Winter Fantastic !

I love this crisp, cold, real wintery weather, accompanied by blue skies with everything covered in ice and frost. Last Wednesday we went walking round Grimwith Reservoir in the Yorkshire Dales. We nearly didn't go because it was -6 and very foggy, but on arrival the fog cleared and we had fantastic views of the hills, trees, fences and everything else, coated in a thick frost. It was bitterly cold but worth it for the whiter than white scenery.
I cycled to work this morning and on arrival discovered the temperature was -6, however, the ride in kept me nice and warm apart from my big toes!! Tomorrow is my day off and Mary and I are heading for the hills so hopefully this weather will persist at least until we have finished our walk. I wonder if having real wintery weather means that we will have a warm / hot summer?

We all enjoyed a lovely Christmas break, lots of nice food, visits to our children's homes on Christmas Day whilst they came to ours on Boxing Day. All the children and grandsons came to us again on New Years Day for tea and we spent the evening with friends from church.

Churchwise 2008 finished and 2009 started on an encouraging note with a good turn out at church meetings; about 130 on Sunday 21st Dec and 90 + on 4th Jan. At least 18 people have joined us, or have started attending regularly since the beginning of Sept 2008, so maybe the time of accelerated growth is on its way. Several people have come forward over recent weeks wanting to drive new initiatives, which is always great and the new Bible Study which starts in a week looks like being well attended again. All pretty encouraging, but not without its challenges along the way.

In the next few weeks, whilst we have the wintery weather, I want to get over to Snowdonia to climb some peaks in the snow - I have been looking forward to doing that all year so I'll have to be careful not to let it slip past.
I wonder what surprises 2009 holds for us. I guess we will continue our monthly trips to S. Wales to see my Mum and we are already planning our Summer holiday in Scotland which will include climbing Ben Nevis. I will probably spend a couple of weeks in India during October and am considering taking an extra week on my own to go into Nepal and do some trekking around Kathmandu. At least one new grandchild is due in the next few weeks - I wonder what else is going to happen about which we know nothing? Happy New Year !