Seasonal walks.

We are so lucky here. There are so many local walks to enjoy.

On Boxing Day, 26th December, we all set out to enjoy one of these. A rare time for the family to be out and about together.

We went to the Anderton Nature Park. This is right next to the famous Anderton Boat Lift. This amazing structure was closed for seasonal repairs, so we went off to explore the woodlands and the walks around the nature park. This is a wonderful place to visit with a number of wooden sculptures marking special sites of interest. We spent a wonderful couple of hours getting ourselves lost and found again wandering the pathways.

This is the beautiful sculpture at one of the ponds and meres. It was placed here to remind visitors to look at the gorgeous dragonflies and damselflies which live here in the Summer and early Autumn months.

Here is the beautifully carved notice which details the types of dragonflies and damselflies which can be seen here.

It was a beautifully sunny and yet very cold wintry day. Wonderful walking weather.

Season's Greetings!

Now where did December go? Its been rather hectic here - a number of concerts in a number of venues.

The first of these was a performance of "Zadoc the Priest" by Georg Handel and Vivaldi's "Gloria". Such wonderful music to sing. These were performed by the Hartford Choral Society on November 28th alongsideside instrumentalists from the Grange School, in the Grange Theatre. This was in aid of Action Aid and their work with African Aids/HIV sufferers.


This was then followed by a short concert performed by my class at the Old Friends Christmas Concert in the village. This is a group of the retired villagers who get toether each Tuesday afternoon. My class have been invited along to sing at their Christmas party for the past few years. The children love getting to meet the elderly at the party. Each year they are enchanted by being fussed over and chatted to. The Old Friends are such a wonderful audience and enjoy the singalong we do after the children have sung their songs. We share christmas carols and fun christmas songs like "Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer". As we walked along back to school afterwards, one little boy came up to me and said "I didn't think I'd like that. But it was fun wasn't it."


For two successive Saturdays, I joined the Vale Royal Recorder Players to perform in Tatton Hall as part of the Christmas Celebrations there. We performed a number of recorder arrangements of Christmas Carols both old and new. This is the Recorder group I regularly rehearse with. Such a lovely group, so friendl.y. We have a lot of fun together.


Then, last Saturday, the last of the concerts I have been involved with. It was the wedding of one of our past members. She left the Recorder group last year to move away for work. She returned to the church she used to belong to for her wedding. Such a lovely event to be a small part of.


Amidst all this, and teaching too, I managed to complete my aran cardigan.





You'll notice that I have forgotten the buttons on this one. I just did not fancy buttons and buttonholes. It will be interesting to see if I can live with a cardigan fastened by a brooch. The brooch is made up of three different buttons fastened together. I did not make this, but it is an idea I may copy myself at some stage.

A lovely time of year, even when the weather is not so good.


Season's Greetings to you all!