A-Z Monday~ Letter F

F is for Family and Friends.

I Fly oFF to England in just under Four days.

The day beFore Friday to be precise.

Yes on Thursday I fly to England for 3 weeks.

Leaving Mike and the 3 Hounds together here in Germany.

It's rather a long time.

But I did so want to see my Grandson in his first school Christmas production.

I couldn't miss that could I?

And coming back was determined by other circumstances

which I will tell you about on my return.

I hope to post some photographs whilst I'm away

and I'm planning some scheduled posts,

so I hope you continue to call in.

As I love to read your comments.

I have been a bit slow in replying to some of your comments of late and posting on my blog.

Mike has been commandeering the computer for business purposes,

and he's also caught the blogging bug.

I can't get him off now!

For more A-Z fun call in on Jen.

Normal Service Will Be Resumed...

I usually find February to be a dark and surprisingly long month

given it is actually the shortest.

Fortunately this year it hasn't felt so long or dark.

It's had it's highs and lows.

Sunshine and grey days.

At times it has been very cold.

But the snow has been here throughout,

which I enjoy.

Particularly in the sunshine.

We have been experiencing some serious problems with our computer.
It has had a particularly virulent virus,
and as I understand, it has had to be taken back to basics.
Fortunately our friends that have been staying with us were able to do this for us.
Mike and I are such novices when it comes to IT.
So we are keeping our fingers crossed that there are no more problems with it.

So I have not been visiting many blogs of late,
or even posting regularly.
I apologise to those of you that I would normally have visited more often.

I hope

that spring is around the corner.

Happy weekend where ever you may be.

Scootering Along

We have friends staying with us this week.

They are a young couple from the UK.

They first came to stay with us July/August 2006.

So they are finding it quite different to their first visit,

when it was sunny and hot all the time.

Now there is snow all around and it is quite cold at times (-10 degrees centigrade).

Yesterday we took some snow scooters out.

It was great because a couple of our Swedish friends joined us and took us on some forest trails as well as over some of the lakes.

One of the group managed to tip their snowscooter over spilling both her and her husband!

Mike was not very pleased!

But fortunately Mike and I were not injured.

Our greyhounds seem to be enjoying the company,

just a bit...

A smiling Rufus.

Mixed Bag

Thank you for all your lovely comments and good wishes while I've been away and especially for your comments regarding my grandson's 4th birthday.

I left a cold Sweden -14 degrees centigrade when I left, brrrr...
and flew to a cold UK!
Can you believe it, there was snow at Stansted?

I spent a night at Stansted because my connecting flight to Newcastle upon Tyne was first thing in the morning, and there was a further light dusting of snow overnight!

After a couple of days in the north east of England, (I stayed with a friend in Newcastle), I travelled west into Cumbria. I took the scenic route over Alston Moor.

Always a lovely route.
It was still cold but at least the sun was shining a little.

Snow appeared the further west I travelled.

But not as much as I had left in Sweden.

I stayed with my sister and her family in a lovely Eden Valley village.
Approaching the village I came across this chap.

A buzzard, quite common in the valley.

And this little chap, a robin, was taken from their window. Quite common in the UK and used a lot on Christmas cards, but I can't remember seeing one in Sweden.

The weather was poor for just about all of my visit.

Cold.

It felt colder to me than it does in Sweden but it wasn't.

It rained.

This is the River Eden which flows through my sister's village, it's well over the banks

At the weekend we ventured into The Lake District to one of my favourite lakes.

Ullswater.

This time it was windy.

Very windy as well as cold.

I was hoping to get some good shots here at least.
But although there was some low cloud which I hoped would add to the atmoshere it didn't translate to the picture.

Shame.

We had a family time at my sisters and celebrated my grandson's birthday when he and his mum joined us for a couple of days.

We had a fun time.

Then it was time to return to the north east.

The weather continued to be miserable.

And I only ventured out for some photos when I went as far as Heddon on the Wall.

A village close to where my children live.

I was hoping to get out much more on my visit and take more photos than I have.

But the weather conspired against me.

But I did get to see family and catch up with some friends, unfortunately not all.

The time I spent with family more than made up for the weather being miserable.

And although I didn't take many photos out and about,

the camera was full of photos when I got back,

mostly of my grandson!