A million photos later...

Actually, I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would. In fact most of the ones I took are in this post...

But where did I go to take these photos? Magpie retreat of course! Woo!

Dad drove me all the way to fellow magpie Stacey's house (and also picked me up in Cambridge on Fri - isn't he wonderful?! His necks hurting him again though - wish I could have found a way to get there without him doing hours of driving :(

On our way! There was fog & mist all the way, but it's so hard to photograph! Loved this bridge - not only was it a lovely brick one (fed up of all the metal all over the place!) someone had added 'Give Peas a Chance' on the side :) Should give my uncle a shout out for lending us his sat nav - fabulous things!

A beautiful vase of irises were waiting on the table - such pretty colours!

Debbie and Patty on a log run on Sat morning - such strength!

The house - it seems to fit autumn so well I can't imagine visiting at another time of year!

The ground was covered in beautiful red leaves - I snapped a shot on my way to photograph a giant mushroom that Vanessa had spotted on our way off to CTM in the morning.

Check this one out! I was about to photo the one I was looking for when I spotted this next to a patch of little mushrooms (that didn't upload...hmm...) Anyway, it was so surreal I had to prod it to make sure it was actually a mushroom. It was. Very cool!

And here's the giant one. When I say giant, I mean tall. Very tall. Tallest mushroom I'd ever seen - about a foot tall? Maybe taller actually...not great with height guesstimations! Bit wary about the fact that all the grassy bits underneath it had turned black...oo err! Didn't prod this one!!

I brought a stack of papers that I didn't ever see myself get round to using to see if any magpies would like them - thankfully they did! They were all perfectly nice, from kits etc...just not my style. Only brought a few back home with me - yay for some space!

Here's Stacey, our baker extraordinaire! She made our birthday cake (4 years old! We'll be off to school next year!) and, quite frankly, the most delicious chocolate brownies ever. Seriously. We took a poll and we all agreed. Yum.

Check out the ahm-be-harnce - woo!

Yum yum yum - our Christmas dinner was delish! Thank you to all the wonderful chefs this weekend, I think I gained a stone in weight lol

Oh, and something very cool - just as we sat down to tuck in the Coca Cola holiday advert played, this being the signal of Christmas starting of course! How cool was that!? Almost as if they knew...

I hope the other photo isn't as blurry as mine!

We did our page kit, secret santa and an advent swap after dinner. Here's Karen & Emma opening theirs.

Before we left on Sunday we checked out our mojo and twitterings layouts - well...most of us...!!!

*finally* managed to herd everyone together to get the group shot!!! (dad was waiting in the fully loaded car at this point!) Then I was off! Sob! Times like this I *really* wish we lived a fraction closer!!

A couple of shots on the way home. Their were some lovely views but dads windows were showing the brunt of 2 days of long driving and weren't that clear to see through - eww! This tunnel was cool - it was actually tunnel shaped!

And we came out the other end to this view - plane trails, blue skies and a very cool bridge.

The final bit before home - the sun was a lovely colour but oh was it blinding!

Today I feel like hell but oh it was worth it! Such a lovely weekend with such lovely people - crossing all my fingers & toes I can find a way to go next year too!

xxx