A busy weekend.

John and I went to East Anglia for the weekend and had a great time. Tomorrow is my birthday and we usually try and go away for the weekend before my birthday and then the day after my birthday we declare our Christmas celebrations open. It all adds up to a great week. I don't know which is more exciting, the weekend away, my birthday with our family and of course presents or decorating the tree on the 9th of the month.

For our trip away we travelled to Ely in Cambridgeshire. We had visited it before and toured the cathedral but the octagonal tower was closed so we wanted to visit it this time.

In the end we didn't go up the tower as it was quite windy. Instead we enjoyed looking at the shops and the stalls in the market. There was a nice quilt shop and I bought some fat quarters and also some fabric for my next stitchery. I'll start that later this week. After enjoying pizza for lunch we headed out to Anglesey Abbey.

Anglesey Abbey is a country house in Cambridgeshire now owned by the National Trust. Most of the house was closed for the winter but they had the kitchen quarters and the dining room open and displaying a 1960's Christmas. It was very strange to see the games and treats I remember from my childhood christmases on display. I was amazed by the gingerbread house made by one of the National Trust staff.

Anglesey Abbey in gingerbread. Mmmm tasty.

The gardens were open and later in the evening they turned the lights on for the Winter Wonderland. There weren't any tickets left for the winter wonderland but we were able to walk round the gardens before it was fully dark. Anglesey Abbey is famous for its snowdrops in early spring but there were some in bloom now.

As you walked round coloured lights had been placed to highlight some of the areas.

I loved the colours on the white trunks.

I loved this old trunk.

 The coloured balloons in the tree were fun.

The house itself was also lit up with changing colours.

On Sunday we spent the day at the the wetland and wildfowl trust centre at Welney. There were so many swans, it was amazing. . They were doing the count this week but were expecting to have several thousand of them visiting, mostly whopper swans. They are huge birds with the adult male weighing up to 11 kgs which is 24 pounds 4 ounces. There were also a lot of other birds to watch. Late afternoon we headed home having had a restful and enjoyable weekend.

This weekend in the north of England and Scotland there was widespread flooding as a result of storm Desmond. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the storms both here and in other parts of the world. Take care and stay safe.

Lyndsey