After a wait of over 12 months since it was first promised, we were finally connected to fibre broadband today. Instead of ambling along at 8-10 meg on the old system, we now enjoy speeds of around 42 meg as the image of Richard's speed test app shows!

At this point we wish all our blog readers a

Happy New Year for 2016 !

Today we went to the Panto in Windsor which starred Basil Brush and Anne Widdicombe.

Megan and Jessica loved the experience - which included lots of "it's behind you's" and cheering when the Ugly Sisters squirted the audience with water pistols during "The 12 days of Christmas" which now apparently incluides "12 gallons of water...."

To get some fresh air, we walked along the Thames for a mile or so towards Laleham (and Central London!)

At one point there is a Christmas Tree which has baubles on it and signs showing the 12 days of Christmas. The girls enjoyed going around the tree looking for the days in order.

The tree is produced by two local residents with some sponsorship by a pub.

Later in the afternoon, we had the Christmas pudding. It was clear that Poppy liked it a lot - or was it just a ploy to get her hands on the melted squirty cream???

For the record - she did not eat all that pudding!

Me? I'm cute! Even when I am caught red handed diving into the crisps!

Poppy was caught on this occasion!

Who said fashion sense was dead at Christmas?

Ben arrives wearing a striking Christmas jumper!

What did you get for Christmas girls?

Well amongst other things - personalised jars of Nutella!

Being Christmas Eve, it was the time to make cakes to leave for Father Christmas. Having done some serious icing on the village yesterday, Megan and Jessica really went to town with these cakes. Santa later scoffed the two they chose for him!

Megan (with her new "bobbed" hair-do) arranges them on the cake stand.

At 4.30pm the Lantern Procession was setting off with the reindeer in the lead, followed by Santa's sleigh and then the lantern bearers. The end was brought up by a brass band from Charnock Richard (near Preston).

The procession had at least 192 lanterns on display - possibly more as some children may have had shorter poles which made them less easy to spot!

Here, father Christmas (extreme right) waves as the lantern procession passes him at the end of the parade.

Considering the week's weather, the sight that greeted us this morning was magical. Bright blue skies, clear crisp vews of the high fells and even a covering of snow!

Ideal for the Lights Switch-On Day!

After the weekend's 93mm of rain, this was the scene at Waterhead today. The lake has crossed the road and taken over the car park. The ground is covered in driftwood and the promenade seating is a no go area. Beyond the keep left bollard a tree trunk was floating semi-submerged in the roadway and so the police had closed the road for safety.

The lake level will take 2 or 3 days to fall and then the clean-up can be completed (assuming there is no more rain!!).

Early morning rain followed by sunshine resulted in a weird effect we have never seen before.

From the tops of the trees just down the field from the cottage there were vertical wisps of cloud spiralling upwards.

Each one lasted a minute or so and as soon as the tree's leaves dried up enough, the vapour columns stopped! Weird!

Our day for departing from Berlin. This picture is not "fixed" ! The weather really had been this good every day.

It had been our first visit to Berlin and what struck us was the contrast between old and new as is clearly shown here.

The day in Berlin ended with a visit a restaurant at the foot of the TV Tower, which at night is lit by coloured floodlights.

The tower and one of the points projecting from the base make up this scene.

The viewing platform at 206 metres is the very outside ring visible in this photo.

The final stop of the tour was at Schloss Cecilienhof, the location of the meeting of the superpower leaders -Truman, Churchill (and later Atlee) and Stalin at the end of WW2.

Beyond those ground floor windows, modern history was written when they agreed the division of Germany after the allied victory.

After flying to Belin, we walked to the nearby train station to take the metro train to Alexander Platz, where our hotel was located.

Apologies for the selfie (which Richard detests) but it was the best way to get us all in the picture.

The first day of our trip to Berlin with three friends started at Liverpool Airport where we spent the previous night. At 3am Jill and Rich were moon gazing as we watched the blood moon caused by a lunar eclipse of the super moon.

Not the best photo due to the dirt on the hotel windows.

Matt Gentle (one of Ben's friends and work mates at Deloitte) was riding from Lands End to John O'Groats in a mass sponsored ride this week so today we went onto the top of Shap Fell on the A6 to meet him and offer sustinence in the shape of a Freddy Garside sausage roll!

Matt finally arrived at 1642, after a puncture and stopping for chips at Milnthorpe!

By the following Sunday, he and most of the other 1100+ riders had made it to John O'Groats!

Arts and Crafts with Grandad! Having drawn a picture, we then used buttons to decorate it. Buttons in the shape of flowers were used for the garden whilst small red buttons became apples in the trees.

The box of buttons was one of their presents last Christmas and stays here for their visits.

Another new experience! Ten pin bowling at Morecambe Superbowl.

Megan prepares to roll her ball down the frame which helps younger bowlers. Later, the frame was dispensed with and they rolled their own balls with some success.

After yesterday's trip to Haverigg, today was a "stay at home day" and the girls played in Ladybird Cottage with the gazebo put up in front of the steps to provide more shade!

The rock and shell collection can be seen on the table, which is now a shop offering presents at exorbitant prices!

A trip to the seaside but this time NOT Blackpool. The girls love Haverigg Beach, near Millom. Clean sand, no crowds and lots of pebbles and shells to create a shop where, hopefully, Nana and Grandad will "buy" souvenirs!

In the picture is our anniversary present from Caroline and Ben - a fully equipped picnic hamper!

Jessica sprints past on a mission to find crabs. In the end we found about 6 but none were large enough to give you a nip!

A new experience for Jessica and Megan today. We took them to Blackpool to see the ice dance show "Hot Ice" at the Pleasure Beach. (Jill had seen it recently on a WI trip!)

Later we walked around the pleasure beach and posed at the cartoon frame, before the girls and Grandad went on the Log Flume ride!

Grandad got very wet - the girls didn't but they loved it!

Two shots from the log flume video! In the first Grandad can be seen in the white hat with the girls in front.

Two seconds later.... the girls are there somewhere!

Today we drove north with the girls, stopping at Beacon Park in Lichfield where there is a superb park for children.

Here, the girls ponder how to get to the next stone block. We also took a pedalo ride in a pedalo looking like a giant swan!

Today was the day of The Party in the Queen's back garden! Well... Windsor Great Park to be precise (a part of the "Royal Landscape"). The party consisted of us two (obviously), Caroline and family, Ben and family, Jill's brother Keith, and Jill and Keith's nephew Oliver and Ellie with Monty their new son. They live in Eire and just happened to be in England at the right time.

The weather was great and everyone enjoyed the feast and the chance to play games together. One game involved killing 24 wasps which came within range of Rich and the twins who were on a mission to protect the rest of the group from stings!

Once at Ben and Alison's house, the four girls played happily together and enjoyed the trampoline in the garden.

Poppy seems keen to show off her teeth!

Since we found out about the webcam looking at the Osprey chicks at Foulshaw Moss on the edge of Morecambe Bay, we have checked them out daily. They are now close to flying the nest for the first time!

As one rests on the right, the other two are looking for Mum or Dad to bring in their next fish meal.

We have seen at least three sizeable fish being delivered!

Want to see the chicks? CLICK HERE

With Jill still in London until Monday, Richard was on his own to see the Rushbearing Procession in Ambleside today.

Acting as a marshal, he walked with the procession from the church - up Compston Road, past the Bridge House and then up Kirkstone Road, back down North Road and into Market Place where hundreds of visitors and locals watched the procession and then joined in the Rushbearing Hymn.

Then it was on into Lake Road, down Church Street and back to the church where the chidren received a drink and a piece of traditional ginger bread.

The lower picture shows some local children with their bearings of rushes, decorated in the traditional way with flowers.

The top picture shows the moment in the Market Place when all those in the procession are asked to lift their bearings up high.

With Jill in charge of Poppy whilst Daisy was at Pre-school, it's "toys in the garden time". Poppy is growing so quickly and she has a very photogenic smile!

Looks like she's been shopping for a car!

Meanwhile, 280 miles further North, another garden feast was being prepared! At the end of Richard's year as Rotary President, we had a BBQ for 22 in our gardens. The weather was perfect and we chose today because tomorrow Jill goes down to Reading and Staines for an 8 day visit including some babysitting!

On the menu were 32 hogroast sausages from Freddie Garside's butchers in the town as well as some seriously good steak burgers, pork and apple burgers and kebabs from the famous Cranston's butchers shop in Penrith.

The guests provided salads and puddings and very little was left at the end!

The day after, as Jill left for London, the weather was truly awful with gales and heavy rain. What a difference 24 hours can make!

Inside the palace grounds there was to be no use of cameras! Well, with 8000 plus ladies out for fun that was never going to happen! Here they pose at the foot of the steps from the palace forecourt to the gardens.

There was no rain but the wind was strong and hats blowing away was the main problem!

Jill and her friends met at Euston, went to one lady's hotel room nearby to change into their "palace outfits" and then had a people carrier taxi to take them to the palace.

Here they pose outside the palace.

After the garden party the same taxi picked them up and headed back to Euston where they collected their luggage from the left luggae office and set off home with lots of great memories of the day!

On the way back from Carlisle, I called at Rachel's (Jill's neice) house near Greystoke to see Rachel's brother Oliver, his wife Ellie and new member of the family Monty, who are all over on a quick family visit from Ireland.

Monty had just been fed when I got there but he responded to me blowing raspbaerries before he went off for his nap!

Here, Ellie holds Monty.

Jill should have been there too, but in view of the high winds expected tonight, she has decided to go down to London a day earlier to be sure that she will be able to attend the WI Garden Party at Buckingham Palace tomorrow!

At 1135, Jubilee Class 45699 "Galatea" creates its own shadow with smoke as it sets off up the main line towards Carlisle. Just to the right is the famous Carnforth Station clock which featured in the film "Brief Encounter".

Exactly ten minutes later, Britannia Class loco 70000 "Britannia" storms through Carnforth with a special train from Bristol to Appleby.

Between me and the hand on the picture was a wooden bench and on it stood a chap with his video camera. Later he uploaded it to Youtube and that is the video referred to below.

Outside our bedroom window, we have a bird feeder except that as we lie in bed only Jill can see it! So... A second one has been installed so that Richard can see one too!

Turns out that the birds like that one more - because they see less movement through the window!

This morning Rich, crept up to the window and using the curtain as cover, took this photo of our visiting Great Spotted Woodpecker "Woody" who was barely two feet away from the camera at the time!

May seems to have been "WI Month"! As the time draws closer for Jill to attend the Buckingham Palace Garden Party to celebrate the centenary of the WI, Jill found a picture of the very first WI in Britain taken in the early 1920's. The picture (above, left) shows the ladies of the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch WI on Anglesey posing outside their meeting place.

The plan was to get the local WI ladies to borrow period hats and dresses and try to re-create that photo for 2015.

So in the tithe barn in Grasmere, Richard had the task of getting 35 ladies to sit still in the right positions! (It was something akin to trying to herd cats!!)

The photo was then handed over to Jill's brother, Keith, who bagan removing the "2015 ladies" from their photo and dropping them onto the old photo!

The result can be seen to the left in the lower picture. The two images have now gone into the press via Ambleside & District Life and today to the WI in London.

Next week the garden party takes place followed, two days later, by a live link at Fellini's cinema in Ambleside to the Royal Albert Hall for the National AGM in the presence of H.M.The Queen. You'll never guess who had the idea of the live link!!!

Yes Jill of course!

A thoroughly lazy day including a Tesco delivery and bringing this blog up to date after a lengthy period of no updates (we have been so busy!).

One problem we have is that the cottage gardens are full of baby rabbits - some brown, some black! We will need to halt the population explosion!

Jill poses by one of the variety of knots which are now features on the quayside.

One could possibly say that she got knotted!

In Carlisle we went into the city centre where Margaret visited a craft shop and then it was time for a cup of tea at John Watt's coffee shop in Bank Street. It was like stepping back in time.

After being suitably refreshed, we returned to the station and boarded a London express Pendolino which whisked us back to Oxenholme after a great day out!

Today we took the train to Winnersh to see Daisy leave her pre-school at the end of the day. Once home, Daisy joined Poppy in their new trampoline.

Tomorrow we head back to Ambleside via Virgin Trains.

Whilst Daisy was in school we went out for lunch with Alison and Poppy.

Poppy decided that it was Nana's turn to be fed!

We had gone down to London again to see the girls and meet them from school as a surprise. On the Saturday we met some of Andrew's friends and about 3pm we all went out to a very late lunch. This was the hotel, The Swan Hotel which is idyllically located alongside the Thames.

After half an hour we decided to take the girls home and after leaving our mobile number so that we could return the next day to pay for our meals, we left.

As we did so two more fire engines arrived including (behind) a 100 foot aerial platform in case the whole roof went up in smoke!

The girls are now happily settled into their new school after the prospect of a different school 3.5 miles away and right next to Heathrow Airport.

In the end, common sense prevailed and the girls are now in a school 400 yds away from home!

Yesterday we went to Warrington and St.Helens and returned with some seasoned cherry logs from our good friends Moira and Ken Ryder.

We also went to a Saints rugby match but the team were well and truly beaten!

Since the sun was shining this morning, we set about splitting them in the garden.

Megan and Jessica have, for the first time, chosen different hairstyles.

Megan (above), showing before and after.

Jessica (below), also showing the difference!

Ben, Alison, Daisy and Poppy are with us for the Easter weekend.

Daisy and Poppy enjoy the sunshine on the seat at the end of the farm track.

We headed back south with Meg and Jess after their stay with us until schools get sorted out!

Rich decided to sort out the dishwasher for Caroline and at one stage was jammed behind the two machines (dishwasher and washing machine) under the work surface and got bad cramp!

Megan captured the moment in a drawing! Note the look on Grandad's face!

All too soon we headed north again.

Before returning to home in Staines, Jessica and Megan helped Grandad to make a batch of Mars Bar Crispie cakes.

Over 20 were made with mini eggs in each one shaped to be a nest!

Megan and Jessica are staying with us whilst Caroline and Andrew are working and whilst their local council sort out school places for the twins.

This afternoon we took Megan and Jessica round to Troutbeck and they then climbed their first real mountain - Wansfell.

Here they posed on the summit with Jill before we headed back down and out of the cool wind!

At 9.10pm, our window sill bird food was raided once again by the local thief!

Even with the curtains open and Rich standing there pointing a flash camera in his/her face, s/he didn't bat an eyelid!

In 30 seconds all peanuts and seeds had been hoovered up. Here a few seeds stick to the badger's wet node!

"We apologise for the severe delays on the Sunnybank branch line. This is due to a freight train becoming stranded in deep snow.

A relief train with a snow clearing gang has been sent to assist. We hope to have normal services restored later today."

"Right lad! You dig 'n I'll watch! I'm a driver not a snow shifter!"

This weekend Richard has been on a Rotary leadership course near the NEC in Birmingham. As well as the Rotarians, the hotel was the base for a Power Rangers Fan Club event. About 200 of them were parading round dressed like this. They had, apparently, come from all over Europe to meet the cast but loved dressing as Power Rangers for the two days! The chap in blue was from France and the girl in white was from Scotland.

Takes all sorts!

After attending a funeral today, we decided to drive further up the road to see the snow scenes.

The Jimny 4X4 made it easy to drive up there despite the 4-5 inches of snow. Down in Ambleside there had been half an inch if that!

The only person we saw was a girl with a snowboard on her backpack!

Further snow is forecast! As I write this entry, it is snowing hard again and people are out sledging on the lowwr slopes of Wansfell.

Being a vaguely fine day, we decided to finally put right some of the things which happened in the storm of Jan 10th.

The remains of the neighbour's hay shed roof were lowered back over the fence so that the car park would be clear again.

Next, Richard started to remove the bent gate post by drilling the surrounding concrete with a heavy hammer drill and big masonry bit. Then it was bashed with a heavy crowbar until it finally gave way and broke up into pieces.

Rather than try to straighten the post, the bent section was allowed to go at an angle undergound so that the post was, once more, vertical. Two bags of postcrete later and the gate was restored to normality.

Finally we returned three full barrow-loads of gravel to the front path which had been washed to the bottom of Keith's garden.

The lifted tarmac still waits for our attention!

After a night of howling gales, Richard left the house at 7am to drive to Carlisle for a meeting before collecting Jill from the station. On going outside he discovered that a complete shed roof from the nearby stables had flown through the air and along the front of the cottages before meeting our gate and its post.

The post is 1.5 inch square steel and this picture showed what it did to it! Rich tried to bend it back but couldn't.... so it just shows the power of the wind and a 10x8 metal clad shed roof!

In addition, large amounts of the gravel at the corner of the cottages had been washed down into Keith's garden (No1 cottage). The sheer volume of water going down the culvert under our drive had lifted our new tarmac drive and scoured out the hardcore below it so that it is now anything but level!!!

Today we took the girls back to London (Caroline and Andrew had gone back a week earlier to start work). The amount of luggage was considerable!

Here the girls pose at Oxenholme with their new suitcases, backpacks and lunch bags! We also had four bags to carry.

After an easy ride to Euston, where we were met by Caroline and Keith (who took all the luggage in his car), Rich returned North on the next train whilst Jill stayed for a week to help with after school cover for the girls

Jessica (left) and Megan (right) were not phased by the mumbers of visitors and acted as mini waitresses! Here, they get in quick for one of Freddie Garside's famous sausage rolls! They both decided to wear their "Frozen" dresses.

A Happy New Year to all our blog readers.