Lovely pictures.

Particularly nice to see Dan all dressed up for his first day at school I hope it went well for him. And you don't look so bad yourself little brother.(I have tried to add comments to posts but I can't remember anything about the password. Sometimes it can take weeks for the penny to drop, obviously not hard wired for technology).
The cars look nice too.... if you ever see a small engined car that is too good to miss and would be suitable for Edmund let me know. Although I can hear you shuddering at the very thought of suggesting a car for us. But the insurance is too expensive on the Peugeot even though the garage has just told us its not worth £100 and the engine on the Renault is too big to insure for a learner, they won't consider it.
Mind you Edmund shows no sign of wishing to drive unless he can do it as an intensive one off course(preferably in Finland!), and not until he has finished his exams...I of course think he is gravely mistaken and missing an unrepeatable window in time. How's Jess getting on?
The icy roads only really arrived on Johns birthday so you wouldn't have been stuck here, but I'm glad you were near home for the hospital doctor etc. Although I think our hospital is very good, but 45mins away.
We did have crispy duck, hosin sauce and pancakes with the left over duck and it was surprisingly successful, there was lots of skin to crisp up and quite abit of meat, Nic has told me before that the meat should be discarded but we didn't care. Thomas and I found out how to make the pancakes from the Internet(videojug)and we worked as a team kneading, rolling out, dry frying and separating the pancakes. The first few were a bit tough but by the end we had got the hang of it.
The children are back at school today, so I'm changeing beds, hoovering and washing, and searching out any forgotten christmas decorations.. best get back to it.. love Cathyxx