Jenga Blocks and Chinese Lanterns!

Yesterday we had the family and Dot's God Daughter (Hannah) & family round for nibbles and some fun a games. Dave, Hannah's husband brought round his jumbo size Jenga building blocks. The object of the game is to each take a turn at removing one block and piling it on the top of the pile, until someone manages to cause the pile to tumble!

Here's Hannah (Dave's wife) very carefully and skillfully removing a block.

Rachel choosing her block, with a little helpful advice from Ben.

Sarah (despite having one arm in a sling) managed to successfully remove a block without causing them pile to tumble!

Andrew carefully placing his block on the top of the pile.

Dave with a thoughtful approach!

Dave had also brought along some Chinese Lanterns, which we took outside and released into the night sky. Probably the most difficult bit was the lighting of them!

When they were released, they floated high into the clear, still night sky. Here you can see the first lantern slowly ascending, with the moon to its right!

And now for number two.......

IGNIION!

AND LIFT OFF!

Lighting number three.....

Lift off, and passing over the top of our house, and just managing to avoid the telephone line!

Soon it was a smallish red glow high up in the clear night sky!

Visitors on Christmas Day

For the first time in our married life Dot and I had planned to sit down to a Christmas Dinner in splendid isolation! Despite this we had visits from two important people.

The first one was Mother Christmas in the guise of Mrs Pixie Christmas.

(See below)





Quite happy to join in the Christmas festivities, Pixie was seasonally dressed for her Christmas Day visit!

The other guest arrived via the TV Set!

Merry Christmas to all our followers!

A Romp in the Snow with my Mate Max, and Mollie

I went for a walk today. There was one of my best friends Max, when I went round into to the field. That's Max and Me with Max's Dad, Gordon.




Here's Max and I having a great romp around in the snow.

I'd actually gone out with Mollie, who had called round to our house, and she and the Missus said they'd take me for a walk up the field. You can see Mollie, my Missus, Gordon, as well as Max and I.

When we got to the top of the field, Gordon and Max decided that they would go back home, but Mollie, the Missus and I went along the top of the field.

This is Mollie and I coming back down the field.

We both had a run along the back of our garden before we went back home. It was great fun in the show!

The Puppies!

Two blogs for the price of one today!


I paid a visit to the puppies this morning, and, my how they've grown. They now have their eyes open, and are wandering around on their rug infront of the fire, and pestering Macy for drinkies!




As you can see they are real little individuals now, and each one has its own character.

The one on the left of the photo above has been called Leonardo, whilst the one on the right is Raphael. The centre one will probably be called either Donatello or Michaelangelo. Now where have I heard those names before??? Oh! yes. They were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Leonardo getting daring and exploring off his "bed", whilst Macy pins his brother down to give him a good wash!

The Chunky one - he's always ready for a feed, no matter what the time of day!

A bit of play fighting on their bed. Leonardo with his paw over his brothers.

Queueing up for their turn at the milk bar!

Raphael getting a cuddle from Hannah

Donatello (or will it be Michaelangelo?) playing with Mum.

All three cuddling up to Mum.

Siberia? - No it's only Cottingley

This was the car thermometer at nearly ten o'clock this morning. The sun was up and out, so I dread to think what the temperature was at, say 3.00 am!






Looking outside it was obvious there had been a keen frost. All the cars looked as though they had frosted glass (sorry! no pun intended) windows. Not only the front ones, but side windows too!

The friendly icicle had returned, and seemed to have grown even longer than the last time it appeared!




The frost clearing operation.

The Siberian wastes of Cottingley, about 9.15 am this morning.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

I took Ruby out for her final walk last night and there was no sign of any snow. It was quite cold. The snow which had been forecast for Saturday earlier on in the week had disappeared from the forecasts, so it was something of a surprise when I got up this morning and saw what had happened during the early hours. It must have snowed before 5.00, because the milk bottles were not covered in snow, (The milk usually arrives between 4.50 am and 5.00am) but there were the milkman's footprints up the drive.

This was the view I had looking up the field at about 8.00am. The lone figure is Gordon out with his dog. Ruby had already been out and had a wild session in the snow in our drive!



On returning from taking Dot to work, the car had a bit of a struggle getting up Manor Road - (there had not been much in the way of traffic, although the road had been gritted), and I had to give way to a car coming down Ryecroft Avenue, and that was a bit of a problem when I came to try to set off again - I was in untouched snow! I'd taken the precaution of digging two tracks out of our drive, and rock salting them and the road immediately outside the drive, so once I reached home the car went up the drive with no problems.

I have a wedding to play for this afternoon at 2.00 pm, and I think I could safely say that the bride is assured of a "white wedding!"

The snow feathering the bushes in the garden looks quite picturesque. You can see the depth of the snow on the shot below - look at the top of the fence in the foreground.

Last time we had some cold weather I took some shots of the icicles hanging from the bargeboarding outside our bedroom window. The icicle below was hanging from the central heating outlet!

Luckily we decided to do our Christmas Food shopping yesterday, and did a shop at Marks & Spencers in Skipton.

It's the Festival of Lessons and Carols tomorrow at church at 6.30 pm. so I'm keeping my fingers that no more snow falls!

I also have a funeral to play for at Lawnswood Crem (at Leeds) next Thursday, so once again I'm hoping there isn't any heavy fall of snow!

Let The Preparations for Christmas Decorations Commence!

In these straightened times we oldies (and pensioners) cannot afford to purchase our wreaths of Holly from the local nurseries (particularly when they are priced between £8.00 and £10.00 per wreath!) Besides. why waste your hard earned cash on their inflated prices when you can "pick your own" if you know where to find holly growing!

Dot collected this on her morning walk with Ruby, and, of course, not to be outdone Ruby did a bit of collecting of her own too. She carried the stick back with her.




The great joy a collecting a stick is when you get home you can then while away the hours gnawing on it.

Christmas is Coming.........

Do you realise that there are only 12 more days to Christmas Day?

I really don't know where the time has gone. It only seems like a few days ago that we were thinking it's a long time to Christmas, and now Wow! it's nearly here! I think it suddenly struck me on Saturday, when we sang a Christmas Concert for a chapel in Riddlesden. Prior to this I don't seem to have heard much in the way of Christmas Carols or Christmas Songs on either the radio or TV.

I played for a couple of Nativity plays last week at a local Primary School, and I have two more performances to play for this week. Looking at my calendar I see that I have a Christmas Dinner to attend on Monday evening with my TIC colleagues (at Skipton Golf Club), then on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning the two Nativity performances, and on Wednesday afternoon I'm giving a talk to a group called A Cornucopia of Christmas Carols and Christmas music, which consists of a pared down version of the Lessons & Carols and some of the better known Christmas Songs.

I have a wedding to play for on Saturday 18th at 2.oo pm, then on Sunday morning after the service will be a run through for the church Nativity Play and Christingle Service, and Sunday evening is the Festival of Lessons & Carols!

My How They've Grown!

All the three pups are thriving and growing fast. At the "Weigh In" today they tipped the scales at 450, 500 and 550 grams (in order of the photographs below)



This is Raffi - the one who has already found a home with Sarah. He is the lightweight of the litter! You can already see how his cost is beginning to change from what appeared to be all black, to a mixture of black & tan. He has two tiny white toe areas on each of his paws, which makes him look as though he has socks on. You cans see them quite clearly on his front right foot in the photo below.

This is pup number two (I am not sure what his official name is). He is the one who weighed in at 500 grams.

This is most certainly the most "chunky" of the litter., weighing in at 550 grams! He has little rings of flesh all round his legs!

Here he is all contented on Dot's Knee

Macy with one of her pups. She has just had a bath, hence the very floppy hair style!