Langsett Resevoir

Hubby and I felt the need for a long walk, somewhere a bit remote but not too far away. The young man begged for "a day off", so we left him behind and the dancing queen had not emerged from her friends house, so we had the walk all to ourselves - with NO MOANING!!!!! We drove to Langsett Reservoir which is about 8 miles away from us, but on the edge of the "Dark Peak" near to the Woodhead Pass on the edge of the Pennines. There is still lots of deep snow around here, and walking was tricky in parts because of the ice.

As soon as you enter the forest, you can't believe that you are still in South Yorkshire.

The moors stretch over to the Derwent Dams - it looked very foreboding but truly spectacular covered with snow. There is the remains of an old farm up here called "North America " farm. It must have been a tough existance to live here before Land Rovers were invented.

Hubby absolutely loves this walk. He likes to get as far away from civilisation as possible!!! The reservoir was built in the early 1900's by damming the river Don (which is really only a small stream up here). There are several dams along this valley through Stocksbridge which was once famous for its steel works. Samuel Fox steel employed thousands of people in the area, and even when I left school in 1976, many school leavers gained employment here. Sadly, there's not much of it left.

We resisted calling in at the pub, and the cafe (New Years resloutions and all - more of which at a later date!!) and headed off home to eat the Parsnip soup that I had made with the glut of parsnips that I had left over. Very tasty it was too.

A brilliant walk to start the New Year.

Out with the old.

I'm not a fan of New Years Eve. Hubby tends to have to work - like he is this evening. The dancing queen is out partying - like any self respecting 17 year old should be, leaving the young man and I in on our own having a "sad party for 2" (his words, but very apt!!). By contrast, I absolutely love New Years Day. I feel the hope of the New Year to come. I hope it will be a good year and I love the way everything feels some how "new".

We have had a good Christmas here in the Heartshaped household. Everybody seemed to like their gifts, the Christmas Day Dinner went well and everybody got on well. I don't know where the time has gone this week though! Ive managed some walking, some "sale" shopping. People who really know me will not be suprised to know I have done 90% of my entire gift shopping for 2010!!! (Its the Virgo aspect of my personality!!)

Today, we decided to fit in a walk before hubby had to go off to work. We walked around the still frozen lakes in Wentworth. The boys - being boys - tried to break the ice.

Torvill & Dean of the duck world!

When we got home - I indulged in my New Years Eve ritual - searching my garden for signs of Snowdrops! A fabulous sight!

I'm raising my glass to each and every one of you as we prepare to start anew and do it all again! Happy New Year Bloggers. xxxxxxxxxx

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to stop by and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and say a very big well done to all of you who pull Christmas off - year after year - on top of everything else you do. I don't know how we do it!!!!

Its been a busy week at the heartshaped house. On Sunday, the dancing queen got to dance in Sheffield on a show featuring 3 of the X Factor finalists - Lucie Jones, Rachel and Ricky. She was thrilled to bits and filmed a lot of it on the DVD camera that we bought her last year. All of the X factor singers spent time with the girls in their dressing room, gossiping and laughing - they were really lovely and I don't think she's come down to earth yet!!
I'm off work now until the 4th January and looking forward to doing the cooking, walking and generally not sitting on my backside for 6 hours a day! Ive rallied the troops today to do a mass tidy and clean up operation on the house. Ive had an ugly cold sore between my nose and top lip, and the young man claims that not only have I behaved like Hitler today, but I have actually looked like him too!!! Very attractive! I shall be needing special powered mistletoe if I want a snog!!

The house looks lovely and smells divine. I am in the first stages of cooking ham for Christmas Eve and I am using Jamie Oliver's Jerk Ham recipe - I used this last year and it was lovely. The marinade is making the house smell great.

We always go the the Christingle service at the village church on Christmas Eve, then Santa visits our street about 8 oclock to dish out a few choccy bars. I have always read "The Night before Christmas" to my kids too. I thought that they might want to do something different now that they are a bit older, but they were horrified that I had even suggested deviating away from our family traditions - so thats the plan.

My mum, sis and her hubby are joining us on Christmas Day for lunch. I'm really looking forward to it.
Hubby is on night shift tonight, so thats a perfect excuse for us all to have a long lie in in the morning (not that the kids ever need an excuse!!).
Anyway, have a great time - whatever your plans.
xxxxxxxxxxx

Walking in a winter wonderland.

It would seem that the world has had a huge fall of snow. I have a private family blog, and my cousin in Texas reported that they had snow there (and lots of it!!) for the first time in 32 years! and even Michela has had loads in Venice! Here in South Yorkshire, we have had just the right amount of snow. Not enough to stop us getting out and about, but enough to make us feel really Christmassy. Mother nature gave my garden a fine sprinkling on Thursday evening,


and last night she helped to decorate the front of the house (with the aid of a leaky piece of guttering!).

So much prettier than any man made decorations.

With hubby and the dancing queen at work, the young man found himself to be Billy no-mates, and I - having finished off ALL OF THE SHOPPING AND WRAPPING!!! (except fridge stuff which I cannot get until midweek) decided we needed a very long walk. I have felt caged for so long!
We walked over the fields where we noticed that sheep have replaced the cows.

We marvelled at the delicate frost patterns.

The lane, though very picturesque, was a death trap. I did my best Jane Torvill impression and ended up almost flat on my face! I have 2 very sore knees!!

The holly is the best I have ever seen it. I'm sure that this means we are in for a cold winter.

I love this house - yet another where "Mr Darcy would come calling".

I love walking with just the young man. He never stops talking and asking questions that I cannot answer!! 2 of todays questions were:

1. Who was Parson Brown? ( I was serenading him at the time)

2. I wonder how much snot the average person with a heavy cold makes in 1 day? - answers on a postcode if you know!!

Last but certainly by no means least, my PIF present arrived from Lyn. I was really glad that I had signed up for this. The parcel arrived all beautifully packaged.

The package contained loads of lovely gifts - mainly on a Christmas theme. Everything was so beautiful. Many thanks Lyn.

I'm Yours

I love this so much!!

Yesterday in Sheffield.....

...I wandered through the Winter Gardens admiring the festive flowers...
The Clematis water feature made from Sheffield Steel.......

and joined in with the heavenly singing of the carol singers.

I wandered into the Peace gardens and watched the dancing fountains for a while.

The Town Hall is very typical of many opulent northern Victorian Town Halls.

As I walked past, I noticed the doors were open, so I sneaked in. Ive never been in before. Apparently it was only open for a private function, but before he turned me back out onto the street, the security guard let me take a couple of photos. He told me that they do tours in August, so I'll have to watch out for these.

I always catch my tram home from outside the Cathedral, so I decided to spend 20 minutes wandering around in here too. The Cathedral building is half old,

and half new. I always believed that this was because it was bombed in the war, but on researching my facts found that this was not the case. You can read why here.

A very seasonal statue.

and the beautiful and very effective light from the roof of the newer tower.

Once home, I put up my tree and started making the house look a lot more festive. Ive tried to copy Carl Wilde's front door decoration. Its similar, but no where near as good. My daughter thinks it looks cool though, and a bit different from our usual run of the mill garland.

The Nativity

Ive always been lucky because my kids have never argued or fallen out much. But one thing that has set them off each year is "Who arranged the Nativity scene last year". They refuse to share this task as each has their own distinct ideas of how it should look. Last year, fed up with his bossy big sister always winning the argument, the young man decided to create his own stable and scene using his favorite creative medium - LEGO. Its so brilliant that it has become part of the trimmings now.

If you look closely, you will see that Yoda plays the part of baby Jesus, with Hermione Grainger and Harry Potter playing Mary and Joseph. One of the 3 Kings is riding a 3 headed dog. There are little treasure chests full of gifts.

Along with the box full of all the glittery decs made each year at nursery and school, this will take pride of place - on the TV table for many years to come.