Bridgnorth and camera trip

On Saturday we took a walk out to get some air and I treated mom and Dad to a breakfast in Bridgnorth. Thankfully we took the vertical railway up the hill (and walked down).

Enjoying the railway 

View over Bridgnorth and the river

Long way up.

We had a nice breakfast at a very little cafe which also sold lots of craft things.

Breakfast

 And after looking around a few shops and getting some things for New Year Eve, walked down the the lower Town.

View on the way down.

Today after being up early for a Skype call with a collaborator who never showed (on a Sunday morning as well - sometimes I really don't like my job!), Dad and I went for a walk to St.Mary's Church to play with our cameras. It was a little bit cold!

Frost 

Ice.

St. Marys Church is a lovely little church which has graves over 200+ years old in the graveyard, though I think the church is older.

Shadow on the doorway

St. Marys

 I spent some time getting used to my new lens which has a nice depth of focus (so I can select limited things to be in focus - it's great for portraits).

Ivy 

More ivy 

And some leaves for a change

Frost

There are a number of very old headstones in the graveyard.

Tilting

1823

(Unintentional) moss art

After the church, we walked down to King Georges Park. I used to go there a lot when I was younger riding my bike and scrambling in the woods. Now they have put up fences everywhere. Still we took some more photos, chatted to a lovely little lady and I managed to get jumped on by a muddy dog. :-/ 

Willow

Setting sun

 We spent some time just photographing ducks and seagulls. There were a lot of them!

Looking for dinner.

 Dad was very jealous of my seagulls shot.

"Ducks" in a row

Staring contest

 Dad was just changing his lens to get a photo of the seagulls on the fence when a gaggle of geese noisily made their entrance and scared all the other birds of temporally. He was not impressed.

The geese have arrived

Once the sun set, it got really cold so we headed back where mom had us tea and coffee ready! :-) 

Christmas!

It has been great being home over Christmas. After working in the morning on Christmas Eve, Mom and I curled up on the sofa with mugs of tea and watched the Hog Father, a Christmas tradition for us. Unfortunately my sister and her partner turned up earlier than expected so we didn't get to see it all but it was more than last year! We always have hot pork sandwiches on Christmas Eve, this year long with a fair bit of rose wine. :-) Plus a chocolate roulade with some amazing Gran Marnier cream (which did not skimp on the liquor!).

Christmas day is one of the very few days over the year I don't put an alarm on. I figured as there were no children (or my sister who always gets up early), I could sleep in. I forgot about my Mom! She did wait until after 8am at least though she was up at 7am!

We have sacks of presents (little stuff) up stairs before going downstairs.

Mom and Dads sacks

Mine!

Mom opened hers quickly and gets impatient with me and Dad when we take our time. (I tend to take more than necessary just to see her reaction.) :-)

Opening presents

I got everything practical this year, as I have to fit everything into one suitcase to take back. So I got tights, deodorants, socks etc as well as a hat (as I lost one recently) and matching scarf. :-)

My sack presents

 After that it's downstairs for another cup of tea, toast, and more presents!

The tree.

Mom and Dad liked their presents from Australia! Mom got an opal necklace to match the ring I got her last time and dad got a aborigine decorated wine bottle holder.

Opening her necklace.

Happy with his wine bottle holder.

Though everyone promised not to spend much this year, we didn't really stick to it!

Mom bemused by her new iPad. 

Dad liked his new headphones though.

 I got a lot of clothes (to replace some old ones). My best present was camera stuff. I got some filters from friends (Thank you Matt, El and Clare) and a new fixed focus lens where I can do some fun things and is great for portraits.

Playing with the lens

One of moms many orchids

Another orchid 

Using the tree to play with the lens

After presents, we relaxed while dinner cooked, with a small tipple. :-) It has ben ages since I had Tia Maria but I didn't fancy either Dad's ginger wine (he is a ginger addict) or Mom's choice of sherry.
We put the table in conservatory for Christmas dinner. Usually it's because we need the room, but with there number of deaths this year (it has been a bad one!) it was just the 3 of us for dinner this year. But it's nice in there and something different.

Christmas starts and the well laid table (if I do say so myself!)

Along with a very nice bottle of Pouilly Fume (my favorite French white wine, in fact my favorite white in general!).

Cheers!

There was of course lots of food for dinner! And loads of veg. Though my dad sneakily stolen the last parsnip! It was all very tasty! None of us had room for desert. (We had that today.)

Christmas dinner

After dinner we all had a nap! Before heading to Kerry and Ozs house for a bit. They go crazy at Christmas; their tree is huge! It take sup about a 1/4 of their living room.

Crazy big tree

I got to play with the cats for a while and get my cat fix. Kerry and Oz were a little tipsy when we got there, having started drinking at 8am!
The rest of the evening was quiet one at home. Why is there absolutely nothing good on TV on Christmas night?  :-)
Today is a quiet day. We usually go for a walk (I really wanted to play with my new camera stuff!) but it's raining. :-( So some work, soe job applications, some sleep and some really bad TV (The current film is way too long but there is nothing on and we got no DVDs for Christmas). I am off to drink my Tia Maria coffee now which looks very impressive in its wine glass!
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Visits

I have been enjoying being home, though most days I have to do some work. I even got my first (and not the last) job rejection yesterday. Merry Christmas. (Seriously it was nice to be told - some don't even bother - but they could have waited!) Still it is nice to be with family. Even though my family is officially nuts. (Love them!)

Dad with a car seatbelt protector on his headphones

The past weekend we have been doing the family visits. Saturday we went to see my aunt, uncle and cousins, Emma and Andrew, and Emma's son, who is very cute. On Sunday we went to see My Aunt Shirley and Uncle Terry who are like God parents I guess (though I was never christened).

Then we stopped by my Aunty Sue and Uncle Trevor's (probably my favorite aunt and uncle) for a chat and glass of wine. They had taken some of my Uncle Roy's Christmas decorations when he passed away earlier this year, much to my Uncles despair. My Aunty Ann (Roy's wife) always when crazy as Christmas. My Aunt Sue loves them! They definitely cover all tastes.

Flashing snowman

Some were nice. But honestly the multiple decapitated Santa heads freaked me out a bit. Then we found out you can put batteries in them. Though I was a little curious, thankfully they didn't have the right size batteries. Because I think if the eyes lit up, I would have been out of there so fast!

Floating Santa head. <Shudder>

 Last night some more cousins came around, and Paul and fiancee brought their little baby around! Oliver is only 7 weeks old and was very cute. And then they showed the Santa suit. Adorable! And he snores! For some reason I didn't think babies snored but he sounds like a kitten purring! So cute!

Baby Santa

 Happily he woke up on his own. (Me and Marie were getting impatient waiting!)

Waking up in a new place

Marie gave him his bottle (after a little bit a panic - he is so small and wriggly!)

"Where's my food?)

Happy now.

Little bit of post dinner dancing.

I did get a snuggle. He is so sweet. But once Mom got a hold of him, no one else was going to get a look in. There were a few hints about grandkids, where I had to change the conversation quickly. He was cute but he did start crying for a while. And then they were talking about the mount of sleep they were getting. Not ready for that!

Having a good around

More dancing with his mom, Jen and my dad.

Mom very happy with an equally happy sleeping Oliver.

It was nice to catch up with them as it's been long time since I have seen most of my cousins. But my time at home is going too quickly. :-(