Good morning dear friends {smile}

I will start a new string for December as this is the last month for 2010 then next year I think I will keep to the two month format for posts.

Well we are finally back at home again after a fairly challenging journey through the snow. It took us more than five hours to get home after the M25 was fairly gridlocked with snow in Kent so we sat there for nearly an hour and a half. Mind you we were more lucky than the poor souls who were still there sitting hours after we had got through the Dartford crossing as exits had been closed so they couldn’t get off where they wanted to. I find it mind boggling that everything stops now here in England when we get snow! We now have about 6 to 8 inches of snow here as it has snowed again through the night. We were going to come home today as there was a better weather window yet when we called the housesitters they said that they were sorry but they had to be home for today so it was then a mad rush to get packed and go! {smile} hey had said that if there was a problem we could stay longer yet had forgotten that someone was coming to their house for the Wednesday to do some work. It was probably a good thing though as I am not sure how the journey might have gone today with the amount of snow that has fallen overnight on top of what is already here.

The journey started well as Babs didn’t have any snow at all though it soon changed as we got nearer to London. We ended up driving through a couple of blizzards though at least we had respite on different segments of the M25 and then once we had got on he A12 going northwards then the road was clear as the gritters had done their work well and it had stopped snowing so we were able to get home safely. I sent out quite a few thanks to the Universe and our angels for helping make it so. {Smile}

I have to finish getting unpacked and laundry sorted through so I will write up more a little later today once I have done the ORC work that is waiting for me to do. Mind you it is not a lot thank goodness so shouldn’t take too long.

I don’t think I will be going very far today though I do need to get out and get some more feed for the sheep so if Paul doesn’t take my car then I will have to brave the roads and hope that the snow ploughs and gritters will have been working later today. Our little road off the main road wasn;t too bad yesterday though the long driveway is not good. Will have to see what it is like later this morning when it is light. It looked like a winter wonderland when I let the dogs out first thing. {smile} Michael bless him had dug a path through to the doors so we could get to them yet this morning they are totally covered again so I think it will have to stay like that til tomorrow.

Will pop this post in for now and be back a little later… til then leaving a {{{warm group hug}} to {{all}} who may enter {smile}

With love always

Mermaid…xxx

Mermaid, A big welcome home--snow !!!
I knew there was a reason I live
in Australia -no snow--rain,yes, floods-yes-no snow !!

What a journey you two had,I am thankful you narrived safely.
We are in the middle of high humidity-almost li9ke living in Darwin-rather unpleasant.

Our birthday family lunch at a nearby restaurant was pleasant,I had not seen the grandchildren for ages,both in their 20's now.

At long last Dan has a physio and he will go to the local gym twice a week.Benetas is paying for it too which makes it better. Just 20" with 2 sessions a week to start with,once he is improving, there will be more time. This man is very positive and seems to know what he is doing.The acupuncture is helping and he can start feeling on the left of his face,so I shall just touch wood !

Heck, another thunder storm-must be off, waving all round,love Maggy

Burr....cold has coome to SW Florida. It is only in the 50's right now which is cold for us, last night it was in the early 40's. It is still sunny so I won't complain. Especially after reading of Liz's snowy adventure driving home. I am so glad the angels rode with you and guided you safely. I love my angels when we travel they really are there to protect and look over us.
We are pretty well settled in already and saw friends last night. I've invited the neighbors in for Christmas dinner already so my Christmas is planned, now all I need to do is decorate. I'll start tomorrow I think.
Maggy I'm glad things are going well for you and Dan finally. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a lot better then 2010.

Hello dear friends [smile}

Sheesh what a week it has been thus far! We are sort of snowed in as the driveway is packed snow and then more snow on top of it. The stable water pipes are frozen and I seem to have been doing nothing but sort out animals and keep the house warm as well as my usual things. Paul hasn’t gone to the office as our side roads were terrible. We are fortunate in that we have two big chest freezers so we are living out of them at the moment. When Michael comes on Monday we will go and get the animal feed (as he has a four wheel drive truck ) if the weather doesn’t ease up a bit by the morning.

On Wednesday we heard that Ollie and Emma and the two children were returning home from Paris on the Eurostar and then picking up their car in Kent which was hit even more badly than us and so they had a nightmare drive back home. I was able to keep checking the traffic status though online and call them to let them know of possible holdups. Thanks heavens for mobile phones and technology – how did we manage before all this was invented! {smile}

In the meantime I have got all the Christmas trees up and three decorated thus far with just two more to go inside. Each year I say I won’t do as many and then each year they all go up again as I can’t decide which ones not to do! {laughing} Michael helped me get all the boxes down out of the loft yesterday and then out of the boxes as it was snowing all day again. Still at least I will have them all done by the end of the weekend and then can sit down and write up the Christmas cards in between times and hopefully get out next week to get them posted. {smile} I have done quite a bit of Christmas shopping so I guess I could wrap up the presents as well.

I have to go and feed the dogs their dinner yet thought I would pop a quick post in again for now so that you know all is well here despite all the ruddy snow! Hopefully I will get back in later as my internet connection has been a bit up and down also though if it does go down again then I will get the netbook out for the mobile connection… mind you that is like having dial up again with it taking forever to load pages. Thinking back on how we used to manage with dial up aren’t we just thoroughly spoilt nowadays! {chuckle}

Well dogs are sitting here getting a tad impatient so will post this now and hope to be back later… til then

Much love always

Mermaid…xxx

PS Elfina: it is currently about 23F here at the moment and last night it was colder here than in Antartica! {Smile}

Oh MY Goodness Liz...all that snow and cold. Praying it will melt soon and return to a more normal winter. It is cold here too but cold here is a lot different then cold there.

I installed a new anti virus program on Pat's Florida computer a few days ago. Pat not learing it allowed a trojan virus called the defrag trojan to enter his computer. I was so mad at him. Anyway he went out the next day and bought a wonderful new one for himself which I love. I have spent sometime setting it all up and trying to recover some of our old documents from discs. So I've been busy doing computer work rather then working on the house. I only have the wreaths and bows up and the manger scene out. Hopefully we will put up the outdoor lights and deer today.

This morning while walking the dog I found a strange bird in front of my neighbors house. I don't know if it was an owl or a hawk...he just sat on the wires looking at the house. I got my camera out and tried to take a picture but he was gone when I put my head down. I think it was a young owl but it was quite large. I wonder what it means. It was a year to the day that my neighbor had her stroke and was taken from that house.

Pat has just got up so I'll close. Try and keep warm and enjoy the beauty of the snow.

Hello dear friends {smile}

It has been a different type of weekend for sure. Paul managed to finally get out of the driveway and went to Ipswich to get animal feed so now they are all sorted. I have got all the inside trees decorated and finally finished the big sitting room one yesterday afternoon. My back was just about finished though so I will take it a little easier today methinks. [smile}

Paul is hoping to go to the office today which means I can get a lot of things caught up in the house as it is always different when he is working from home. I am going to make a start tonight on writing Christmas cards so I can get the overseas ones away this week at least.

I have left a post in the Healing string as Jackie took a turn for the worse on Saturday and the family were called to her bedside yesterday. I hope that she will be out of suffering now sooner rather than later for all their sakes.

I have made a promise to myself that I will sit and go through the rest of the posts a little later this morning as I have made a start on them in my word document so I want to complete that today as I know I have been remiss in getting caught up here. There have not been enough hours in the day in recent times that is for sure {smile}

I hope all are well and am leaving a {{{warm group hug}} to {{all}} who may enter…

With love always

Mermaid…xxx

Gees Mermaid, ya gotta make some SNOW ANGLES for B2 and ME.

ENJOY the snow my friend. Some of my best memories are of deep snows; the most prelavant one at the moment was before NE Phila was built up, my Uncle had a stable and on a snowy day he took my mom for a sled ride on Roosevelt Blvd...

ENJOY THE SNOW THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES!

LIGHT, LOVE & PEACE; Kermit, B2 and Friends LOVE YA MERRY CHRISTMAS {{{HUGS}}} XOXOX

It is so cold here....but I am glad I am here and not north. They have had some really bad snow since I left and there is no school for my grands today because of it. My son called this morning with the news that his truck was unable to stop in the snow. It crashed into a tree and the whole front end was ruined. The air bag went off and thankfully he was not hurt. He is upset over this as his truck will be in the shop for repairs for sometime and he needs to plow. Praying they fix it quick.

I read of Jackies passing Liz and have left a message in the healing room.

Pat just left to get the car washed and waxed and the oil changed so I have the entire afternoon to myself. The first one in a while. I have to make an ornament for my clubs luncheon on Saturday so I better go and do that. Try and keep warm friends. I am as it is only 50 degrees here at noon, unheard of for this time of year.

Hello dear friends {smile}

I thought I must pop a post in here before yet another day goes by. I think at the moment it seems that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me and I suppose I really mean hours of daylight! {smile} Paul has been working from home in the afternoons so we have been involved in more of organising things for the season next year. Hopefully we will finally get things done so that the public cruise timetable can go to the printers early next week and then I will work on updating the web site.

Have got all the decorations up and yesterday I went and got the outside tree so that Michael could help me with it. It is now in its place with the lights on and so I can get that decorated with the bows and little fat balls for the birds over the weekend – weather permitting {smile} I will get the christmas cards written over the weekend as well to send next Monday so if they are late for all of you who live abroad then please forgive me.

The Universe provided this week as we will have another hundred bales of hay coming so that means that we will have enough food for the sheep if we have a really bad winter. Robert came on Tuesday so we moved a load of hay into the straw bay of the barn to make room for the new lot next week so that is all ready now and Robert will come and help me and Michael when the hay gets delivered.

I am going to take a little time out this morning to get my hair done which will be nice as we have to go to Archie’s birthday party on Sunday. It is hard to believe tht he is going to be four as it only seems like yesterday that he arrived in the world! {smile}

I will go through the posts quickly in this december string for now and hope to have a re-read in the previous one later so I can respond to them later. In the meantime…..

{{{elfina}}} was so glad to see that you got to florida safe and sound and that you are now enjoying yourself getting ready for Christmas there. I should think you are very happy not to be covered in snow up north! {chuckle} We have been having a little breather from the snow though everything has been frozen instead! We still have snow laying around though the roads are clear at the moment. Thank heavens that your son was ok after his accident although it must be a pain not having the vehicle for a while. I actually went out in the car on Wednesday to take the girls back to Hadleigh and realised that it was the first time that I had driven since before we went to Babs for our visit! It has meant carrying water from the house to the stables for the sheep as the pipes are frozen down there yet I think there will be a little respite for a few days before the freeze returns so will make the most of it. I hope that the weather gets a little warmer for you as 50 is not very high for sure though at least a little better than the –10’s that we have been having! {smile} Thank you for leaving your lovely messages in the healing room and for the energies – I know they are all helping. Paul and I have been also helping Carl through this so that has taken up quite a lot of time here in the evenings which has meant that I haven’t been able to sit and write anything either here or in my emails which have been mounting up like good uns {Smile} At least the Universe is kind and granting me extra energies at the moment so that I can get things done. {smile} How lovely re seeing that bird at your house…. We have been having a visit from the resident sparrow hawk as well or rather Paul has as it flew down and sat on our log bin for a while. Mind you I put food there for the little birds so it thinks it is a bird table for it!

{{{kermit}}} aww I hope all is well with you and B2 sweetie {{{hugs}}} Just because I don’t write in here every day doesn’t mean that anyone is far from my thoughts as I always look in to see if there are any posts {Smile} they say it is going to be the coldest December here in the UK for over a 100 years so can you please send a bit of warmth over the Pond! {grin}

{{{Maggy}}} I heard that it is the wettest spring down under for a long time so hope that you don’t get webbed feet! {chuckle} Good to read that Dan now has a physio that he likes and hope that he improves now in leaps and bounds! {smile}

I am out of time and need to go and make a start on my day so will pop this post in for now and then be back later this evening as I know it is going to be a full on day today. I do hope that everyone is well and am leaving a {{{warm group hug}} to {{all of you dear friends}}}} …. Til later…

Much love always

Mermaid…xxx

PS please excuse any typoes etc as I am not going to proof read else this post will not get put in! {smile}

Please spare some time for thoughts and prayers for Moonlady. She is not well and the chemo is really affecting her badly. Lets all just give her a boost. I am confident she will beat this (again), but she needs to have a "push" when her spirits are down.

We all know her and have been friends on and off over the many years. We've had our celebrations together and our disputes. Laughed together, fallen out over unimportant things that seemed so huge at the time. But that's what friends do. Jan and I were constantly falling out and sniping, but in understanding each other, we always eagerly made up and laughed at ourselves.

So lets do what friends do, support each other. C'mon Donna. We're sending bundles and streams of healing energy your way!

Hathor

Hello dear friends [smile}

Goodness it has been a busy few days here and the time is zooming by at a rate of knots so I thought I had better pop a post in before my day takes over yet again. {smile}

The good news is that dear {{chakhotay}}} is now clear on his eye problem. I took him to Newmarket yesterday to see Claudia (his consultant) and we just have to keep an eye on him and continue with the eye ointment every day and hopefully all will be well. If there is any sign of the panus returning then I will get him over there as fast as we can so it can get treated in the early stages rather than go through all the rigmarole of before. Thank you all for your energies for him he is such a lovely big bear. It is funny because when we go into the reception area you can see the inward gasp from people because heis so big and then people come and stroke him (which he loves and just leans into them) and they just love him. (which is not surprising because he is such a beautiful dog). {Smile} He loves going out in the car so on the way back from Newmarket I decided to call into Hadleigh to post all my overseas cards so he could sit in the car and watch the world go by whilst I was away bless him {smile}

Looking at the television yesterday I couldn’t believe the pictures of the snow in Minnesota so I do hope that {{robin}} is ok… perhaps you can call in and let us know {{robin}} am sending out a thought wave as I write. {smile} Looks as though that snow is now going to track over the Pond and we will have it by the weekend so a white Christmas is now on the cards. Hopefully the hay will be deliered on Thursday (when sleet is forecast) so that I will not have to worry about winter feed now for the sheep for the rest of the winter! {smile}

Archie’s birthday party was on Sunday and it was lovely to see all the little ones enjoying themselves {Smile} There was a magician there and she was very good and got the little ones all up dancing and playing it really was lovely. {smile}

I have been busy with Christmas shopping and need to get the rest of my cards written and posted in the next couple of days. I think it is going to be quite nice just the two of us over the Christmas holiday as it will be lovely to just chill out and relax (when we are not outside seeing to animals in the snow). We have the children and grandchildren coming over on the Monday and are going out on the Sunday to visit friends so that will be about it really and I am really looking forward to a different quiet Christmas rather than having loads of people here and just being hard work. {smile}

We have Jacqui’s funeral on Friday and I know that it is going to be a really hard time for Carl and the girls so please hold them in your thoughts and send out some {{energies}] for them both for Friday and also over the Christmas period. There is never a good time for anyone to die yet it always seems more poignant when it is near the Christmas holiday season.

{{Hathor}}} I popped into Moonlady’s string in Ac and left a message there for her and will look in again either today or tomorrow and leave another one. It is always awful when undergoing health challenges and I do hope that the {{energies}} that will have been sent out to her will have helped her at least a little in her struggle.

{{kermit}}} thank you so much for the phone call at the weekend it was lovely to talk and I hope that you and {{B2}}} have a lovely peaceful holiday time. {{{hugs}}}}

Well tis nearly time to start my day so will pop this post in now and then look in again later. I hope that all are well and am leaving a {{{warm group hug}} to {{{alll}} who may enter…. Til later

Love always

Mermaid…xxx