Troubled Bridge Over Water

More walks out in the wild Worsley countryside... we went back out to the mystery field between the back of Worsley station and the thatched cottage only this time I decided on a different route... most interestingly via a large welly grabbing bog that almost caused walk abandonment! After successfully crossing the tricky section with footwear intact we needed to get over to the right side of the field ...

OK... well its icy but thats nothing these days...

Lets head for that bridge...

...erm... Oh... the bridge is out!

Fear not! Grandma had brought her mountaineering wellies and easily scaled the broken bridge, allowing us to get on our way...

...and home in time for GF turkey sandwiches! YAY!

PoGo Sticker

Thanks Matt! Playing with my Christmas present which is a groovy little PoGo printer. As soon as you print from the camera or even wirelessly from a mobile (but not the iPhone yet - boo) the print take just a few seconds to spit out an apparently almost waterproof full colour sticky backed 3x5 print! Its brilliant :) Have to start getting creative and make a little photo book - need a theme! Answers on a 3 x 5 postcard please

Worsley Ice Rink

Do you recognise the views from all these local spots under their cover of snow and ice... they should be in chronological order of the walk so it might help you place them

Not sure I have ever been this way before... the path links the back of old Worsley station to the thatched cottage at the side of Drywood Ave...map link here

Careful Grandma!

Chatsworth Road ... we could have worn our skates for most of this "walk" ... Grandma was also a bit miffed she has missed a legitimate chance to wear her clip on crampons... probably a couple more days left to dust them off so not all bad. Will defo blog their appearance don't worry :)

Christmas Day II

The bird

Was still snow on the ground see!

Final 5 minute call rush...

All done, sitting down to enjoy...

All 100% gluten free, hurrah!

All over for another year...

Christmas Day

Morning everyone... Merry Christmas!

This wasn't breakfast... honest!

It must be Christmas... the hostess trolley is out!

No big tree this year... couldn't be bovved (bah humbug). But we tastefully arranged the presents around the rebounder instead.

Present opening shot...

Surprise! Dinner Ladies DVD thanks Sarah!

... "Tell my face I mean it" I know... sorry these action shots are hard to do :) Thanks Sarah, my books on improving my memory and learning Norwegian (10 mins a day) are all part of the 2010 plan.

Whoops... how did that get in there? A present destined for Norway (from Amazon) got mixed up in the pile... caused momentary confusion and made us laugh anyway.. ha!

Swinton branch checking in.

Thanks Matty - the yoga DVD is brilliant - looking forward to getting on with that too when I get back to London. Choccies arrived from Thorntons too (yum) and Mum's eastern philosophies book looks v interesting (sorry not documented I was reading my book and not paying attention - naughty - points deducted for bad Norwegian style present opening :)

Christmas Eve Baking

Well to complete our micro-Christmas at No3 we will need a selection of gluten free treats, especially as I have convinced Mum to try the old GF diet for a few months.

Off to work... Its a packet mix of pastry but it still involved a bit of work.

Pastry in the fridge resting. Move onto GF shortbread experiment. (A) normal recipe with GF flour, (B) as above but with magic psyllium husk addition

Trying to be arty farty

(A) and (B)

Back to the pastry now for mince pies...

With the end products

(A)

(B)

They really look the same colour just my lighting in the kitchen was different... just in case you are wondering the psyllium husk is a big bonus to the final product... much less crumbly and falling apart.

You can barely tell the difference (after smothering them with thick brandy cream)