Enjoying Winter activities

We've been having a blast here in Doxieville :o)

My friend N took us up to a local beauty spot in the snow...might not sound like a big deal but we couldn't have got to it in a normal car as it was on top of a BIG hill lol...he has a lovely monster of a 4x4 so we did it easy!

DS followed his Mother's good example and had driving lessons in the snow!

We've been climbing, Woohoo! N and J have been threatening to take us for ages...last Monday after softening us up with a day of Xmas shopping and lunch out they sprung it on us that we were going that evening...they already had all their gear in the car, so there was no chickening out lol...it was a first for DS and I. I managed to get to the top and touch metal which I was mightily proud of!!! It was minus 4 degrees and with no gloves it was no mean feat! In the end the place closed a bit early because of the extreme cold!  N and J said I did really well and I surprised them by being totally ache free the next day, which I put down to the fact that I've been doing my weights again. I've also dropped to 8st 4lbs so I guess there is not much of me to heave up lol. Can't wait to go again :o) I was scared when I first thought of going but now I am mega keen!

This week it was our last chance to go skating before Christmas with a group of friends so I bundled DS and J into the Doxiemobile and we met up with everybody for a good hour of fun and exercise. It was more tiring than the climbing lol...later N joined us for dinner and we spent an amusing evening vegging in front of the television until they slunk off about midnight, oops!

I'm enjoying getting more active again, roll on the lighter evenings when you can cram more out of the day!

Hope everyone has been finding time to get out and about. I can't believe it is Christmas in a few weeks, I've kinda put all the preps on hold, but I'd rather be living in the now any way lol.

Dox x 

The North wind doth blow...

...and we shall have snow

What will Doxie do then, excited thing?
N will collect her in the truck and take her to take pictures of donkeys in the snow,
Lucky thing! :)

The other night N suggested we get together today to go out and take pics, which we did. 8 of us met locally and had a lovely COLD but festive walk in the woods. Sadly Mr D couldn't go but I did leave him eating his favourite meal of chilli so hopefully he wasn't too disappointed...we all missed him but hopefully he will get to go next time :) One of the 8 was an adorable little 2 year old... his giggles at us throwing leaves in the air was nothing short of infectious, awww!

With the prospect of snow it seems daft not to plan going out and making the most of it photographically. Doxie though, is not keen on driving in the snow even though she had a few lessons in the white stuff with her instructor...so N offered to come here and pick DS and I up. He knows where some tame donkeys are likely to be next week that we could take pics of, or failing that we will head for the New Forest.

I am so excited, what a lovely Christmassy picture Donkeys in the snow would make!

Hope you are all warm and snuggly wherever you are.

Dox

What a difference a week makes!

Last Friday I was down the beach with DS and my friend J in tee-shirts and today it was so cold when we went for a walk J offered me his gloves to wear and my hands were still a bit cold even with them on!

He came up on his motorbike. I fell about in fits when I saw him...I'd never seen him in all his bike gear before... he looked like Buzz Lightyear!!! After he warmed up with a cuppa we bundled into the Doxiemobile and I drove us all to the woods. It was beautiful, I thought the leaves would have gone but they hadn't...the oaks in particular were hanging onto their leaves and were the most stunning colour.

I found a hill to run down through all the leaves, it was really steep and I couldn't stop once I started! It was such fun I went back up to the top and did it 3 times lol! We didn't notice the time going and got back to the Doxiemobile just before dark! We texted N just before we left to come home and he came over to Chez Doxie straight from work where he joined us for dinner. I just love an impromptu gathering! Somehow things got a little out of hand and we ended up drawing on each other's faces LOL. Don't ask even I don't know!!!

It has been a really weird week for many reasons but one good thing is that this time last week I was 8st 11lbs, this morning I was 8st 6lbs!!!! I didn't mean to loose the weight that quickly, but now it is off I intend to keep it off!

Anyway I hope everyone is fine wherever they are.

Doxie x

Being tweaked

tweaking around with the blog.

For Rip Van Winkle: Bird

Just in case you have been snoozing and haven't seen this yet...is there ANYONE out there in blog world that hasn't had a go at these yet?...well just in case look at link above...You may or may not see my feeble attempt above depending on whether or not I was brave enough to share a pic with you...I once read that a secret to a good blog is to show you are human...well there is proof in my pictures, far from best attempt at embroidery...all I can say is that if you are going to embroider it, do it with a trick marker because if you are like me you will change your idea as you go along as the aesthetics ( crikey spell check said I got that word right first time around, sometimes I impress myself LOL ) of it become more apparent as you stitch...and if you are a complete twit and did not use trick marker, felt tip pen marks do not compliment the embroidery no matter how much you try and persuade yourself otherwise! LOL

I'm going to try and do a mobile as soon as I find some yummy fabric that will do them justice.

Enjoy.

Doxie ...far from perfection!

Teaching myself to make better pastry

I bought myself some loose bottomed tartlet tins and they called for a better pastry than my usual shortcrust, so I tried my hand at Sweet tart pastry French style. I am very pleased with the results, the  crust has a hint of vanilla and a more biscuit-like texture than the shortcrust, 'yum!' I just can't stop baking at the mo, it's addictive, and yes I have started to put on weight, 'ahem!' I'm telling myself I need a bit more fat to keep myself warm through the Winter lol!

Doxie



Walking with Anaya

A few pics from my walk with Anaya. After a couple of hours grubbing around in the undergrowth looking for nice nature shots we vegged with Latte and cake, yum!

Wot no giraffes? I love the sky in this teasle shot.

 

Even a blackberry flower can be very beautiful.

soft like a nature painting

Wood monster's eye?

 Have the fairies been out with the 'Mr Sheen'?

 I had to put the camera on the ground and just hope it was pointing in roughly the right direction as I couldn't see... the screen was facing away from me.

I like the bokeh effect in the background!

 I love how the flowers hug this bench...just a few days later they had all finished flowering

 Pretty wood and flowers by the pond

Horse hill gate

I'm really looking forward to catching the Autumn leaf colour. So glad I can drive now, Woohoo!!!!

Life is good!
Doxie