A Trip South for Christmas 2014

Firstly I apologise to all my subscribers and to those blog owners I subscribe to for such a lack of activity in the blogosphere.

I did have a bad cold and sore throat for a number of weeks, but that is no excuse.

I think in 2015 my blog will evolve.

In the past I've concentrated on the quantity of pictures, and though quality hasn't been bad I intend to upload less images. Where scattered throughout previous posts there may well have been the same scene repeated, I will be doing less of that.

Now that Christmas is over, I can only wish.............................

So, back to Christmas and my trip south.

Before I headed off I was visited by next doors cat.

This is Jerry, he has a brother called Ben.

For Christmas I drove down to Cheltenham. The first two days I spent with Marie and Chris before moving over to Longlevens, Gloucester to stay with Sarah, Phil and the gorgeous Audrey.

The drive as always was a pain. How people can stand to travel the M6 between Manchester and Birmingham daily is beyond me. The manufacturers of Prozac and other antidepressants must have a stake in keeping it crawling along.

Anyhow, I digress I arrived safely in Cheltenham.

Over the next few days I wined and dined (overdoing it on occasions that didn't agree with my alimentary canal)  walked with the family to lovely places and enjoyed getting to know my lovely granddaughter Audrey.

There wont much dialogue, I hope you enjoy the pictures. Where required I will indicate the location.

So, it's on with the pictures. 

A seasonally lit Cheltenham

Audrey and dad

Phil, Marie, Chris, Sarah and Audrey

Leckhampton Hill Car Park.

The next dozen pictures were taken up the hill.

A quite famous building !

Back in Cheltenham

A visit to Smokey Joe's Coffee Bar

Marilyn Monroe and James Dean were the doors to the washrooms

The gorgeous girl and the gnarled granddad

A selfie in the Everyman Theatre

Fabulous food at the Bar and Wok

(Watch what side dishes you order, you might find that the portions are quite enormous)

St Matthews

A morning walk in Cheltenham

Christchurch

The continued morning walk

Cyril

Heading for Longlevens, Gloucester, via the Aviator

After settling in and sleeping off my upset tummy, we headed out on Christmas Day to climb the National Trust's May Hill, what a fantastic place for a walk

She was a happy wee girl until the bitter cold at the summit made her curl up into the warmth of mum

Belties on May Hill

Atmospheric skies over the Severn

Flush Bracket S5151 on Trig Point 4696

After climbing May Hill we had an appetite.

Christmas dinner was fabulous.

A fair variety of birds were spotted on a short morning walk round Longlevens..............

......................while back at Phil and Sarahs the Goldfinches flittered about in the trees

I'll finish this post with these.............

..............a bubbly smiling rosey cheek and a winter rose.

Thanks for a great Christmas family. 

I'll see you again soon.

I had been contemplating going across to Lincolnshire to wish my two eldest and their families a Merry Christmas, but after listening to the weather forecast decided on a night drive back to Scotland. 

A wise decision, many of Derbyshire's major roads suffered badly from the snow that night. Saturday's traffic reports of tailbacks also gave me a feeling of satisfaction.

I got back on Saturday morning, but obviously too tired to join my fellow walkers in the Wigtownshire Ramblers.

The highlight of my trip ?

Have a guess, go on !