It's snow joke!

Blimey is that the time! Yep, that's January for you, gone in the blink of an eye. Its a sort of non-month, if there is such a thing. You get past Yuletime and its back to work and the daily routine and then, vroom, the end of January comes whizzing up.

Anyway, not a lot to report, apart from some festie news for the new year in the shape of invites to Blissfields, Nozstock and Tiddesley Wood. All with FREE pitches, which shows we must be doing something right. After last years wet, but not wonderful, series of disasters it can only get better....we hope.

Tree and I have not been up to much otherwise. I am settling into the new job and looking to doing a coders course, which takes about 2 years, and gets way better pay.

The weekends have been spent going out and entertaining ourselves. Clayton and Lorraine stopped over a couple of weekends ago and we had a good laugh, including trying Clayt's homemade Ferrero Roche which are supposed to be fat free. They DID actually taste a bit like the real thing!!

We have also managed to see a lot more of Pip & Murali. We met up in town the other day and had a good lunch but sadly I gave in to chocolate cake with cream for afters. Enjoyed every mouthful an all!!! Can't complain though as I am only 7 pounds off my target weight now. On Tues night they came over and we cooked up Tacos with a veggie filling...Yum, Yum. Murali liked it a lot. He has promised a masterclass in Sri Lankan cooking next time. Can't wait.

Otherwise, I am hopeful of a little more snow, now its the weekend, because I don't have to worry about driving in it or getting to work. Instead I can enjoy Mother Nature when she wraps the Earth up in a white blanket and that beautiful silence that comes with it. See Y'all!!

Stuff the recession !!

While everyone else is worrying about the recession (you know, the one were not supposed to be in, but are), Tree and I are feeling quite relaxed. After an interview or two I have got a job working at the Worcester Royal Hospital as a Ward clerk/Hospital auditor. Okay, put the cross down, auditors aren't that bad (unless you have something to hide). There is shed loads of training I can do as well, at the training centre on campus, thereby furthering my job prospects. It has been hard finding a job that wasn't going to give any money to "The Man" and we are both relieved how it has worked out. This of course means that we have a reasonable increase to our income so they can stick their credit crunch for all I care.

Job hunting has meant I haven't had much time to do anything else, including blogging, and any spare time has been eaten up by all the jobs I have neglected on the house. Frantic amounts of decorating, wallpapering and plastering have been a daily event, these past few weeks. Along with this, I have also managed to fit in converting a horrible old wall mounted gas fire into an open hearth with a beam for my mate Sarah. Nice !

Surprisingly, we have also found time to go and stay with Joy and Nige and are off again soon for another week before I start work. The advantage of my new job is that I will be able to transfer to Truro Hospital quite easily when we move to Cornwall, giving me and Tree some flexibility before we set up a business there. However, we won't be moving until the housing market has settled a bit.

As for the festivals, we are still going to work a select few like Nozstock, Bliss, Beautiful Days and Rock N Roots (if they honour their agreement re this years fiasco) and we will be able to enjoy them more knowing that we aren't depending on the income.

And now all that remains is to look ahead to the end of the month and Sahmain. Tree and I are off to stay in a cottage in Aberdovey to celebrate with a few friends. My mind is already turned to thinking about what we can get up to like Pumpkin carving, story telling in the dark and a big Sahmain fire to celebrate! Can't wait.

Annual catch up time.

It was about this time last year that I found myself in the same situation of being negligent on my blogging. I seem to remember, as well, that I vowed to make this a singular event. However, here I am catching up again! This time of year is particularly busy for me as I start making preparation for the coming year, festival and fayre wise. On this note, I am glad to say we have confirmed on Tiddesley Wood Spring Open Day, 3 Wishes Faerie Festival and Blissfields. We just have to wait on the outcome of Beauiful Days and The Big Chill.
Otherwise, I have been busy working on the house getting the main bedroom and French windows done. We should be ready to sell in time for next Spring. Tree and I are going to take time out for our birthdays this year and we are off next week to Joy and Nige's for a long weekend and to get ourselves on some estate agents lists. In April we are going to Venice for a week to celebrate Tree's 40th. We thought about longer, but a shorter break means we can have a better hotel and will be enough time to see all we want to see. Also, this allows us to go to India, The Maldives or Sri Lanka in the Winter of 2008.
On the health front, I am feeling a lot better now my weight is down by one and a half stone despite the tablets I am taking, which should put half a stone ON me a month as a side effect. The tablets are beginning to kick in and my cholesterol count is normal now. The downside is I will have to take them for the rest of my life. A small price to avoid a stroke or heart attack!
Well, that's about it for a catch up...until next year....

Blissed out at Blissfields.

What a brilliant weekend! Tree and I took a long needed break for a few days and went down to Hampshire for the annual sojourn that is Blissfields festival. Before we went, Tree did another hair design for me. This time we did "Bliss" as that is both the name of the festie and the surname of the people who own the farm and created the festie. We usually trade there but, because we opened the shop this year, decided to go as punters for a change. Paul and Mel, who run the whole thing, invited us down early on Thursday so we could chill and catch up. Sadly, as they got short of stewards and helpers, tree and I ended up fixing the marquee and doing a bit of traffic directing. We had a laugh doing it though. The weather stayed dry and we couldn't complain. I met up with a couple of Hedge carpenters and was shown how to make a geodesic dome, my next project. We packed up on Sunday and headed home via Avebury and stopped to have lunch. Whilst there we paid our respects to Mike, whose ashes are cast in the circle somewhere. We then headed out to Tewkesbury to catch the end of the Medieval Fayre and found a couple of new wholesalers in the process. Monday was chilling time and we did absolutely nothing, which was great! Anyway, the photos tell it all...enjoy.