Sunrise, sunset

This half term in the lead up to Christmas is always a crazy time. School plays, trips, parties, church services, and oh a bit of learning too!

Apologies for not being around much lately.

class 3 describing words with colour and shape

There has been some wonderful sunrises and sunsets around here lately.

sunrise

Sunset

As the hard frosts were on their way I cut the last of our roses from the garden and brought it indoors to enjoy.

 Next time I have a crazy Christmas present idea....stop me!

So I thought I would do something different for my two God daughters. A pair of pyjamas, a book, a sachet of drinking chocolate and a small chocolate treat wrapped up to be opened on Christmas Eve evening to snuggle up with before the Big Day.
Around this my idea was to wrap 24 layers of wrapping paper with another small treat in between. The idea for the girls to open a layer each day of December.
HOW MUCH WRAPPING PAPER?
I will not be doing it again, that's for sure. But I am certain it will be a winner with them.

some very sad news though this week.
Remember my joy when I went horse riding in October?
The lovely horse which belonged to a work colleague had to be put to sleep on Wednesday after suddenly developing heart failure. Such a shock for her owner and her whole family are devastated as you can imagine.

"Cats’ whiskers are so sensitive; they can find their way 

through the narrowest crack in a broken heart." 

~ unknown

Christmas Shopping

After a lovely weekend it was back to work on Monday.

The leaves are turning and the wind is blowing them off the trees and soon the branches will be bare.

I run a craft club for the children in class 3 after school on a Monday and we had fun last week when we made felt.
Then on Tuesday Class 3 painted to Music...in the style of Kandinsky.

The chrysanthemums in my greenhouse are flowering, shame I don't go up to the greenhouse as much this time of year. 

I also have lots of Pelagoniums and the odd house plant in the greenhouse.

Then today we went to do a bit of Christmas shopping.

and what a beautiful place to do your Christmas shopping.

A walk down from the car park through the fallen leaves.

The stalls were in the hall and the barn.

It is a lovely place to visit and yes we did manage to buy some presents for Christmas. I hinted heavily at Hubby and you never know he might pop back tomorrow!

view over Halifax

So the Christmas shopping has started here and I am already wrapping presents. I have lots of plans but don't know quite how many will come to fruition! 

Frost and Fireworks

Not quite as exciting this weekend as last weekend.

No workshops or playing going on here.

I am busy at work. 

but I do have some photos to show you and I am slowly getting round to visit all your lovely blogs.

So Monday started frosty and we had beautiful blue sky and sunshine all day.

After work I dashed to Rochdale to put a cheque into my bank.

I rarely go to Rochdale but it looked beautiful in the late winter sunshine. I took some time on my way back to the car to take some photos of the buildings,

This building has beautiful ladies on the dome.

It is now a bar but this building was built in 1896 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank.

The Rochdale Town Hall

I have shown you the Town hall above in other posts

.

street cobbles made of wood exposed in a side street

Touchstones 

then we had a good view of the fireworks from our lounge so we didn't need to go out....next year we will!

as you can see I found the fireworks function on my new camera!

and today I am thinking of my mum who sadly lost her dad at the age of four in 1944