Happy New Year to you! 2024

Sending you warm wishes for a happy New Year filled with love and joy. May your heart be light, your days be bright and your year be just right.

Have the happiest New Year!

Hugs, Rose xxx

Happy New Year 2022!

 

Happy New Year 2019

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2018

Happy New Year for 2016 with the Happy Ramblings blog

This year has gone by so fast it is hard to believe that we have almost reached the year 2016. For some reason getting older makes the time go faster and faster.

It has been an eventful yet stressful year for me, so my New Year Resolution is to relax more and enjoy myself.

I went on a 6 week stress management course, 2 hours a week, which was great. It made me stop and think about my goals and priorities as well as how to manage stress. I learnt about the art of mindfulness...living in the moment...which is very useful for keeping things in perspective.

I also discovered Colouring books for grown-ups which are great fun. I have quite a collection now, plus a colouring in calendar for 2016.

My vegetable garden has been resurrected from waist-high weeds. It was sadly neglected in the Spring and I was 2 months late in getting it started. But now I am happy with progress again and waiting for the moment when I can harvest my goodies.

I hope that you had a fun-filled Christmas-time and that your New Year will be the best ever.

Chat with you again soon.

Hugs

Rose x

Wishing you a Happy New Year for 2015

Best wishes and Happy New Year for 2015!

I hope that this season has brought you and your family joy, peace and blessings. May the New Year be the brightest yet!

Lots of love

Rose x

A belated Happy New Year to you!

Wishing you a very happy New Year!

I have been rather slack at blogging for such a long time. Quite a few of things happened last year. My health decided to let me down and I ended up having to have 3 different operations:

- One to remove a painful ganglion cyst from my right wrist and at the same time they released a tendon at the base of my thumb. So no writing or working at the computer for a long time.

- Then I had to have shoulder surgery to remove bone and bursa from inside my shoulder as my shoulder became too painful to use due to inflammation. My right arm again and I am right handed! I was out of action for 5 weeks after that and enduring lots of physiotherapy.

- And finally last month I had to have my pacemaker replaced.

I have mostly recovered at last and now just have to be careful how I use my arm until my muscles have strengthened.

I was a little silly after the pain had gone and my arm was out of the sling. I had decided to set up a vegetable patch and was shovelling topsoil for 3 days, then arrrgh, I strained my shoulder badly. So now I have to sleep on my back because I can't sleep on my right shoulder and I can't sleep comfortably on my left until the pacemaker surgery has settled.

So my resolutions this year are:

1) To have a healthy fun year

2) To make the most of my spare time

3) To relax and spoil myself. I think I deserve it!

Looking forward to catching up with you and hearing about your resolutions.

See you soon.

Hugs Rose x

The delicious New Year lunch my brother made

I love the Christmas and New Year season in New Zealand. Our family go to each others houses to enjoy celebratory get togethers and share delicious meals. My brothers and sister are amazing cooks and I love good food....what could be a better combination!

Our Christmas celebrations started at home with my parents. Christmas Day was spent with my younger brother and his fiancee and my little nephew. Then a few days later my sister held a lunch at her house for my nephew's 3rd birthday. (I will show some photos in another post).

For Christmas lunch my younger brother made a mouth-watering meal. The entree he made included little hors d'oeuvres, BBQ'd king prawns (both garlic and chilli), Gravad lax coated with dill and some more fish platters. Then for the main course he made a glazed roast ham, studded with cloves, plus barbequed pork belly. This was served with a yummy red cabbage dish and the tiniest Brussels sprouts I have ever seen, cooked with cream and pancetta.

After lunch we gathered round to share presents. My little 3 year old nephew had a great time and delighted in telling me that he saw Santa's reindeer in the night. My brother had jingled some bells outside and told him that the reindeer were there, but that Santa couldn't deliver his presents until he was asleep!

Yesterday we went to my older brother and his wife's house for lunch to celebrate the New Year...

When we arrived my brother was completing the final preparations for lunch in his beautiful Victorian style kitchen. I interrupted him and asked if he minded me taking photos for my new blog. He couldn't understand why on earth I would want to do a blog and put photos of food on it lol...he doesn't know what fun he is missing out on!

So I took all the covers off the plates, arranged things slightly to be a little more photogenic. Trying to do it without him noticing, and started clicking away hehe. I had a great time. I ignored his perplexed stares lol.

In the first photo you can see the focaccia bread that my brother made. He used a bread maker to prepare the dough and then baked it in the oven. It was sprinkled with sea salt...yuuum! I will have to give this a try with our breadmaker.

The second photo, above, shows his aubergine and feta cheese tart.

Click, click, click went my camera!

We were treated to such a variety of foods accompanied with pickles, gherkins, garlic, olives and sauces.

Gravad lax which he made from fresh salmon. I had a couple of servings of this!

A lovely selection of cold sliced meats (one very spicy hot) and a Tunisian tagine.

He also made sauteed asparagus, a Spanish rice salad, Turkish bean salad, and...

...a pork terrine. So much tasty food!

We helped ourselves, filling our plates up in the kitchen. Then ate sitting around the table in his pretty dining room.

It was such a lovely sunny day that after lunch we sat out on the veranda with our drinks to chat. The men decided to have a game of Petanque on the lawn and had a great time. Dad, who has never joined in any sport, had a great time and had a big grin on his face :) I must get our Petanque set out and brush the cobwebs off. Maybe dad will join me in playing.

I also took a few photos more of my brothers house and garden and their new foal that was born at the beginning of December...more things to post about :)

I hope that you had a great time bringing the New Year in too! xxx

Wishing you a Happy Ramblings New Year!

I would like to wish all my new blog, Google+ and Pinterest friends a very Happy New Year from New Zealand! I hope that you all have fun with your New Year's celebrations to see year 2013 in.

I will be seeing the New Year in, literally, with a difference this year. I have a new pair of glasses which I picked up today. Amazing...I can seeeee lol. I wore them to go to the supermarket straight afterwards and could actually see the labels on products, and the prices, without having to walk up to the shelf! Does this mean I will be spending more money at the shops? hmmmm.

And the bright colours and detail, wow. Now it will be easier for me to take photos and enjoy the scenery around me.  I still prefer looking at my Christmas tree, with all its lights on, without my glasses. It is in a wonderful soft blurry focus like looking at a Christmas card with halos around all the lights :)

Looking forward to sharing more with you in the New Year.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2013.

Cheers! xxx