Nearly 2008!

We have had a great Christmas with my family down in Staffordshire. DH's 'man-flu' was on the mend by Christmas Day thank goodness! Santa clearly thought we had all been good boys and girls & was most generous! Some of my favorite gifts were clearly sourced at 'Lands-End' & from some of the lovely shops in Edinburgh that my sister spotted on a pre-Christmas break so no disappointments there! It was lovely just to spend time with the family & chill back. Mother clearly thinks we starve at home & meals were not only very tasty but very generous in quantity! This is a photo of her 'christmas table' before it was laden with food!

On the 27th we decided to take a trip into Wales. Son & heir has an A level Geography exam in January based on pre-released material, The material is, this year, based upon the Ynyslas spit at Borth in mid Wales. As this is just over 2 hours from Mom & Dad's we decided that a visit might help him to make sense of the material that he has to study. My sister & her DH came to, which made it more 'fun' for S&H! It is many years (try at least 15) since I have visited mid Wales & it is lovely, especially, away from the coast. On Thursday much of the loveliness of the mountains was hidden behind sheets of water coming out of the sky! Fortunately the rain stopped as we reached the coast, although it was very dark and grey in Borth. We warmed up watching some hardy surfers before driving up onto the shingle ridge that has grown along the coast from the cliffs south of the town & out across the mouth of the river Dyfi. Despite being very windy & wild, as well as not been the most attractive stretch of coast, it was great to have a walk, blow the cobwebs away and just be by the sea. The dog is always game for spending time on the beach!

From a geographers point of view, there was lots of features of interest & I am sure that it fired S&H's imagination. Geography isn't his chosen field for Uni, that's Spot & Exercise Science, but he does find a good bit of Physical Geography pretty interesting! When he spotted the former cliff line on Google Earth & then worked out how the combined work of the sea (longshore drift) & the river had formed the spit & the land behind it he got quite excited! He was soon directing photographic operations & asking plenty of 'good' questions. I think that this is the biggest groyne I have ever seen. The volume of material trapped behind it is massive. Makes the ones on the east coast look fairly pathetic!

Back at the family estate Mum & Dad were charged with laying the scene for Mr J's birthday tea! Mr J is actually Rob the Teacher, but the theme was..... Bob the Builder!!!! Couldn't resist!!!!! He has done quite a bit of building in his time! It created quite a laugh & a fairly silly family party followed!!

Christmas knitting can now be revealed.

One pair of 'Socks for Veronik' from Interweave Holiday Knits. A great pattern -easy yet enough interest!

One pair of sock is Regia DK, knitted in garter rib. Really quick & super soft yarn!

One pair of 'Waving Lace socks' from Favorite Knits. Two lace scarves, knitted in far less of a hurry & photographed in earlier posts.

One pair UNFINISHED still (see previous post!), issue still to be resolved!

I have returned to finish my 'Embossed leaf' socks & play around with 'new pathways'. I think that I will knit something other than socks after that!

We are home again & despite the foul wet weather & lovely time at Mom & Dad's it is nice to be back by our own fire with still holiday time to come. We are 'on duty' at the 'out-laws' tomorrow & I have declared New Years Day evening as our 'family festive meal'. Three plus dog. Mr J will visit our local butcher in Patley Bridge on Monday for something suitable & we will each choose our favorite vegetables & trimmings.

A very happy new year to all!