31st December photo - last day of this 365 project and the start of a New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

Today - New Years Eve is the last day of my 365 project and the photo above is going to be my POTD. I am toasting the start of a new year and new opportunities - while Steven is toasting to the fact that he will never ever have to have his photo taken again or hear the words 'I have just got to do my blog first' , when he comes home from work and expecting his tea on the table!

We have spent a quiet day - enjoyed a walk along the riverbank, studying the bridges that cross the River Severn in Shrewsbury, in preparation for a new geocache that I am in the process of setting up.

The Welsh bridge.

The English bridge

Kingsland toll bridge

Porthill footbridge.

Back at home I did my traditional New Year duty and filled in my new Calendar and diary.

We indulged in another tasty Chinese takeaway (can be a whole week since we had our last takeaway, on Christmas Eve?) before settling down to watch Jools Holland bring in the New Year.

Happy new year to you all and please pop by tomorrow to see my final blog post.

30th December photo - snow at last!

3-4" of snow is what the weather forecasters promised overnight - so I went to bed quite excited thinking that at long last I could get a snowy photo before the end of this project. Imagine my disappointment when I looked out of the window and saw rain! Not to be deprived of a snowy photo (as everyone else has one!) I decided that action was needed and set my sights on Wales - where I was sure there must be some snow. Steven sensing my determination, realised that it was better not to disagree with me and just got in the car and kept quiet as I drove through howling wind & rain - clearly thinking I had turned into a mad woman.

Anyway - I was proved right and we found some snow and I got my snowy photo!! This photo is taken at an earth cache where millions of years ago lots of rocks tumbled down the valley from the top creating a river of rocks. There is nothing to find at an earth cache - you just have to have your photo taken to prove you have been there.

We drove to just outside Llangollen and started the walk at Valle Crucis Abbey and did 6 geocaches along a 4 mile route - which did feel quite a bit longer as we had to tread carefully as there was still quite a lot of ice about. Actually it was a really nice after Christmas walk with beautiful scenery and the snow just added to the magical (but cold) feel of it and by the end of it, I think he was quite pleased that I had dragged him out into Wales.

Despite wrapping up warmly - we were quite cold after being outside for 3 hours or so - so we headed into Llangollen town and found a lovely cafe and had a bowl of tomato & chilli soup which certainly warmed us up before heading home - with me smugly pleased with myself that with just one day to go - I at long last, had got my snowy photo!

Just one slight problem now - which of these 4 photos do I print out for my album!!

29th December photo - categorically speaking

Today we played another of Jessica's favourite games - Categorically Speaking. Steven insisted that we keep the letter 'Y' in one of the rounds - much to our protest - then he fumed cause he could not think of any words beginning with 'Y' for alcoholic drinks, Disney characters, things in the sky and symbols found on maps!

He is a very naughty boy - because when I ran off to fetch my camera - he thought it would be funny to rearrange the letters to spell a rude word - hoping that I would not notice and post it on my blog for the whole world to see! Men!

28th December photo - Lou's wedding

A friend got married today at Shrewsbury Castle - she looked absolutely gorgeous and I like this photo best - but it is in portrait mode so won't go in my album, so this second one is the actual one I will print out.

The proposal and wedding were so romantic - Scott proposed her out of the blue - she had given up hope of him ever asking her! Both her son's are going to serve abroad in January - so in just 6 weeks she had booked and arranged her wedding and it went off without a hitch.

Shrewsbury Castle is such a lovely setting for a wedding. It is now a military Museum - so it was quite fitting, given that both her son serve in the British Army. Lou with her Father & Sons'.

The castle looked lovely today and the rain kept off for her.

It was nice to be with friends - Judith, Flunky & Gael

27th December photo - lovely choccie bics!

Oh dear - we have all eaten far too many of these gorgeous chocolate biscuits. These are our favourite ones.
I think a very long walk tomorrow is called for!

26th December photo - Boxing day

Today my sister's family came up for the day and Peter very kindly agreed to be my POTD as I had not been able to go out and take the photo that I had got planned in my head.

Thanks for coming to my rescue again peter!

25th December - Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have had an enjoyable day.

Our day has been very quiet - for the first time ever we did not leave the house! The children came into our room at a very reasonable 07.30 and Santa had visited them in the night and left them stockings - so they must have been very good this year! Still in our night wear we headed downstairs and opened the presents under the tree.

Steven with a new Yankee Candle - Orchard Pear this one. You can see he is impressed with my choice of gifts - nothing altruistic here!

Eleanor loved her Ingrid Michaelson concert poster - she is such a huge fan of hers.

Liam with some music - dad chooses this for him as I have no idea what he is into any more - but he and dad share a love of music.
Jess with her IPOD nano - it had to be pink!

I may not have found the perfect red toadstool this year - but they found me the perfect moneybox.

Dad and Eleanor sharing one of her many new books.

Snuggle up on the sofa time.

My POTD will be one of the following photos - my favourite gifts or us all around the dinner table.

24th December photo - Christmas Eve

A nice lazy day today - there was a bit of a role reversal going on though - the children were all working and Steven & I were the only ones with a day off. Eleanor was studying, Ross was sleeping after his night shift last night and Liam & Jess were both at work. Liam kindly got someone to take his photo for me wearing his red Christmas apron at work, because I have a fab layout in mind using the beautifully decorated paper bags that Starbucks have been using over Christmas as a background paper! How can I drag a 6' 2" tall lad kicking & screaming to the barbers - he refuses to have his hair cut!

When they had all finished work, we had a nice Chinese takeaway, opened a bottle of Bucks Fizz and watched the Christmasy DVD - The Holiday with Cameron Diaz & Kate Winslet - which got us all in the mood for tomorrow.

I took these photos of some of our Christmas cards in case, I did not want to use the ones of us in my album.

23rd December photo - work has to continue for some!

Poor old Eleanor is under pressure - she has to hand in her 70,000 word PhD thesis after Christmas and she is not ready yet! She finished her actual lab research at the end of the summer and has been writing up since then - but it is going slowly as she is a bit of a perfectionist.

So she has bought home all her work and has taken over the study with her papers and books and is hard at work all day and quite often into the night! She says she will takes a few hours off on Christmas Day! So I thought all her hard work deserves to be commemorated in my album.

22nd December photo - Maternity Carol Concert

Last night I attended the Maternity Hospital Carol Concert - the midwives choir sang beautifully. This first photo is my photo of the day.

It was not just the midwives singing - there is also a Male voice choir. Male & female voices joining together is lovely to hear.

This concert has become an annual tradition and is very well attended. It is held in the Maternity reception, so often visitors passing through to visit their relatives and friends in hospital stop and join in with the carols.

21st December photo - winter solstice

Today, the 21st December 2009, marks the Winter Solstice - the start of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day of the year. According to the National Geographic its all due to the Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around 21st December.

These photos were taken at 16.10 hrs this afternoon and 5 minutes later the sun had set and the red of the setting sun had disappeared. We could see that it was happening fast - so I took the roof photo from out of the bathroom window, then jumped in the car and took the one with branches in - just by the school grounds. This second photo will be my POTD.

A few solstice facts from the national Geographic web site - I have learnt something new here today!

Solstice in Space: Astronomy of the First Day of Winter

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

"Solstice" is derived from the Latin phrase for "sun stands still."

That's because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun's arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21), because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.

During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the "top" half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.

Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year's darkest day, but it's not the coldest.

Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December they still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn't hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.

20th December photo - family get together

This afternoon we had our first Christmas family get together as Steven's Auntie's house. They have a lovely big house which is always festive, full of lots of children and plenty of gorgeous food served.

This get together has become an annual tradition now on the last Sunday before Christmas and it is lovely to meet up with all Steven's side of the family.

Crikey how do I choose just one photo again?