Not quite Blackpool!

We were a bit delayed in putting up our yearly tacky fest with our next door neighbours, what with the snow and Arctic temperatures.  But today we had the weather and time to put up the lights.  Then this evening we switched them on with the usual fanfare and mulled wine.

Christmas cake

I decided to bake my Christmas Cake early this year, as I usually end up making it the Christmas Eve and icing it Boxing Day!  Hope it turns out OK as I thought I try a different recipe this year so I used Delia.

Ilkley Moor - Cow & Calf

Baltic!

Our thermometer at about 7am this morning -10 degrees!  

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

The snow's been pretty bad here over the past few days and its not forecast to stop at least for the next few days.  Luckily I can still work from home, which is great as apparently the roads were jammed up and the buses and trains stopped running.  Stu was back shovelling and gritting again at the school as it looked like it would be OK to be open, but come mid morning the snow was so bad that the school was closed.  At the moment it's stopped snowing, but there must be at least 6 inches lying, so we will have to see what it's like tomorrow.  If it's still here at the weekend we might have to build a snowman!

Frozen!

Woke up to no water this morning. The water pipe supplying the house had frozen through. Luckily it hadn't burst and we were able to defrost it with the help of a hairdryer.  Needless to say we had a quick trip to B&Q to get something to provide a bit more insulation against the minus temperatures that are forecast for this week.

Snug!!

New windows. 
After about 10 years of single glazed windows we decided that double glazing was the future.  After much deliberation we decided on a local company, David Brunskills from Keighley.  From start to finish they've been excellent.  From the sales person to the surveyor and the fitter they have all delivered.  And now we have a toasty warm house, less drafts and judging by the last few days lower heating bills, even though it was -7 degrees last night.  We've also fitted extra stuff to the front door to get rid of the drafts that we have started to notice coming through the front door.

Old drafty and full of condensation windows.

Will take some pics of the new windows when it's not dark.