Relaxing Christmas

It has been a really nice and relaxing Christmas this year. The last three years we have gone away for Christmas but this year we decided to stay at home. It's been lovely catching up with neighbours, friends and family and particularly since we are planning to move we have made more of an effort to make sure we see the people we would like to stay in touch with even after the move.

John's parents and brother and his girlfriend Helen came to us for Christmas Day. As usual an efficient affair with none of the tension that sometimes family gathering can have! We gave Helen a knitting kit and I tried my best to get her hooked on knitting (to create a fellow addict!) and William also wanted to have a go!


Yesterday we went for a walk in Castleton to get a bit of fresh air. It was very cold but beautiful as usual.



We are now really excited about moving and have started to go through all the stuff we have collected over the years and it's a lot! So far we have disposed of 13 bin bags of stuff and all of it has been complete junk that have just gathered slowly in the cellars, drawers and cupboards. It's been wonderful to find old diaries, photos and letters and going through those have been great! It's also making us do things such as have fires in the garden, play table tennis and watch old videos of William as a baby, things we probably wouldn't have bothered doing if it wasn't for starting to slowly pack all things!

Progress

Yes, after the second viewing of the cottage we felt it was completely right. What we particulary liked about the house is the layout. It's really sociable with the middle room (dining room) connecting the whole ground floor and woodburners in all the rooms making if feel incredibly homely. The location is wonderful too, just a tiny hamlet with 5 houses set into the hillside with tremendous views as far as Manchester one way and the Goyt valley the other. There isn't a lot of land with it but since our neighbours already have sheep, horses, dogs and cats and we still have room for the chickens it is as rural as we'd like it without the responsibility of looking after animals. We have started the buying process now and we can't wait to move! I've started packing some stuff and I love finding all the old things I've forgotten that I had! I'm sure some of them I'll only find again next time we move house...

Neighbouring house.

Sad news...

Just got the news from Tata that farmor (my grandmother) died last night. She was going to be 89 at the weekend. As I imagine that everyone feels when this happens is that they wished they had kept in touch more. I'm very pleased we went to see her a few years ago with William so at least he remembers her (although not very well because he was only little) and she got to meet him. I wondered if she got the Christmas card I sent her with some photos? Only possible if someone had taken the post to her in hospital which I suppose they might not have done.

There was another death in the family last night. Snowflake was killed by the fox and she was the last of the white ones to be caught. I wonder if it's more dangerous to be a white chicken? I suspect she decided to either sleep in the coop or on a low branch. We didn't check the coop last night since I've never ever seen them in there, but now I wish I had. This was the scene this morning, with white feathers everywhere and the three remaining hens looking very terrified! If it continues like this I'm going to have to change the name of my blog!



So now all the sad news is over, time for some good news! We have found a house that we really like! It's completely different from what we are used to but it is strangly appealing! It's a cottage which oldest parts date back to late 16-hundreds and it's lovely and cosy with tremendous views. We are going back there tomorrow for a second viewing. We had a very hectic time at the weekend and managed to view 8 houses but it is interesting to see how much the heart means compared to the head and the heart says cottage! So that is what it's probably going to be!

New search

Just as we thought everything was going so smoothly, the people who we want to buy the house from has told us that they are unable to find anywhere to move. I also got the impression that they would prefer to sell to some friends of theirs so basically we are now looking for something else. Fortunately there are a some really nice properties out there so maybe we'll find something even better. We have 7 houses booked for viewing at the weekend so hopefully one of them might be the one! I'll keep you posted!

Winter sunshine

Sunday morning is my reserved time for mountain biking since William goes to play rugby. I didn't need a lot of persuation to go out today since the sun was shining and the ground was covered with a sparkly layer of ice crystals. Dave joined me as usual and we headed up to Werneth Low (strange name for a hill I know) which is the nearest big hill in Stockport. The pictures speak for themselves.




In this photo I've marked the house in Charlesworth we are buying with an arrow.
We later cycled past it and I took a photo just to show where it is in relation to the church (the church is to the ridght) and my mother will be pleased to see it's very close! At least we'll have quiet neighbours!



Yesterday we accepted an offer on our house so now it really seems like we are going to move!

Christmas stuff

I find that I miss Swedish food mostly at Christmas, and funnily enough the kinds of things I miss I didn't particulary eat lots of in Sweden anyway. Every year since I moved to England we throw a massive party on my birthday (22nd December). The party is now famous on our road and people have developed their own liking of Swedish Christmas food specialities and at the same time it gives me the excuse to prepare a traditional Swedish Christmas "Julbord". We now make about 4 kg of meatballs every year (the secret is to use a deepfat fryer to cook them!!), Janssons frestelse, beetroot salad among other things I didn't really have at Christmas as a child but now would really miss!

At the same time I get more and more fond of the traditional English things people eat for Christmas that invariably seem to contain huge amounts of raisins and currants. Why all the raisins? They aren't exactly local are they? So why make all these mince pies (For my Swedish readers: little shortcrust pies filled with, guess what! Raisins!), Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings?? Now I actually enjoy them very much (more than John even!) and have taken over the baking of the annual Christmas cake (which should be made well in advance...some people make theirs in January, probably because the raisins are all being sold off cheap!) I baked mine about a month ago and today covered it with marzipan and icing. Now all I have to do is to leave it to gather dust until Christmas before cutting weighty* slices of it to go with a glas of nice port!

***For the Swedish readers: it has the density of solid rock, just imagine I put in about 2 kg of raisins and currants (actually what the difference between raisins and currants is (not even getting the sultanas involved!!) I have no idea!***




Amazing! I've posted twice today and I haven't even mentioned mountain biking more than just in passing! Just wait though, I'll bore you to death with it sooner or later!

Hello out there, now it's my turn!

I've done it now. Just like everyone else, I've started a blog. My sister has had one for ages and it's been great knowing what she's been up to! And I've just realized that I've been subconsciously copying her (and the rest of my family!) not only by starting the blog but also getting hens, and now we are even moving out in the countryside and possibly getting a dog....but no cows...I draw the limit at that!

We put our house up for sale almost two weeks ago after having had the idea a few weeks earlier that we should move out into the country! It was a strange descision since we are actually very happy here. But it somehow feels that we need a change. Getting more space for the chickens is one of the reasons since they are eating up our small garden (again). But there are more reasons, a lot of the people here we used to spend time with we don't see much anymore and we don't really make use of being close to Manchester either anymore (getting old!!).

We decided immediately that the Peak district would be the place for us, purely because of the mountain biking! Its outstanding natural beauty and being commuting distance from Manchester I guess helps as well. We spent 2-3 weeks looking at different properties and in the end settled on Charlesworth and a big house with wonderful views and quite a big garden. No land as such with it, but then again I did say earlier that I'm NOT getting cows! Time will tell if we manage to get this house as the housing market has almost ground to a stand still in the last 6 months!

I'll put in a photo of the Peak District to see if I actually can manage to figure out how to do it!