Well here we are, it’s 2014 and I can hardly believe it! How are you all my dear friends? I do hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas and that you saw the New Year in with style? We saw ours in with a bang, literally. The irony wasn’t too lost on me after the year we’ve had. With mere hours to go before the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, here, in a very wet and windy Somerset, we had a thunderstorm. Yes, that’s right, as in booming thunder and white sheet-lightning and hail too!
2013 wasn’t going quietly. After all, who needs fireworks to see the New Year in when mother nature can do the job far better?
Happy New Year!
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013
Back to Christmas, I do have to ask, did it really happen or was it just a dream? I still have all my Christmas decs up so it must be true. We had the most wonderful time together, although it was touch and go with the travel plans, thanks to not one, not two but THREE vicious storms which assailed us all the way to Christmas and back.
Here in Somerset we seem to be prone to flooding at the best of times and it was no exception on Christmas Eve. Eldest son was due to arrive by train from Brighton by noon on Christmas Eve. He ended up arriving at 8.30pm by coach due to cancelled trains because of all the storm damage but we were very grateful that he arrived at all, and safely.
It could have been much worse as indeed it has for many in other parts of the country who have had homes flooded and have been without power for days on end. Just awful.
Then there was younger son Nicky who had to work that day only to find that he couldn’t get back due to his train also being cancelled. So early evening on Christmas Eve saw me taking a little road trip. The roads leading to the main dual carriageway out of our town were closed due to flooding so there was only one way left to go, through the villages.
A very pretty route but part of the roads were so badly flooded that at one point I seriously thought I wasn’t going to get through and Nicky would not be getting any Christmas lunch. I made it though and brought my boy home so that once again I had all my chicks safely back in the nest!
Cosy Christmas Nest!
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013
It was an interesting journey as on the way we saw:
- Four dead cars on verges
- One stranded car in the middle of a flooded road blocking everyone else. I managed to get around it, just
- Two tow trucks pulling more dead cars
- Several police cars
- One delightful village church, lit up by candlelight from within so that it looked like a scene painted by Thomas Kinkade himself with eager carolers walking excitedly along the church path with torches in hand for the Christmas Eve service. We should have been there.
The last several days before Christmas saw me doing a lot more driving than normal but thank you Classic FM – listening to you on the car radio kept me sane! I not only listened to beautiful renditions of two of my favourite carols, What Child Is This and Coventry Carol but I was also entertained by Stephen Fry narrating the story of Rudolph (he really does get everywhere doesn’t he? Stephen Fry I mean, not Rudolph) and the delightful children’s story, The Snowman, as put to music.
It was not the Christmas Eve I was expecting but it turned out to have unexpected blessings as these things so often do.
Driving through the wild, wet country roads of Somerset that Christmas Eve evening listening to the radio, I was stirred up by memories of watching The Snowman with my eldest son as a little boy when we first moved to America, one long-ago Christmas Eve night.
As we sat cuddled up together on the sofa watching the story unfold, I couldn’t believe my eyes when it came to the part where the little boy (the one in the story, not my little boy!) was flying through the air with his snowman and there below them as they flew above the English countryside was the instantly recognisable Sussex coastline with Brighton’s famous Pavilion and Pier.
As the years went by I shared with my son my memories of lazy, hazy days spent in Brighton. How I spent many happy times there as a young girl in the early 70s and in particular of roller skating across the uneven wooden boards of the original West Pier but had been saddened when it was closed in 1975 and left to deteriorate.
(It went on to be destroyed by storms and fire (its second) in 2003 and still stands to this day as a burnt-out relic, awaiting possible renovation one of these days).
Shell of the West Pier in Brighton
(c) Sherri Matthews 2012
Never, in a million years, would I have guessed that my then four-year old son would grow up in California only to move to Britain as a young man of twenty to study at the University of Sussex and live in Brighton for many years to come, to this day in fact some ten years later.
This weekend we will be helping Nicky move back to Brighton (he used to live there too) where he will be starting his life anew after his recent break up with his ex-girlfriend. Further away from home but he is much happier. Bittersweet for me. Life really is stranger than fiction at times.
I will be back to ‘normal’ blogging next week and will do my best to catch up with you all in the meantime as best I can. Next week also sees me celebrating my one year anniversary of blogging! Here then to a new start, a time to reflect on the old but put on the new and look forward to the future with renewed hope and vigour.
(This, I might add, in the face of yet another storm, together with severe flood warnings, gale-force winds and high tides heading our way just in time for the weekend…)
So then I leave you with you this from Out of the Heart which appeared on my Facebook news feed. I thought it so inspirational and timely and I hope you will too as I wish you all a very Happy 2014, filled with blessings galore 🙂
See you soon! Love Sherri x
A View From My Summerhouse 
I’m glad you had a good time 🙂
The weather over the Christmas period and New Year has been awful, hasn’t it?! And more to come with the severe flood warnings, as you say. I wonder when nature will decide that Britain has had enough – of IF it decides! The Coventry Carol is one of my absolute favourites. Absolutely beautiful. And I know what you mean with Stephen Fry being everywhere! I don’t understand how he does it myself.
I look forward to your future posts. May 2014 be a wonderful year for you!
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Thank you Jennifer, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I’m looking forward to reading your new post which I will do tomorrow when I log back on.
Yes, the weather really has been awful and as ‘neighbours’ you know just what I mean! I don’t know how much wetter it can get and with yet another bad storm on the way, yikes. We better batten down the hatches that’s for sure!
Ha Ha! Yes, Stephen Fry, I really don’t know how he does it either! I did really enjoy listening to his voice though, and isn’t Coventry Carol as you say so absolutely beautiful? Christmas just isn’t the same to me without hearing it a few times at least.
Wishing you a truly joy-filled and blessed 2014 🙂
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We better had! Or else I fear we’ll either be blown or swept away. I live right by the coast as well, so that’s extra fun! 😉
He does have a good voice for such things, yeah. Haha, oh I listened to the Coventry Carol at least 1000 times this Christmas, alongside A Spotless Rose!
Thank you 🙂 We’ll make it a good year!
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Yes we will 🙂
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Happy New Year, Sherri! I’m loving your new photo…very Diane Sawyer-ish! 🙂 You look beautiful. It warmed my heart to read how you went on a mission to bring Nicky home for Christmas. You know our friend, Jenny, would have gladly volunteered for that mission and of course, I would have co-missioned. 🙂 I’m so happy you enjoyed a wonderful holiday with all of your chicks in the nest. I’m sure there’s no place they’d rather be. Cheers!
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Snigger….
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Doo do do dooo do do dooo do……..
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Ha Ha! Thanks Jill and a very Happy New Year and cheers to you too! I just thought it was time for a new pic. This was taken a couple of months ago, in Brighton actually, with my boys 🙂
At the point that everyone had arrived safe and sound I was able to completely relax and everything went really well. I hope for you too and that you and Derek from Deven had a super time 🙂
As for my rescue mission for Nicky, I can just imagine his expression if you, me and Jenny showed up…oh know, here comes that ‘Mrs Robinson’ song again… 😉
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Oh, Sherri, your adventure driving through the villages amazed me. The last days of 2013 were a triumph and should give you confidence that whatever awaits in 2014, Bring It On, because you’re up for it!
Of course your son is moving from California to the UK. That’s where his “mum” is (only you Brits!) and what with the new baby George there and all, there’s a great deal of appeal!
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Ha, yes, thank you Marylin! The year wasn’t giving up that easily and I wasn’t going to either! Still won’t, still keep fighting on for another day 🙂
When my eldest son told me that he was going to move back (that was ten years ago now) I was ecstatic. When he stayed I was even more ecstatic. Now his life is here and I couldn’t be happier for that reason alone 🙂
Wishing you, your mom and your family a very Happy New Year and 2014 🙂
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Happy to see you back, Sherri. It sounds like your holidays were full and fun in spite of the storms. I’m glad your family time together was special especially with your son embarking on moving back to the states.
I wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to spending time reading and sharing our lives together through stories. May you have many blessings come to you and have all your dreams come true and hopes fulfilled. 🙂
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Hi Pat and many thanks, it is lovely to be back but it’s taking me a long time to get back into the swing of things. I feel as if I’ve been gone for ages! I hope that you and your famly had a wonderful Christmas and I wish for you the very same Happy New Year and all blessings for 2014. Here’s to many more ‘chats’ together!
PS Re-reading my post I see that I may have given the impression that my younger son is moving back to the States but what I meant to say was that he is moving back to Brighton, which is a good 4 hours from us. He used to live there until he moved closer to home with his girlfriend. Now that they have split up he is moving back to start anew and pursue his music career. So I do still have both my boys with me in the UK! Sorry for the confusion, I’ve made it a bit clearer now 🙂
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I know what you mean, Sherri. I just took the weekend off and it feels like I’ve been gone for ages. It’s good to have you back and wish you many blessings in the New Year, too.
Sorry, I misread your post thinking your son was moving back to the states. I’m glad for you he won’t be going that far. Even though 4 hours is quite a haul, he’s still in the same country. Our girls are only an hour or two away and it seems like we’re oceans apart.
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Ahh, you are so kind Pat, thanks so much. Yes, it does seem a long way off and I know what you mean about your girls seeming to be an ocean away. Nicky was an hour away before he moved back to Brighton so it seems a long way off again but so long as I know we have dates booked to visit with not long gaps inbetween then I can handle it 🙂
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That’s good to do, book dates to visit. That still doesn’t work as well for us with their busy lives. When we can’t see them, the closest thing is that they’re just a phone call away and we keep in touch that way..
We do get the grandsons up for a weekend now and then and I love that. My one grandson (14) reminded me he’s due for another mountain getaway. I can’t wait for that, as I know that window will close soon and he’ll be off doing teenager things.
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Ahh yes, there is always the phone and we text a lot too in between and email and Facebook too here and there so that helps. It is hard though isn’t it when they have busy lives. I do have to pin them down, believe me!!
How lovely to have your grandson coming for his ‘mountain getaway’ soon hopefully and yes, you can make the most of this precious time…wonderful 🙂
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Same here with email and Facebook. I can, at least, see what they’re doing in between calls. I know what you mean about pinning them down only we usually don’t. I guess that’s probably why it’s longer between calls.
It is lovely to have the boys come up. It gives them time away from schedules and homework and let them be kids. I love it. 🙂
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Wonderful 🙂
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I send my beautiful sunset and fervent prayer to you, my sweet friend – answered prayers, prosperity beyond imagination, as many blessings as the stars, a heart filled with love, and peace beyond all understanding. Love to you, hubby and family.
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Susan, friend, I close my eyes and breathe in your beautiful sunset and receive your fervent prayers for me and my famly into my heart. Thank you so much for such a loving message, and I send much love right back to you, for the New Year and all of 2014 🙂
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Nice Christmas story. Seems like it’s been a very testy couple of months for weather over there. And Thunder and Lightning – on New Years. As I relax a while this evening, the snow is coming down hard outside, with up to a foot (30cm) due by tomorrow, and temperatures dropping to near zero f (- 17C) in the evening hours after. Burrrr. M
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Thanks Marty, I hope that you and your famly had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you!
It is so unusual to have thunder and lightening on New Year’s Eve. We usually get this kind of weather in the summer when it is more humid! The strange thing is that it isn’t even that cold, unseasonably mild and the storms are the worse for 120 years due to cyclonic pressure, which explains the back-to-back storms.
I would rather have snow, I love it 🙂 Keep warm, safe and cosy 🙂
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Happy New Year. Early happy blogoversary.
You had rain, we had and ice storm with thousands of people without hydro from before Christmas until after New Years. Now we are experiencing a snow dump and -29 degrees Celsius including wind chill. Brr.
Better days ahead for all…:-D I hope.
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Thanks Tess, and a very Happy New Year to you 🙂
Wow, sounds like similar conditions. Some parts here in the UK had the same without any power for the same length of time. I’m very thankful that we weren’t affected by that although the danger here is that due to so much back-to-back rain we are completely waterlogged. As I was sharing above with Marty, it has been strangely mild and the storms are a result of cyclonic weather, the worst for 120 years! Only one day of frost. Makes me think that we might get our cold weather in the spring like last year when we had snow into March/April!!
Brrr, that does sound so cold for you. I hope you are keeping warm, safe and cosy! I do love snow though! It’s the aftermath with all the slush when it causes problems on the roads that makes it difficult. Same here with all the flooding. So many people use public transportation (as do my boys) that any inclement weather affects it and causes utter mayhem to any travel plans.
Better days ahead, yes, let’s agree to that Tess…Cheers 🙂
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Cheers.
New photo? You look marvelous. 🙂
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Ha! Thanks Tess (embarrassed 😉 ) but I just wanted to change things a little, new year and all that. It was taken from a happy time in October when celebrating eldest son’s birthday in Brighton. We were all rallying around younger son after his breakup with his girlfriend and it reminds me of the power of the love of family and true friends 🙂
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All that aside, it’s a lovely shot. Didn’t want you to think I didn’t notice. 😀
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You are a sweetie, thanks so much 🙂
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😛
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Happy New Year Sherri! What a brave woman driving through a storm! but what is it that we will not do to bring our kids to safety, right? Take care out there and advance congratulations on your anniversary!
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Happy New Year to you too Jhanis, and I hope that you all had a truly wonderful Christmas! I’m looking forward to catching up with your posts and everyone elses as quickly as I possibly can but still not quite firing on all cylinders so apologies for the delay!
Well, what can I say other than yes, you are so right!!! We really do whatever it takes for our kids, no matter how old they are!!! Thanks so much for the very kind wishes 🙂
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Happy New Year to you! Sounds like your holidays were more eventful due to the extreme weather, but I’m glad you were able to enjoy them nonetheless.
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Thank you Marlene and a very Happy New Year to you too! Despite the threats to our plans all went well in the end and we did indeed have the most wonderful family Christmas together, as I hope you did too 🙂
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Sounds like you had quite the Christmas! Those storms sound like they were pretty wild. I’m glad to hear you were able to get you son home safely. That trip sounds pretty scary! Here in Detroit it has just snowed and snowed and snowed. We have about 6 inches of snow outside and it is still coming down.
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Thank you so much Robin, and yes, it was eventful (isn’t it always over here, it seems??!!) but in the end it all worked out and we had a wonderful Christmas. I do hope you and your family did too!
Yes, it was quite scary at times driving through the floods and especially seeing all the stranded cars. The drive should have taken half an hour but took me an hour one way. Now we are in the throes of yet another storm and we wonder when it will all end. The strange thing is on Boxing Day the sun shone and we went for a lovely walk!
Oh, I do love snow and I hope we get some this year, but knowing our crazy weather it will probably be in April!
Take care and keep warm and snug and a very Happy New Year to you 🙂
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Happy New Year Sherri! I’m so glad that your snowy travels were safe and that you were all able to celebrate Christmas together. There’s something special about being able to spend time with your loved ones. That’s the part of the holidays that makes everything worthwhile to me! Also, happy one year anniversary in advance!!
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Hi Heather and thanks so much for the kind wishes! Yes, the most important thing is that in the end we were all able to spend a wonderful family Christmas together, come rain or shine, or whatever else nature decided to throw into the mix! I hope you and your family had a wonderful time too, how could they not with all your delicious baked treats 🙂
Wishing you a very Happy New Year and for 2014 🙂
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Happy new year, Sherri. Compared to your new year’s eve, we had a relatively quiet one. Too quiet, in fact, and very cold. Here’s hoping that the weather where you are gets better. All the best to you and your son who moves to Brighton. Life is stranger than fiction indeed sometimes. 🙂
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Thank you so much Imelda and for your kind wishes and for you too, a very Happy New Year and 2014. I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and that you are keeping warm and snug 🙂
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Happy New Year to you Sherri and your family…may the new year bring you all you wish yourself… sounds as though you took a few risks to get the family together,,, I would have done the same… a good family get together can make any storm seem insignificant… have a good year…
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Thanks so much for your kind wishes and Happy New Year to you too Bulldog!! I do hope for you too every success and I look forward to hearing about your progress with your memoir! I’m still working on mine and plan to go for broke this year, come rain or shine!!! The way this weather is going, I mean that quite literally, ha!
Yes, I did take a few risks but it was worth it. It paid off. As you say, being together as family is the most important thing, never mind the raging storms outside 😉
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My book is finished… now comes all the editing… not looking forward to that…
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Wonderful! I hear that the editing is the fun part…not! Hope it goes as well as it can…
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Nice to see you back online, Sherri. I’m glad Christmas and New Year were great, despite the hiccups caused by flooding. We didn’t have any bad weather in this part of the country although the river did flood again but I’ve come to realise that this is normal for the Ouse in York and no-one seems terribly bothered about it. 🙂
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Hi Rachel, and thanks very much, it is good to be back but I feel as if I’ve been gone so long that I’m finding it hard to get back into the swing of things online! Still, I’ll be firing on all cylinders again by next week hopefully 🙂 I’m looking forward to catching up with your posts as soon as and I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas 🙂
Glad you escaped the worst of the weather in your neck of the woods. It seems as the down here in the South West we get the brunt of these storms lately. I read that they are due to a cyclonic weather pattern, the worst for 120 years! Also, it has been unseasonably mild. I expect we will get our snow later in the spring like last year!
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Happy New Year – sounds like we’ve all had an eventful time here in the UK with weather related stories. Looks like you’re in for some more – hope you live up a hill – although I know Somerset is pretty flat in places!
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Happy New Year to you too Jenny! Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas. Yes, we have all been affected to some degree by these incessant storms, I will be coming over to your blog as soon as I can…
We are quite high up although our front garden slopes downwards towards our front door so it gives the impression that we are not high at all but we are safe from flooding thankfully. The Somerset Levels are always badly affected by flooding and around here, as I shared in my post, many of the surrounding villages do suffer from bad flooding. I do feel so sorry for all those people whose homes were flooded over Christmas and were without power for so long.
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Good to see you again Sherri – like the new image 🙂 We were the ones travelling this Christmas, though not until Boxing Day when we travelled to Surrey in fog! Had a couple of good days down there though and drove back on Sunday in gorgeous sunshine. Despite being so close to Wales we haven’t had bad weather – some rain in the morning, but sunny by the afternoon and clear skies at night, though we have just had a hailstorm! The rivers are flooded though – some nearby fields are more like meres at the moment.
I won’t be joining you in the south-west any time soon, the house we were buying in Penzance fell through – we were gazumped!! Not a nice thing to happen, especially before Christmas. Though given the storms down there perhaps we should reassess where we move to 😀
Happy New Year, I look forward to more tales from the summerhouse.
Jude xx
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Ahh, thanks Jude (decided to update a few things, ring in the new and all that!) and good to see you too! So glad that your travels weren’t too badly affected by the storms and that you got to spend Boxing Day with your family. Boxing Day was actually nice here too, sunny and pleasant enough that we were able to go for a nice walk. The calm before the storm!
Oh what a great shame, so sorry though that you were gazumped, that’s awful, and as you say, especially so to have that kind of news before Christmas. Still, perhaps it will turn out to be not such a bad thing after all…the floods down in some parts of Cornwall have been pretty bad as you know.
I do wish you not only a very Happy New Year but also all the very best with your house-hunting in 2014 and that you find the perfect home in just the right place. Do keep me posted! Meanwhile, I too look forward to reading more about your wonderful travels 🙂
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It’s thundering now as I read, and a huge storm has just hit. I’m glad you managed to get home OK in the end.
I don’t often hear the Coventry Carol mentioned. The words and sentiments are just heartbreaking if you are a mother…
Happy New Year and thanks for the lovely description of your holiday time. Very glamorous new photo btw!
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Hi Denise, great to ‘see’ you again! I do hope you and your LDs had a wonderful Christmas (and that you fully recovered from your cold – I did, just!) and that you have not been too badly affected by the storms, I know that things weren’t too good in Sussex…
Yes, Coventry Carol is so hauntingly beautiful and it is one that I rarely hear these days so to be able to listen to it several times on Classic FM over the Christmas period was quite something.
A very Happy New Year to you too, and I am very much looking forward to catching up with your news too 🙂
PS Thanks for the lovely compliment (although glamorous is a word I would never use to describe myself!!) but I thought you would be interested to know that it was cropped from a photo taken from an evening out at the North Laines Pub in Brighton in October when we spent the weekend with eldest son for his birthday! For me, a reminder of a lovely time spent together even as we all rallied around Nicky to help pull him through his heartbreak.
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What a lovely post Sherri x happy New Year from Wet and Windy Gloucestershire!
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Thank you very much Brenda, and a very Happy New Year to you too! I hope the storms haven’t caused you too much trouble.
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Well Gloucestershire has quite a bit of flooding which means we have to avoid certain roads but our home is fine thank goodness.
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Glad you are ok 🙂
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Oh a quick message unrelated to your post: I tracked down a shop soiled copy of the book written by the woman from our village, about her mother in the war. I’m not going to review it because I didn’t finish it! I agreed with Jessica on this page about it:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17981017-the-girl-from-station-x
The beginning was atmospheric and sad but ultimately it was disappointing as there was no exciting story or reason to be sympathetic to any of the characters. I know it is not fiction but I think similar motivations apply for getting people to read things – it was not a deep family saga nor was it a war story.
Anyway, I just wanted to say if you were going to write based on your life and the places you have seen and lived in, I imagine it would be much more exciting than this book.
Hope you get some time to yourself for writing in 2014.
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Denise, I am fascinated to read your account of this book and also Jessica’s review on Goodreads (clever you for finding a shop-soiled copy to read, I knew you would find a way!)
Thank you so much for sharing this with me as I can’t tell you how helpful it is. Very interesting to learn that the book is such a disappointment as it turns out not to be a war story after all butt more about a daughter’s bitterness towards her mother and childhood. I would feel very short-changed if I had paid that kind of money for it and then found this out and I don’t blame you for not finishing it, as I wouldn’t either!
You make a marvellous point that even though this is not a work of fiction, it is still so important for the reader to be able to engage with the characters and the story and to be carried along by it with interest and, yes, excitement. So I am greatly encouraged by your exhortation to write my memoir knowing that you would find it to be so! Wow! I feel honoured! I can’t tell you how timely this is to read now as I start 2014 with the determination that this is the year that I WILL write it.
Thank you again Denise for thinking of me and yes, I will do all I can to make the time for myself to write, without having to fight so hard for it I hope! You’re a star 🙂
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Love your new photo 🙂 So glad that you made it safely through the flooded countryside and got everyone home for Christmas. Happy New Year Sherri!
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Ahh, thanks so much Theresa, you are very kind. It was touch and go but yes, we all got there in the end! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you too 🙂
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Happy New year Sherri. Glad to see you back safe and well after the holiday period. Yours sounds stormy. Ours should have been (that time of year) but so far nothing even on the horizon. Your photo brings back memories for my husband also who grew up in Brighton. Sad to see the West Pier deteriorate like that – imagine all the memories that must be there.
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Happy New Year to you Irene, hope you enjoyed a lovely Christmas. Well, what a small world it is! I seem to have a strong connection with Brighton wherever I go. Hubby and I were on holiday in Crete a few years ago and the holiday rep who lived there with his Greek wife and children was from Brighton and so we had a few chats! How interesting that your husband also grew up there! I grew up in Surrey for the first 10 years of my life so Brighton Beach is where we spent many a day in the summer and my dad lived there for a time after he and my mum split up. Yes, it is very sad to see the West Pier looking that that. What a stories could be told! We saw it yesterday again very briefly when we took my middle boy back there. Against the backdrop of the very churned up, dark green sea it was quite a sight but I was unable to have the opportunity to take another pic. It was late afternoon and the light was very subdued, and with the lights on Brighton Pier already turned on further down the beach, it would have been a great shot 🙂
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Hi Sherri, Welcome back to blogging land. It always amazes me the number of connections that we all have. Six degrees of separation etc.
Sherri I have nominated you for the lighthouse Award. I don’t know if you have already received it – if so take it as a sign that your posts brighten the world and particularly your comments, which are full of interest and encouragement really make you deserving of this award. Cheers Irene
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Six degrees indeed…
Oh wow Irene, I am truly honoured that you would bestow such a beautiful award on me with such kind words, thank you so much! I haven’t received this award before no, and I do very gratefully accept. I will do an acceptance post shortly and of course also including your other very kind nomination for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. You encourage me greatly Irene, my humble thanks once again 🙂
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Sherri, is it just me, or do you always seem to have an ‘adventure’ when you’re driving somewhere!?! I loved reading about your Christmas past and present. Hope that you’re still escaping the worst of the storms. They’ve passed us by up here, pretty much, but the pictures on the news are devastating.
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Ha Ha! No, it isn’t you Andrea, you are right, come to think of it! What is it about me and driving? Watch this space… 😉
We are still experiencing bad storms. Yesterday we drove my son to Brighton (there and back in one day) from Somerset and the rain was incessant, bad flooding everywhere. I wonder how much more we can take, so many rivers have burst their banks. Glad you have escaped for the most part, and I loved your post today 🙂
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Oh Sherri! There was quite a lot going on over Christmas and New Year! Nicely written post and nice new picture as well 🙂
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Thank you very much Ilka, you are very kind. Yes, it was quite the time and as usual I am very behind…MUST take the decs down today! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you 🙂
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Thank you for the like of my Weekly Photo Challenge post “Beginning”.
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You are very welcome, a beautiful post 🙂
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Glad to hear all of you are safe. The weather has been crazy. We had a thunderstorm last night. Happy New Year! And yes, did Christmas happen …
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Thanks! It really has been crazy. Driving to Brighton and back yesterday we’ve never seen so many fields under water, really bad around Salisbury. I wonder what kind a spring we are in for?? Happy New Year TB 🙂
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Sounds like you had a wonderful year, Sherri. Happy New Year to you. 🙂
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Hello to you! Thanks so much for visiting my blog, and also for the follow! I’m glad you enjoyed reading and may I wish a very Happy New Year to you too 🙂
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Sorry, meant to congratulate you on your 1 year Blogiversary, Hope the weather in England has improved, although chatting to my MiL on Sunday, it doesn’t sound like it has.
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Ahh, thanks so much! I will be doing a ‘blogiversary’ post later in the week, but lovely of you to mention it! Sadly the weather is still not good at all, rain, more rain and even more rain and wind and flooding. Never ending. I’m coming over to take a look at your blog now 🙂
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I enjoyed reading about your Christmas experience. Glad everyone got to your home safe & sound. I could just imagine the Thomas Kinkade picture. Blessings to you in the new year.
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Many thanks Lori, I’m glad you enjoyed reading and blessings to you too for 2014 🙂
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Hello Sherri,
It’s been a while since I visited the “summer house”. I totally enjoyed your recounting of the holidays. Seems you had rain…, we had snow (much too much snow). Glad to hear though that the holidays were nice for you. Will be back to visit more later.
Paul
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Hi Paul, how lovely to ‘see’ you again after so long! I’m so glad you enjoyed reading this post, and yes, we are in for yet more storms, the flooding has been really bad and parts of our coastline totally decimated. We have been hearing about the ‘polar vortex’ in the States, it sounds horrendously cold. I hope you are keeping warm and snug and I very much look forward to your future visits 🙂
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It IS horrendously cold, Sherri. 3 days of sub-zero (fahrenheit) weather so far and wind chills of -45deg. Hurry Springtime !!!
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Brrr – that’s beyond a joke! Keep safe and yes, here’s to spring, although with our crazy weather we’ll probably get our snow then 😉
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