Happy Christmas everyone

Well after weeks of running around the day has been and nearly gone,I hope you all had a good one. It was a strange one for me as my Mum is very poorly right now and couldnt make it to have dinner with us. I spent the day with her we exchanged gifts but it was a struggle to see her try and catch her breath.

My mum is 80 so every Christmas I have with her is a bonus, today really brought it home how empty Christmas will be without your mum,Christmas really is all about being with your familyand loved ones,  never take your Christmas get togethers for granted, embrace them and cherish your memories.

My mum has always loved Christmas and made each an everyone magickal. Mum has never celebrated the commercial side of it, Christmas for Mum was always more spiritual I remember all the midnight masses we used to attend, how the weeks before christmas would be spent spraying glitter on twigs and making our own decorations. We baked ginger breadmen and angels and hung them on our trees. We baked cakes and puddings and mince pies. 

We gathered Holly and Ivy from the garden to make wreaths every job was part of Christms I just wanted to tell you mum I love how special you made Christmas for us.

Mum bought me my lovely Nativity scene and light up village years ago and every christmas when I light them I am reminded how truly lucky I am in my life.

Let the festivities begin

I love Christmas always have but I cannot stand the idea of it starting in September, jeez by December we would be bored stiff of it.

So I made a rule a long time ago I dont even think or acknowledge it until December the 1st, I wont play any Christmas music, watch a Christmas film or write out a card and dont even get me started on Christmas trees.

Yes the shops may have started weeks ago but i look at nothing until today December the 1st so Let the festivities begin!

Help I've got loads of stuff to do :-)

Capturing autumn

Yesterday was another beautiful autumn day, really have to make the most of these bright days as we may not get many more. 

I have a new camera and lens so I need to practice and get out at every opportunity, pretty hard during the week as I'm working and its too late to do much when you get home from work so a dry weekend is a must to get out and about. We have a beautiful nature reserve near where i live its in a place called Hollingworth lake which is beautiful no matter what season it is.

One of my favourite things to do is feed all the birds up here.

The trees are now turning a beautiful colour what a beautiful season autumn is.

Loving Autumn

I had big plans and loads of jobs to do this weekend but Saturday was such a beautiful day I sacked all the jobs and went walking in the woods took my camera, some Soup and sandwiches and had a wonderful day. Days like these should be seized and sod the indoor jobs they will be there another day.

My Wimbledon weekend

I wasn't going to post much on my Wimbledon weekend as it didn't exactly go as I planned, but what the hell it was a good weekend anyway.

My friend Jo and I set off last Thursday evening, the plan was we'd drive down to London stop at a hotel and get to Wimbledon early Friday morning to joint the queue to camp to get tickets for Rafas 3rd round match.

Well the whole weekends plan went wrong quite quickly! On our way down on Thursday evening Rafa got knocked out in the second round shocked didn't begin to cover it, so as we were arriving in London to see Rafa he was departing.

At this point it was either turn back, which wasn't really an option with the amount of money we had already spent so we thought we'd make the most of it and enjoy the weekend.

We queued up early Friday morning and camped out overnight, a bit grueling and incredibly long but worth all the waiting around when we saw we had second row seats on centre court, also the line up was great we would get to see Serena Williams,David Ferrer (my fave player after Rafa) Andy Roddick and Andy Murray.

The grounds at Wimbledon are as beautiful as ever being a keen gardener I always end up taking loads of pics of the flowers and the Ivy.

The first match we watched was the Serena Williams match have to say this was the first time I had seen Serena live and she looked every bit as intimidating as she does on TV, but also very feminine and beautiful as well.

Serena won her match now it was the highlight of the day for me David Fererr and Roddick like both players so it was good for me Ferrer won the match and played a good game but being on the second row being able to take pics with no one in front of us was great, the downside was we kept thinking how wonderful it would have been if it was Rafa.

The last match up on centre court was Andy Murray and Baghdatis, as much as we would have to have stayed and watched it all we couldn't as it was late starting and we knew we still had to book into our hotel

Looking back over the weekend it was fun it wasnt the weekend we had planned but we made the best of it as you have to.

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Summer musings

Summer? Well I use the term loosely not seeing much here in the UK a lot of Summer plans are fading with the days.I had planned a complete renovation of my garden, dismantle my lawn as it's taking up good flower space.I had planned to plant some fruit trees and an edible area but we've had so much rain getting out isn't always easy.I want to feel the sun on my face, my kitty wants to feel the sun on his face it's fast approaching mid summer now and we've still no Summer. treated myself to a nice new camera and lens but getting out to play with that is proving difficult. I have taken a few pics of my flowers but a lot of things are behind, normally at this time of year I have a lot more in flower.Heres a few pics of what I have in bloom.










Seeing as the great outdoors isn't much of an option at the moment I am getting in plenty of Yoga practices feel so much better for it, also busy making plans to go to Wimbledon for the Tennis, we camped last year and I loved every minute of it.Just hoping the weather improves and the Sun makes an appearance. I'm stuck in work this Sunday morning not complaining I'm on my own so it gives me a chance to catch up on my blogs and stuff, I follow some great blogs and enjoy catching up.OK those are my Summer plans what you all got planning?

Monte Carlo Finals day

At last finals day had arrived,although I was nervous I was determined to try and enjoy today, this really is the most beautiful venue, surrounded by the sea and stunning scenery how could you not enjoy this place.

My main worry for the upcoming clay season was once again Rafa would lose a final to Djokovic, we had gone through so many disapointments last year there was a seed of doubt, although you can never write off Rafa especially on clay but we all knew Rafa had to get this monkey off his back sometime and today was as good as any.

There was a great turn out of Rafa fans and he certainly seemed to have the crowd on his side the sun was shining and within a few minutes of this match starting my nerves settled and I started to relax, don't know what it was about Rafa today but he had the business face on and Novak was not taking his Monte Carlo crown away from him.


After what seemed like the shortest final I can remember Rafa was victorious winning the match 6-3 6-1 at one point in the second set I was starting to worry it was going to well and kept awaiting A fightback of some description from Novak, but it never came.

The relief I felt at this victory was enormous I feel Rafa is hitting some sort of form as he is heading up to the French Open knowing he can beat Novak and his game certainly seems to be coming together here's hoping for a good year.

It was wonderful to see Rafa lift the Monte Carlo Masters for the 8th consecutive year that in itself is an amazing feat and of course the joy of seeing another trophy bite in Monte Carlo is amazing.

I have to say this is my favorite tennis tournament it has it all, the beautiful scenery,the weather,the best players on the planet and a wonderful week to catch up with friends and fellow Rafa fans I can't believe my amazing week is coming to and end and tomorrow it's back home flying into Liverpool.
So here's a few more final day pics and doesn't he look happy.
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