Half term :)

What a busy week off I have had, almost as busy as a working week.

On Monday I looked after my nephew, Joshua for a while we made some valentines cupcakes, took Max for a walk and watched 'Ratatouille' then I had a lovely catch up with my sister and his mum Susanna.

On Tuesday It was pancake day so I had my mum around for tea I made a lovely minced beef pie then for afters we did pancakes, some with lemon and sugar and some with Nutella. I always enjoy pancakes and wonder why we don't have them all the time! Afterwards it was art class and this week we had instructions to draw out a picture ready to paint. We had to paint it using the 3 primary colours and mixing and blending the colours. It didn't turn at all like what I thought it would but I learned a lot about shades. I'm pleased with it technically but I'm not sure I like it, I don't know it something about the colours it's very dark and I'm not really a dark colours kind of girl but see what you think?

On Wednesday it's Matthews half day so we had planned to go out to the cinema and watch 'Les miserable' ( i still haven't watched it!) and out for a meal but it had been snowing since 6am and it was getting deep by the time Matthew got home from work, so we decided not to go out and we got a chippy tea instead and when we took Max out for his walk we went sledging again.

On Thursday I went for a walk with Max around Entwistle reservoir with Sandra and Kimberley from work and Kimberley's dog Finbar. It was dry and cold but because of all the snow melting on the hills the reservoir was very high and in some places it had flooded and we had to wade through luckily we all had our wellies on. We went up to have a drink and something to eat at 'the strawberry duck' last time we went there Max barked so much we had to sit outside to eat, but this time he was much better. We had a lovely time. It was also mine and Matthew's 11th valentines day together, I made Matthew a card and made him some heart shaped Nutella biscuits (his favourite) and he got me a card and some Guylian chocolates (my favourites)

On Friday I went with mum to Cafe create, a cafe that is set up in the hall of Claremont church in Bolton town centre it is open every Friday for people to get together and learn new crafts, meet new people and eat cake and drink tea! They have a gallery where they sell crafts that people have made. We sat crocheting hearts and teaching some of mums friends to crochet it was great I really enjoyed it. I took some of the felt keyrings that I had made to show them and they said they would like to sell some I just need to think of a name and put some business cards with them. I had such a good time I wish they did it on a weeknight or weekend because I'll only get to go at holidays otherwise.

My week

Last week has been busy, on Tuesday I started an art class at the parish centre of the church were my mum goes. She has been going for years to it and its something that I have been interested in. They use lots of different art mediums and this week we were using acrylics to do a colour wheel by mixing the 3 primary colours, it helped me to understand more about mixing colours and different shades and tones. I really enjoyed it and I'll be going again tomorrow.
On Wednesday I had a go at mixing colours, so I drew out the picture of Max I had done again and tried mixing the exact colours needed for it. I had a go but I think I'm a bit better at drawing than painting, but I don't think it's too bad for a first go.

On Friday at work we had some people from 'Wild wings - birds of prey' who came to school to do a talk about owls and show us some, I just as excited as the children! When they asked whether any of the staff wanted to hold one I nearly jumped off my seat to do it! I held a Barn owl called Ella. She was beautiful, when you stroked her feathers on her chest she nibbles your finger with her beak, she sort of nuzzled into your finger. They also got her to fly from one side of the room to the other she was so graceful. They also had a tawny owl, an European eagle owl, a spectacled owl and a scops owl.

On Friday after work my mum came around for tea and ended up getting stranded here because of the snow we hadn't realised how much it was sticking by the time we went out it was about 6 inches high, we tried to drive her back but the car was sliding around so we had a sleep over!
By Saturday it had stopped and we were able to take mum home and go sledging!

And today I started a yoga class...who knew yoga was so hard!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It's been snowing this week so what better time to go for long walk up Pendle Hill in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire.
We found a circular walk starting from the picturesque village of Barley on www.trekkingbritain.com, it is a five mile walk with an ascent of 330 metres.
The weather was light snowfall and there was quite a lot of snow on the paths too so we bought some cheap ice grips that you put over your shoes these helped a little bit but not that much, Matthew lost one of them completely and all the studs off the other one, he also slipped twice. I on the other hand didn't fall but did slip a bit.
We walked firstly along the side of lower and higher Ogden reservoirs then up towards the top of the hill. Then we slowly and gradually climbed the hill to the top. We saw some people who were on there way down who advised us to wrap up because the wind was bitter up there! They weren't wrong we stopped just after to have a quick drink of coffee from the flask and a piece of homemade chocolate brownie it tasted so good. We put or heads down and carried on walking up the hill. We couldn't see the top so we just kept assuming that it was just over the next brow, we felt a bit nervous not really knowing how far we had to go the snow was getting deeper and the wind was stronger. The only thing that was stopping us from turning around and going back was that we could see other people ahead of us.
As we reached the top and we spotted the triangulation point on the summit the wind was knocking me sideways and the right side of my face was numb and the snow was stinging my eyes but we made it! Unfortunately there was not a great view from the top but it was a great sense of achievement.
As we set down the hill along some very steep and slippery steps the wind eased a bit and we could see the view of white fields and the reservoirs we had walked past. It was beautiful. The walk then led us back into the village were we went to the Pendle Inn pub in Barley for our tea. Despite the cold we really enjoyed the walk, we want to go back when we can go actually see where we are going!