Back in time for winter! :)

Cheers to you too!
Such pretty flowers to remind us it is warm elsewhere on this planet!!

Lovely blog Karen - as always wonderful pictures - nice to enjoy a little sup ;) welcome back

Great photos Karen. Barry and I have always been interested in La Gomera. There was a bad fire there but I remember you saying it was a different part of the island. Cheers! We are off to Mauritius in March. My camera will be hot just like yours. :0))))

So envious of that blue sky!! Couldn't quite see what was on the menu in the last photo,K .LOL

Welcome back my friend all cosy now just in time for the very cold blast.

Wonderful blog as ever.

Repeat after me "we are not jealous"

Oh yes we are!! lol. Looks like it was a beautiful place to be Karen. Lovely flowers looks so tropical, the rock face I can definitely see. Good to have you back safe and sound. xxx

we are not jealous ......much.
love the faces in the rock, real spooky.
I loved the plants we saw when we were in the canaries.

Thanks everybody, it is lovely Linda. there's only one downside for me......mile after mile of scary hairpin bends!
The fire pretty much ravaged the central national Park, but the rains came in the autumn and the hills were green again in no time at all. Definitely worth the trip if you have the stomach for it! It is very beautiful and totally unspoiled, with a population of only 22,000. I think you would love it! The hotel is not luxury exactly, but very pretty and quite charming.

Thanks for sharing your trip, Karen . . . lovely to see that blue sky and sunshine!

(Good thing you didn't live in the Jura - our first home was a chalet, 66 hairpin bends up from the lake to the mountains!!)

Lovely flora. Thanks for sharing

Oh lord, scary hair pin bends...my hubby loves to scare me with those and 500 foot drops too! Nice, not!

Beautiful photos Karen and those blue skies......sigh.....I can see a man with bushy eyebrows lying down and looking up at the sky, in that rock pic!! Cheers.

You can't beat getting a bit of heat into those bones at this time of the year, can you?
Lovely pics - welcome back - you could have put a wee bit of sunshine in your handbag and brought it with you :)

lol...thanks everyone..I did talk to the sun, but it just couldn't be persuaded to get in the suitcase! I guess they need it more than we do! Blimey, it's been grey since we got home. I've had my daylight lamp on all the time, which really helps, but I can't get outside much...it keeps sleeting!

Lovely photos Karen, glad you enjoyed your break, and yes I think we are all jealous, hope you won't get too much snow up there.

Thanks cinders! It is really lovely to get some winter sun. It makes coming home a bit of a shock to the system, but I am always glad to get home, no matter what the weather is like. there are buds swelling on all my hellebores, so that cheered me up when I went out into the gloom yesterday. Some daylight soon would be good, it's been really dark grey here this weekend!

Happy New Year Karen....lovely blog. Some super wild flowers there and a nice dose of sunshine to set the scene for this year (we hope!). Off to Spain soon for a little hol....can't wait!.....:))

Karen, I hope the holiday 'stays' with you for a few more days yet and that it will now help to get you through the winter.
The pics are great and the flowers you saw were lovely. It was nice to share your winter sunshine.

Thank you girls, it is hard to hold on to the sunshine when it's gone, but Tuesday we have sun forecast, and I can bear a bit of snow in January....

Some lovely pictures.i love the grass seed heads on. The rocks! A slightly different scene from the one outside my window this morning, ....cold, dull, dusting of snow, frozen ground!

Thank you Paul, we had some sun here, and Molly and I had a good walk, but its deteriorating fast now.

Oh dear, yes miserable here, but I'll have to brave it soon.Going to walk to the swimming pool.I have to get my exercise.Particularly this time of year when I'm not doing people's gardens.Don't want to put on too much weight!!!!

Lovely blog Karen. Not much fun coming back to cold weather though!

Super pics Karen, pleased you had a good holiday, nothing like a drop of sunshine to make one feel perky!!

Good on you Paul. I haven't been in a public pool for years now, in fact the last time I swam a mile....I think that finished me off!

Rose, I don't mind the winter that much....if only we had a summer to contrast! But I always love coming home...wouldn't it be awful if we didn't want to come home? I don't think OH was all that keen to return to work this year.....but that may be because a year ago we started on six months of trouble and strife. So far so good in 2013! Thank you!

You're right A! thanks :)

I love to come home too Karen and this year my hubby has talked me into going away for a month! My poor garden!

Ooh! How exciting! It would take a lot of persuading to get me away for a month, and it could only happen in Jan or Feb, as I think I really wouldn't miss them! Where are you off to?

lovely blog karen, thought i had seen this but realised iv seen some pics somewhere else lol, but nice to see them again and you look so chilled out, sorry your back to cold :o) x

Thanks San!

Thanks for sharing KS. The place is beautiful and scenic.

It really is 6d, and I would happily return were it not for the awful return journey. It wasn't quite so bad on the way there, as the hairpins were the last part and it was dark. The stars were incredible...you could see the Milky Way, which was a first for me and took my mind off the sheer drops on our side!

Hi Karen..
lovely warm, colourful photos.
Thanks for sharing :o))) x