A Christmas treat

I went out with my girls yesterday for a Christmas afternoon tea treat.  It's not often that we can all spend some time together as they are often busy with work and children so it was nice to spend an hour or so chatting and of course eating cake.

We chose a cute little tea room not too far away, none of us had been before but the reviews were good and the menu sounded lovely.

To start the was a cheese charcuterie board

Followed by the main event.

Stevie had a vegan version as she has recently been advised to be as dairy free as possible, while our tea looked and tasted lovely the vegan choice was a little disappointing.  They were aware of the none dairy request at the time of booking and appeared very accommodating on the phone saying that all their cakes were baked in house so it wasn't a problem, but that's not what they served. 

Another sore point was that they had no decaff coffee, not very good for a cafe really. 

But as I said, the rest of the tea was very nice, none of us managed to eat it all and took home what we couldn't eat, me and Mark will be having what I bought back for tea today.

Storm Darragh blew in over-night on Friday so Saturday was wet and very windy all day.  Driving to our afternoon tea was a bit scary, we saw a few trees that had come down and power cables swinging wildly, lots of debris and mini floods, thankfully not many cars on the road.  Joanne's power went out just before she set off and a tree had come down in her street, by the time she got home again another four trees had come down, so now her street isn't passable from either direction, and today she is still without power with people being told It may not be on until later tonight and a total of eleven trees have now come down.  Nice lot of fire wood for anyone who wants to collect :-)

We got off lightly, the only damage in our garden is a fence panel blown out and things knocked over, the wind has done us a favour and blown the rest of the leaves off the grass and to the top end of the garden, that'll make collecting them easier, when I'm able to get out there 😊  It's still windy and wet but not as bad as yesterday but there will be a lot of clearing up everywhere over the next week or so.

Hope you are safe and dry where you are and not suffered too much storm damage.

-X-

The countdown has begun

December 1st seems to come around faster and faster each year!  I usually like give the house a good clean and put my decorations up on the 1st but for the last few weeks I've been so busy trying to get the decorating done on the hall that It didn't happen yesterday, well except for giving the bedroom a deep clean and putting the Christmas bedding on, the rest will have to be done over the coming week.

The papering and painting in the hall has been taking up a lot of time and my hip and butt cheek, (sorry to be frank, lol) are still giving me some gyp, some days I've been in so much pain I've been close to tears.  I thought my visits to the chiropractor were doing some good, but now I feel like I'm wasting my money, I've tried heat, cold, various rubbing ointments and pain killers but nothing is getting rid of it.  We have a physiotherapist at our doctors and I've got an appointment for this coming Thursday, hopefully they will be able to shed some light on what's causing the pain and suggest some exercises, I've been like this for over two months now so I'll try anything!  Sciatica was dismissed but doctor google suggests that it could be just that, apparently the pain/ burning sensation does not necessarily extend down the leg.  Fingers crossed I get some relief soon because I'm like a bear with a sore head most of the time and not very good company.

Anyway, enough moaning.  There have been a couple of outings recently to cheer me up, It was our monthly Birmingham Stitchers meet up a couple of weeks ago, it was the Saturday that storm Bert hit so the day was very dark, wet and windy.

Outside the Library of Birmingham opposite the cafe where we meet they have a pop up ice rink and a ferris wheel, there were some braving the weather to ride the wheel and the two other rides, I was just happy to watch them while I waited for my bus home.

The cafe was once a bank, built in 1933 it was the headquarters of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, a savings bank which was created by Lorn Neville Chamberlain for the workers of the city.  The bank closed in 1998 and the building was vacant until it was purchased by the University of Birmingham in 2017 with the aim of repurposing the space for both the University and community.  The Exchange opened in 2021 and in addition to the cafe there is event space, meeting rooms and outdoor courtyard and roof terrace.

It's a lovely open space with plenty of light, perfect for stitching.

I took Margaret Mary along with me again and did get a good bit of stitching done this time.

I did hope that I might be able to get a finish on this by the end of the year, and If I just concentrated on this one thing I could probably do it, but December is a busy month so I'm being realistic and saying that It will most likely be the end of January, and that's ok.

 After the disappointment of my Bristol Christmas Market trip a few weeks ago we had an outing to Worcester Christmas Market, It's been about six years since we visited last and remembering how busy it was on the weekend that time we decided to go on Thursday with daughter's no's. 1 and 3.   We had a wonderful day out, the things on offer were good quality, there was also a craft market in both the Town Hall and the Cathedral, both with amazing sellers.  It was the first day of the market and although there were still a lot of people around we were still able to see what the stalls were offering without all the pushing and shoving, and we enjoyed a lovely pub lunch too.

The stairs and landing carpet was fitted yesterday, thank goodness, I was fed up having to try and avoid treading on the gripper rods! Also the last of the two radiators were replaced.  The radiator guy didn't finish until gone five and by the time I'd cleaned up the mess (such a mess!) it was late so I had an early night.  I put my Christmas tree up while the carpet fitter was here but no decorations yet, just the lights.  I'll get it trimmed in the next couple of days.

I wanted to try and post a bit more leading up to Christmas so I'll hopefully be back in a few days and share some of the things I've been working on.

-X-