing Day walk

FG_walk DB_walk9. 27th December – after D’s parents had left, we had a family trip to the cinema, which was part of B’s Christmas present to us all. We saw Daddy’s Home, which was really good – not too silly, but very funny.28th December – we went to visit one of my sisters in the evening, for canapes and games. Again, this was another evening absolutely full of laughter – Pictionary, Charades and Articulate this time – hilarious!

10. 29th December-2nd January – we headed off to our house in Norfolk for a few days. Although the weather certainly wasn’t Christmassy, we got a couple of good walks in while we were there – which we needed to counteract all the cheese, snacks and wine we were consuming!

11. 31st December – we had a great New Year’s Eve, with some of my university friends who made the journey down to Norfolk to celebrate with us. We had a walk at Holkham Hall in the afternoon, followed by an “old school” meal of cottage pie or fish pie with vegetables, then two different types of fruit crumble and custard – accompanied by plenty of wine, of course! We then played yet more games (a definite theme this year, even more so than usual!) of Family Fortunes and Obama LLama (my favourite new game!) until midnight, which we toasted in with champagne and a round of Auld Lang Syne. A really fun night!

NYEwalk2 NYEwalk NYEmeal12. 1st January – we all felt pretty good the next day, which was fortunate as we had a New Year’s Day brunch booked at Creake Abbey. This was just what the doctor ordered, starting the new year with a full English breakfast – we really didn’t need that much more food, but it was delicious!

NYDmeal

And that was just about the end of the Christmas/New Year bubble which we’d lived in for two weeks. It really is my favourite time of year – full of lots of time with family and friends, plenty of food and drink, and the opportunity to switch off from the real world for just a couple of weeks. The only sad thing is how quickly it went  – and that it is now over for another year. I’d love to have that time all over again – but the memories will have to suffice for now.

A huge thank you to all our family and friends for sharing this special time – and Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Friday 18.12.15

Only one week to go until the big “ho ho ho”! Hurrah! (Have I mentioned just how much I love Christmas??) Anyway, consequently this has been a pretty busy week but with some lovely moments. Here are the highlights:

Walking Park2 CathedralBaking

  1. Friday evening saw us heading off to Derby cathedral ( a building which I absolutely love) for a Christmas brass band concert performed by Derwent Brass and the Derby Central Salvation Army Band. As you would expect, it was a truly lovely evening – plenty of rousing festive music with the opportunity to join in with some of the carols – sooo Christmassy!
  2. I eventually got around to writing our Christmas cards on Saturday – not my favourite festive activity but certainly helped this year by listening to Christmas music and drinking mulled wine at the same time.
  3. On Sunday, D, G and I went to the local Christingle service, which was really nice (G particularly enjoyed the fact that the Christingles were decorated with just sweets rather than raisins!) – and we even managed to come away with a spare Christingle for B.
  4. I seem to have had some lovely, but very wet, walks with the dogs this week. Honey seems to have had lots of energy recently, so I’ve given her plenty of time off her lead running crazily around in the water-logged field.
  5. Catching up with friends has been a real highlight this week. Christmas gives us the great opportunity to meet up to swap gifts, which I did with different friends on Tuesday and Thursday this week – a real treat to spend time with them.
  6. Honey has been particularly cute this week! I bought her a new Christmas toy which I just happened to see in passing on Tuesday, and she absolutely loves it! Whenever D comes home from work or downstairs in the morning, she rushes to get it and run around him with it, as if she is showing it to him – adorable!
  7. A quick trip into TK Maxx on Tuesday proved very fruitful – I came away with a very large, red, Christmas bowl – exactly what I had been looking for to put chocolates into – and two fabulous-looking candlesticks for the table. These will be lovely adorned with some holly and ivy for next week, but also are pretty stunning on their own all year round, so I was very happy with my purchases.
  8. Christmas baking! I love this time of year for providing an excuse for baking – not that I normally need one! So this week I have made shortbread and cinnamon shortbread Christmas biscuits and marzipan crumble-topped mince pies – yum!
  9. Yesterday marked the beginning of the Christmas holidays for us, as I went up to collect B from school. The day worked out really well – I was able to take a Christmas posy up to my parents’ grave, see a friend for tea and a chat, and then drive to Lancaster with time to walk the dogs before picking up B. We had a great return journey and were home by 4.30pm – lovely to have him back home!
  10. So today holds the final highlight of the week – G finishing school for Christmas! Then we can really start getting festive together, as we have lots of lovely things planned for the next week.

Cards

I hope that you all have a lovely, and not too hectic, final weekend before Christmas!

Happy Friday 11.12.15

Well, this week has been a busy one, mainly due to work and Christmas preparations, so I’m definitely ready for the weekend. Here are some of the highlights of the past few days:

1.We had our work Christmas Party on Saturday night, which was a great evening! We went to a new venue this year – Alton Towers Hotel – and everything was fabulous, from the stunning Christmas decorations to the delicious food to the great atmosphere, with lots of eating, drinking and dancing going on until the early hours. A great time was had by all!

Uslong

2. Compared with certain areas of the country, we were very lucky here in Derbyshire that we didn’t suffer any adverse weather conditions, but things weren’t so rosy up in Lancashire, where B is at school. They were without power for two days, and the day school was closed on Monday and Tuesday, but the boys seemed to treat it as a great adventure – encouraged by the fantastic staff. Brunch was cooked over a fire on Sunday and pool was played by torchlight; day staff came in on Monday to give the boarders a morning of sports activities; and they were then taken on a shopping trip to the Trafford Centre for a change of scenery on Tuesday. Apparently the boys were all brilliant during these trying circumstances but a very special “thank you” goes to the staff, who looked after them absolutely fantastically.

3. This week has seen plenty of deliveries coming my way, so I have spent a lot of time wrapping presents – which I absolutely love to do! This year’s wrapping theme is tartan paper with red or green ribbons, which looks very festive.

Presents

4. Due to the fact that it is now only two weeks until Christmas, some of my festive attire has made an appearance – Christmas socks, jumper and earrings have all been worn this week!

Socks2Star

5. One of my favourite purchases of the week has to be the new Christmas star decoration which I bought on Wednesday. Isn’t it great? And only £5 from Primark!

6. We got the good news this week that G has passed her grade 7 piano exam, which she took a couple of weeks ago. Well done, G!!

7. It has been a pretty wet week on and off yet again, but I managed to get a lovely sunny walk in early on Wednesday morning, which was beautiful.

Walk

8. Crumpets! I spotted some crumpets when I was on my way into the Co-op during the week and was suddenly struck with a craving for them! We haven’t had them since we introduced our French exchange friends to them in the summer – delicious!

Crumpet

9. It is looking as though G’s knees are on the mend at last, which is great news. She has been suffering with them since about March this year and we have been having regular trips to the physiotherapist for them, but she now only needs to go back if they get worse again. They aren’t completely right at all, but are much better than they have been so hopefully they will be back to normal soon.

10. Christmas fiction! I love the fact that you can get Christmas novels at the library or on special offers for the Kindle at this time of year, and I love to read this kind of thing throughout December, so I’ve been loving getting into the Christmassy spirit this way too!

We are off to a Christmas Brass Band concert tonight at the cathedral, which I am so looking forward to – you can’t get much more festive than that, can you?

Thank you for reading and I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

Us

Happy Friday 04.12.15

All together now – “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” Hurrah for December – probably my favourite month of the year – so this has been a good week!

Candle Tree

1.One definite highlight of the week happened last Friday, on my way to collect B from school. I had made an arrangement to pop in to visit a lovely lady called Eileen, who was the Brown Owl when I helped at the village Brownie Pack for several years, as well a being a good friend of my parents. I haven’t seen her for over eight years, but I’d spoken to her on the phone the previous week, and she sounded exactly the same, so I was really looking forward to seeing her. However, when I arrived, not only was it lovely to see her, but she had also arranged for the two others who ran the Pack at the same time, Margaret and Linda, to be there too. What a great surprise! And none of them had changed a bit! It honestly made me so happy to spend that time with them, and reminisce and catch up on what they, and their children, are now up to. So much time had passed, but it could have been only yesterday that I had last seen them. What a fabulous start to the weekend!

2. This was followed by collecting B, who was home for three days, as his school had an inset day on Monday, so, as always, it was absolutely lovely to have him back with us.

3. The only downside to the weekend was that G was away from Friday until Sunday afternoon at cadet camp, so we didn’t have the whole weekend as a family, but I was so proud of the fact that G was so keen to go, not really knowing many of the other cadets that well and it being her first camp. She had a fantastic weekend and loved every minute – well, apart from the disco on the Saturday night, of course!

4. D and B went out for the afternoon on Saturday, having a “boys trip”, which gave me the opportunity to have a really long catch-up on the phone with one of my closest friends. It’s always so good to have a proper chat.

5. Sunday was Christmas Tree Day –  despite the fact that it was by far the earliest we have ever put our tree up, but it had to be done, as B is now not home until the end of term. Plus it was the first Sunday of Advent, so most definitely allowed! I love to have a real tree, and decorating it, with the mulled wine flowing and the Christmas music playing, has to be one of the highlights of the festive season.

6. Sunday also saw me and D going to church. I had been looking for a church in which I thought that I would feel comfortable for a little while, and we came across a possibility when we were in Mickleover for Remembrance Sunday, so decided to go to one of the services. It was exactly what I had hoped for – very traditional, so we knew the format of the service and “what to do”, and everyone was really friendly, so we will definitely go back.

7. So December began on Tuesday, so out came the advent candle, which I have had waiting for the past few weeks. A definite sign of Christmas – lovely!

8. We had G’s Parents Evening on Wednesday, which, as usual, was lovely. Even though she always seems to do very well, it is still reassuring to hear directly from all of her teachers that she is working hard and has made a fantastic start to her GCSE courses. A complete star!

9. Similarly, we received B’s school report on Thursday, which was great – with him being away, we don’t get to see his school books, to see teachers’ marks and comments, so it was really helpful to get this update on his progress. It was very positive indeed, especially pleasing to see that he seems to be trying hard in almost every lesson, and with some useful tips and targets to work on.

10. My new car arrived on Thursday, which is very exciting! Although I am really sad to see my old car go, as I absolutely loved it, I’m really happy with my new one – and am currently loving that new car smell!

We have a bit of a mixed weekend ahead, as it is D’s grandma’s funeral today, which will obviously be a poignant occasion, but this is then followed by our work Christmas Party on Saturday night – what a contrast. I hope that you have a good weekend, whatever you are up to.

Happy Friday 27.11.15

This week has certainly been much better than the last, thank goodness! I hope that you’ve all had a good one. Here are some of the highlights of mine:

Dan

  1. Last weekend got off to a fabulous start with an early morning walk at Calke Abbey. G was out early at a cadets training morning, so D and I set off with the dogs for a lovely wintry ramble – the sprinkling of snow on the ground, along with the bright blue sky and brilliant sunshine made it a very beautiful morning, so we had a wonderful walk, followed by a bacon cob and pot of Earl Grey from the tearooms at the end – perfect!Bench Tea
  2. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love “I’m a Celebrity” so am enjoying unwinding at the end of each day with an hour of this at the moment – I just love Ant and Dec! It always reminds me that Christmas isn’t far away too, which is always a good thing.
  3. I’m not sure how I have never heard this Christmas song previously, but I’ve come across it a couple of times this week, and absolutely love it! It is “The Man with the Bag” and it’s great – I’ve even downloaded the music so that I can learn to play it on the piano.
  4. Following our attempted break-in the other week, we had to have new patio doors fitted, as the mechanism was broken and was actually obsolete due to the age of the doors, so the replacements were completed this week. They are great – such an improvement on the old wooden ones we had, and they finish the all white dining room off perfectly now.
  5. Tuesday was the day of G’s grade 7 piano exam, and fortunately she came out smiling! It is such a relief for us all when these exams are over, as they require so much hard work, and seeing her coming out happy was definitely a good sign.
  6. Wednesday was one of my favourite days of the year – Christmas shopping day!  We went to Intu in Derby this year, and had a pretty productive day – considering the amount of time we spend shopping compared to the time spent on coffee, lunch and chocolate stops. And the Prosecco with lunch was particularly good!Prosecco
  7. Due to the drop in the temperature over the past week or so, we have lit the woodburner several times, which we still love – it’s so cosy to snuggle up in front of a real fire, you just can’t beat it.
  8. The flexibility of my work this week has been priceless, as it has been a crazy few days, with having the patio doors replaced, G’s piano exam right in the middle of the day, Christmas shopping, then G off school for two days for Founders’ and inset days – I am incredibly grateful that I can fit my work in around all these things by working from home when I need to.
  9. I made my first batch of sugar-free biscuits this week -and they’re really good! You can’t tell that they don’t have sugar in at all, as the honey and spices make up for it completely, so I was really pleased with them.
  10. My final one hasn’t happened yet, but B is home this weekend, as it is exeat weekend, so we are all really looking forward to seeing him. G won’t spend too much time with him, as she is away on cadet camp, but we will try to make the most of our family time, which will be lovely.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Friday 13.11.15

Well, that was another rather wet and windy week! But how warm? I know that I shouldn’t complain, but I am now more than ready for it to turn a bit colder – we are almost halfway through November and have been having temperatures of 16 degrees, which is just not right.

Anyway, enough of the weather, here are the highlights of my week:

1. Number one has to be the John Lewis Christmas advert which came out last Friday. As always, I think it’s lovely, and, although I haven’t seen much TV this week, it definitely feels like Christmas is coming when the adverts start appearing.

2. I made a start on my Christmas shopping last week when I came across some perfect presents, just by chance, for the younger children on my list. They are all just a little bit different, so hopefully they will be well-received – and it feels good to have made a start.

Heart

3. I mentioned last week how much G is enjoying army cadets, so we were very proud of her giving up her Saturday last week to sell poppies in a nearby supermarket for seven hours.

4. This was followed by the Remembrance Day parade and service, which was so lovely and very well-attended. I do find Remembrance Sunday very difficult, for personal reasons, so I am always very emotional on the day anyway, but to see G marching with her fellow cadets at the front of the large parade was very poignant and moving, as was the service at the memorial.

Cadets

5.G being so tied up with cadets for so much of the weekend meant that D and I had a very quiet, relaxing couple of days, which made a very welcome change from the usual rushing around and busyness.

6. Even though it wasn’t really cold enough to justify it, we lit a fire on Sunday night, which was so lovely – a very cosy evening to watch the final episode of Downton!

7. B eventually made the decision to go on his school trip to Normandy next summer, after being very undecided for weeks. He first said that he would go, then changed his mind when he thought that none of his friends were going, then discovered they were but was then worried about speaking French! But he has made what we think is the right decision, and we’re sure he will have a fantastic time.

8. I had a nice evening on Wednesday, when it was my turn to host book club. I had managed to finish the book the evening before (I just can’t read it too long before we meet otherwise I completely forget everything that I have read – I can really love books and films, but very quickly forget what happens in them!), but our chats about the books are never too lengthy, as we always find plenty of other things to talk about as well, so it was a great evening.

9. You know you’re getting old when you get excited by gardening equipment, so I obviously am, as I was thrilled when my leaf blower arrived this week! To be honest, it wasn’t quite as satisfying to use as I’d hoped, but it still does a pretty good job and is an awful lot more efficient than raking and then picking them up by hand – and I do like a tidy garden!

10. Last but certainly not least is the meal out that D and I had last night. We took advantage of the fact that G was at the theatre with school until late to go to Turtle Bay for a delicious meal, which was a real treat! And the Reggae Rum Punch was very authentic!

Dan Fi

Onelove

Cocktail

We have a crazily busy day tomorrow, with a trip up to Lancashire to see B (with a very early visit to my parents’ grave en route) for his school speech day, followed by lunch out, then a tour of Lancaster Castle, ending with a cinema trip – hopefully!

I hope that you have a great weekend, whatever you are up to.

Happy Friday 06.11.15

Well, we are now firmly in November, and what a foggy, wet start to the month we’ve had. Let’s hope that we see a return to the beautiful autumnal weather we had been experiencing until recently. Anyway, let’s get to this week’s happy things!

1. D and I had a very rare night out last Friday, enjoying a gift we were given last Christmas – an introduction to wine tasting evening! Never having done anything like this before, we didn’t really know what to expect, but we had such a good time. It was a pretty relaxed affair, with a very mixed group of 17 tasters, led by a great expert called Debbie. She was incredibly informative, pitching the level of detail and information at just the right level, and providing a good range of six very different wines, three white and three red, for us to taste (along with a nice selection of bread, cheese and chorizo!). We came away feeling a lot more knowledgeable, at the very least about the differences between old and new world wines.

Wine

2. As we were out in Derby (and had paid for a taxi!), we decided to make the most of it and head off for another drink somewhere. However, it was Friday night, so most of the places we walked past were very busy and noisy – not really our cup of tea – but we then stumbled upon Quad, where we could see the bar looked pretty calm and quiet, so headed in there. Just inside the door, however, we spied a sign for a cocktail bar on the top floor, so made our way up there. It was a pop-up bar, there for the screening of Spectre, and was run by two lovely guys from the Rested Cocktail Company. This was far more “us” – apart from the barmen, we were the only ones there, so we had a couple of cocktails (gin martini for me!) and a nice, quiet chat – lovely!

3. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day, weather-wise, so we headed out in the afternoon for a lovely family walk to Calke Abbey. The views around the Abbey and Staunton Harold reservoir are stunning, so it is a lovely place to walk, and was made even more special by the sight of the majestic red deer. It was a truly lovely family afternoon.

Res Res1 GB

Family Deer

4. One of the other highlights from the weekend was playing games with B. He has always loved playing board games, and it is always such a nice thing to do with him.

5. So- very simple things – one of the highlights of this week is that it is now November! Yay! Of course, that means that it is Christmas NEXT MONTH, which is so exciting!

6. Sunday saw me heading up the M6 in the fog to deliver B back to school, which, in itself, is not a particularly happy thing, but the fact that he was fine about going back made us all very relieved and thankful.

7. So Monday wasn’t so happy when I returned home from work to find out that we’d had an attempted break-in. However, I am truly grateful for both the response of the police (who sent Scenes of Crime out straightaway; an officer visited the next day to look around and talk to the neighbours; I was contacted by Victim Support and then visited by the Crime Prevention Team who put window alarms on all our downstairs windows and offered advice) and by our insurance company, who had someone out to secure the property very quickly and then sent the assessor round just two days later. We feel incredibly lucky that it was no worse and that we have received so much subsequent support.

8. Our treat on Tuesday night was trying a new drink which had been given to us by a colleague at work –  Fentiman and Bloom Gin. One was simple gin and tonic, and the other gin with rose lemonade, which was particularly good.

Gin

9. Obviously one which happens very regularly, but getting into a bed with freshly laundered sheets and bedding this week – just heaven!

10. The final one for this week is the fact that G is enjoying attending Army Cadets so much. She really looks forward to the two sessions each week, and is particularly  excited now, as her uniform has arrived, which she has been waiting for, so she is looking forward to wearing it to sell poppies on Saturday.

cadet

So, that was my week in a nutshell. What has made you happy this week?