How can two weeks...

...fly by so quickly?

Christmas has been "packed away" ready for the next one and the fridge is groaning a little less...

...as the mountain of food has gradually been consumed.

The sales have been visited and taken advantage of...I now have a lovely new log-burner effect stove for the lounge and a collection of stamps to add to the ones that I received as gifts (I will be playing with my selection of Card-io stamps once I get myself a bit more organised).

I haven't blogged much over the holiday period but have taken the opportunity to catch up on a bit of blog reading.

The knitting needles & crochet hooks have had a good workout over the holidays and once I've taken some photos I'll share the details - although I realised that there are a few items that I forgot to photograph before I gave them as gifts...what a numpty.

So the New Year is up and running and it is back to work (groan) - I wonder how many emails I will have to wade through?

Have a wonderful week everyone.............................................................

It is a sorry state of affaires...

...that so many folk in the UK are needing to resort to food banks to make ends meet.

Not the sort of thing that you expect to see in this day & age - but unfortunately, a fact of life.

For the last few years a colleague of mine has organised a food bank collection at the office and this year was no different.

I set up a decorated collection point for him and keep an eye on the progress - keeping it tidy and highlighting items that we could do with more of.

This was the collection point for this year...

 ...the WRMK Alphabet punch board came in handy...

 ...and we had a good selection of festively decorated boxes ready to take the donations...

...and it didn't take long for those boxes to fill up...

 ...these photos were taken at the start of this week...

...but by yesterday when the goods were packed up to take to the food bank, you couldn't get anywhere near the original boxes (sorry, no photos as my camera battery went flat).

Folk in the office who were not able to purchase anything themselves were very generous in making donations for the "Big Shop" - over £300 was given in addition to the donated goods. This meant a group of colleagues headed off to the local supermarkets and did a mahooooosive great shop which was subsequently deposited by the collection point until arrangements could be made to get everything to the food bank. An army of staff then assisted in loading everything into a couple of office cars (it was a tight fit) and it was delivered to the food bank yesterday afternoon in time for the organisers to make up the Christmas parcels that they do each year.

As a Nation we really shouldn't be in a situation where folk are having to rely on food bands just to survive but hopefully, for those who find this a reality it is hoped that our efforts will help a little to brighten things up at what can be a very difficult time of year.........................................

Spooky treats...

...to cheer folk up.

The weather has turned rather dull & gloomy in the last few days and mornings have been very overcast and sometimes foggy. So I decided we needed a splash of colour to lift the 'spirits'.

The UK doesn't really "do" Halloween - although from the amount of stuff in the shops this year you would find that hard to believe.

My friend & colleague Cheryl brought me a present when she visited earlier in the week...

 ...some fun pumpkin lights and a lovely spider's web candle stick...

 ...she was surprised that I hadn't already decorated for All Hallows Eve as she knows that I don't need much of an excuse to start putting decorations out in the office LOL...

...so here we are, already for a bit of 'spooktacular' fun.

Hope you all have a great weekend whether you are "Trick or Treating"...or not.

Don't forget that the clocks go back Saturday night. Enjoy your extra hour in bed...................................................................

Bananas, boxes...

...and brown paper.

These were a common response to my plea for help getting my tomatoes to ripen.

You know what...they work!!!

I now have a second tomato well on the way to being 'red' and the others are not looking so 'wickedly' green.

I'll grab some photos at the weekend to show how they are coming along.

Thank you all for the suggestions..............................................

What a busy...

...few days.

Friday was the start of "Members Weekend" at Pinnacle Crafts and as usual, I met up with Hilary for our bit of retail therapy followed by coffee and then lunch. She went off to her parchment class and I went and collected my new car.

Exciting but scary.

Saturday was Carol Whalley's crop at the Toby Carvery so the car got it's first taste of being loaded with crafting stuff and off we went (me & the car that is).

As normal, come lunchtime it was downstairs to the carvery...

 ...a fabulous array of veg - those roasties were scrummy. Debbie & Suzie declined the Yorkshire puds...

 ...but how can you have a roast dinner without the Yorkshires? The only problem being that the Yorkshire takes up a lot of room on the plate...

...and everything else looks much more 'heaped' up because of the lack of space.

The food was lovely and it was great to have a chat & a giggle.

It was quite a productive day as far as the crafting was concerned too. I'll show you what I got up to tomorrow.............................................................

Saturday crafting...

...at the Toby carvery.

Saturday was Carol Whalley's crop at the carvery in Southend - it seems ages since we last had one of these (the last one got cancelled). As usual, we set up our crafting gear in the function room upstairs and spent a lovely morning crafting and chatting before venturing down stairs for lunch.

I'm not very good at arranging my food artistically...

...as you can see LOL.

 Debbie & Suzie were merrily tucking in...

...after 'snapping' photos of their plates and Alison was doing likewise...

...both she & Suzie were sending the photos to friends/family - mainly to show the size of those Yorkshire puds.

Now normally I wouldn't have a sweet but there was an offer and it would have been rude not to take advantage of it...

...all four of us opted for the Terries chocolate orange sundae - and very nice it was too.

To be honest, I think we all just wanted to find somewhere to have a snooze after that lot LOL

Back up stairs we all got stuck into our crafting and it was quite a productive day.

I'll show you what I got up to once I've had a chance to take some photos. Enjoy your Sunday.......................................................................

Sunday 1 May...

...and what a glorious day.

We sat & crafted with the patio doors open...

 ...and Carol took "Arun" (the door stop) for a 'walk' on the deck.
The garden wasn't very big but the sun had certainly brought the flowers out...

 ...and it was a lovely splash of colour.
"Arun" was very well behaved...

...and stood watching us from the decking.

Phil had taken himself off to an airshow so it was a completely girly day at the house.

We decided on a take-away for our last night and one last wander down to the beach...

 ...this time we went for an easier access - no 'mountain' climbing this time.
Although it wasn't really cold, it was certainly windy...

 ...and as we walked towards the beach it was like being sand-blasted. Chris wasn't taking any chances...

 ...she had her ear-muffs on.
The landscape along this coastline seems to be constantly moving...

...and I'm not sure that I would want to live this close to the ever moving sand.
We ended up having to do a bit of climbing after all...

 ...but it wasn't nearly as bad as on the first night...

 ...and we were soon leaving the beach for the last time...

 ...with just a glance back at where we had been. The view in front of us...

 ...showed the wind-turbines in the distance but I had to have one last look at the beach...

 ...as the wind was whipping up the surf.
Carol, windswept...

 ...but leading the way.
Lots of the gardens down near the beach...

...had a sea of bluebells...

...which I found strange as I have always associated bluebells with woodland areas.

We had intended on having a Chinese take-away but it was closed so we ended up with an Indian.

Phil arrived back as we were finishing our meal - looking rather red where he had caught the sun whilst at the airshow - and he helped to polish of the leftovers.

We had all had a wonderful day but it was now tinged with sadness that our weekend away was drawing to an end.................................................................

Saturday 30 April...

...and some more photos from Camber Sands.

I was a bit too far away even with my zoom...

 ...but just in front of the gate was a bunny.
The sheep were still making the most of the sunshine...

 ...and there was a huge variety of sizes when it came to the lambs - most of them having a rest whist the parents were grazing (shot from our bedroom window).
Looking out from the front door...

...there was this palm tree...

 ...a lovely view against the fields and the blue skies.
There were lots of rather large seagulls...

 ...and this chap wasn't at all put off by the fact that we were snapping him...

 ...in fact, it almost looked like he was posing for the cameras.
Crafters at work...

...things actually kept quite tidy throughout the proceedings LOL.
Then it was time to think about getting some food sorted...

 ...'spag bol' and garlic bread was a perfect end to a lovely day. We took everything up to the lounge...

...and tucked in watching an episode of NCIS.

After clearing up, we actually spent some more time downstairs crafting again before the old eyelids couldn't be kept open any longer and we toddled off to bed.................................................

Friday 29 April...

...our first night at "Sea Whispers" and a trip to the beach.

After the drive, the retail therapy and the un-packing we indulged in a bit of crafting but decided we all wanted to have a wander and find the beach.

After all, why come all this way if we couldn't make the most of a few photo opportunities.

The beach was only a short walk from the house but to get to this vantage point on the dunes...

 ...it had seemed like we had just climbed Mount Everest - boy was it hard going climbing that mound as the sand was very soft underfoot and we endured a lot of slipping and sliding in our efforts to get to the top. It was also quite breezy although the sea didn't look that choppy...

 ...the tide was also well in. Chris (on the left) had now progressed from her phone...

...to her 'proper' camera. My shots don't really show just how high up we were...

 ...as we continued to scramble along the top of the dunes...

...even with the tufts of grass and very spiky bushy bits, the sand was still less than firm underfoot.
This shot might give you more of an idea of how high up we were...

 ...as I took a photo of our shadows at the bottom of the dune. Carol's hubby got a much better shadow shot of four of us creating the Y.M.C.A. shapes.

After gingerly making our way back down the dunes we went in search of food - after all, who comes to the seaside and doesn't have fish & chips.

This house was on the beach side of the road...

 ...and as you can see...

 ...the dunes were wrapping themselves right around this property.

We found a Fish & Chip shop and bought our food to take back to the house.

On the walk back we were treated to some lovely coloured skies...

...the horizon where the sun was setting was quite vivid but in the other direction...

 ...the colours were much softer.
It is times like this that I wish I had a better camera...

...but I don't think my 'point & shoot' did too badly.

Back at the house we tucked into our Fish & chips, washed down with some wine and then we headed off to bed...............................................................