Currently in December

Dreaming about 'The Hobbit' a lot. Saw the new film before Christmas on the night for release & seeing it again as tradition on New Year's Day with the rest of my family. I brought the extended version on blu-ray for Sam for Christmas so we watched that & all the extras! Ooops. Oh well, still the holidays for us.

Appreciating having lazy days with Sam while we still can. Sam still has a while before he's back at work & I'll be VERY busy in the new year. I expect early mornings & late nights so making the most of relaxing.

Eating far too much! We have plenty of leftovers still & our Christmas treat cupboard seems never ending. Not complaining!

Watching all the new films we got for Christmas & I'm on season 5 of Grey's Anatomy now!

Loving spending so much time with friends & family.

Planning new year's eve party at our place & Sam's birthday do in the first week of January.

Working on my patience.

Enjoying the last week of our Christmas decorations. We take them down usually on 6th January. Sam's birthday is on the 5th & he likes his birthday pressies under the tree still. Hehe.

Drinking a few cocktails! Sam has really gotten into mixing drinks & I bought him a cocktail set for Christmas.

Looking forward to starting 'Project Life'. More on that soon!

Searching for a good printer so start printing off my own photos without having to order them online. Any recommendations appreciated!?

Researching a lot of new projects & ideas for the new year. I'm overflowing!

On the eve of Christmas

Hi friends!

Wishing you all a most wondrous Christmas time wherever you are in the world! There's word going round that it may actually snow for us tomorrow - that'll be pretty magical!

Praying you all have a peaceful time & find a lot of joy this season whatever your situation. 

I will be back in the new year, up & running with more regular blog posts & new things in store! It's been an extremely busy month for us but I thank each & every one of you for your continuous support this year!

I'm sure I'll pop by for a little reflection of 2013 & the things I'm excited about for 2014 but until then sending lots of love & many blessings your way!

Merry Christmas!

Edible gifts for Christmas: Seasoned salt

Easiest & quickest edible gift you can make in 5 minutes to gift anyone for Christmas. A friend made us some last year so we decided to make our own this year & will probably make some in our food gift packages this year. 

Sterilise your jar first. For very quick sterilisation we used Sam's bottle steriliser he uses for brewing which works fine.

Method:
Crush up coarse rock salt and peppercorns in a pestle & mortar. Add dried chilli flakes & cumin seeds & crush them up together. Funnel mixture into your jar and voila! DONE. Easy! 
You can make this seasoned Christmas salt by added either star anise or cloves.

Add a little fabric & string to dress up your gift if you like!

We use this for everything. To season vegetables, add to soups & other dinners, on salads and it adds soooo much flavour.

Malham Tarn

For the last weekend of our trip my parents joined us which was good fun. We went for a long walk on a National Trust Estate, Malham Tarn. It was a freezing cold day but the weather stayed dry. We found huge lumps of ice from frozen over puddles and enjoyed smashing them to smithereens then enjoyed a picnic lunch freezing our butts off on a rock! It was all good fun. I'd recommend taking a walk up there one day.

^^ big ice puddles! ^^

Black Sheep brewery

Before we even left for the holiday Sam found a nearby brewery & booked a tour for us. Mr beer brewer in his element! The place was an hour or so away from where we stayed along many long & winding roads but we got there in the end. We ended up on tour with a minibus load of old gents which made the tour all the more interesting. 

It was surprisingly really good but more fun to see Sam's face light up at all the technical talk. He brews his own beer so he was really passionate to hear more about the process and history.

We each got to try thirds of the different beers they make. Having the tour made the tasting more enlightening since we got to try the hops before so it changed the flavour of beer for me. I think I appreciate Sam's 'hobby' a lot more now.

Ingleton Falls

This was one of our all time favourite days. We found this place called Ingleton Falls on the sunniest day of the week, it was a 2 1/2-4hr walk depending on your pace. We took 3 1/2 stopping to take photos & have a picnic lunch. 

Since it was a weekday and not holiday season we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Heavenly. The walk was long & it was pretty hard in some places but we passed several waterfalls; not only were there woods to walk through but we had to pass through farmland, across bridges & over fields. We got everything.

^^ We came across this man made money tree. Its filled with coins that have been hammered in and bent over to create a piece of art. We read a plaque that said some people add coins because they believe it brings them luck. ^^

^^ we stopped & had a minced pie snack here. Nothing like the taste of Christmas next to such a gorgeous waterfall ^^

I think you can tell it was our favourite day because we took rather a lot of photos. After this walk we took off home & got dressed up for a date. We headed to the Craven Arms in a place called Giggleswick (yea, we liked that one) where we sat, had a couple of drinks while playing Catan Rivals. That's the two player game - definitely recommend if you're hardcore fans of Catan the boardgame like we are. After the game we sat and had one of the best three course meals we've EVER tasted, seriously!
It was a really really really good day!

Photos taken with SLR Camera & iPhone5

A little bit of Yorkshire

This was one of the first walks we did. It felt so good to breathe in the fresh country air and walk with so much space around us. The weather for the whole week was fantastic. It rained a little but only for a few minutes at a time but generally it was sunny & chilly. Just how I like it.

We stayed in a little village called Rathmell, minutes away from Seattle and not far from Skipton. We had days out in the Lake District & York city so lots of adventures were had! I love how handsome Sam looks in the picture below. He's in need of a good hair cut but oooooh, just look at him!

The best thing about being out in the country on these walks was how quiet the world became when you were up in the hills. It was so peaceful, even the wind was quietly blowing. I've never felt my mind clear up so much. It was the first time in a long time I thought about NOTHING, nothing except how beautiful our surroundings were.

^^ The colours were amazing! ^^

We stopped off at a local pub after our long walk for a much needed pint & we might have even bought a pork pie to share too. Hmmm, so much for 3 hours of walking.

More photos to come on our day trips! More breathtaking scenery!