Their sales increased over the Christmas period according to the latest news.
Although I do like to shop at John Lewis if I can afford to sadly it wasn’t down to me;Â but I am pleased this might mean they will not go under – not yet anyway.
Meanwhile Debenhams and M&S are still struggling with decreased sales.
If in fact Elton has been instrumental in helping John Lewis through a bad patch perhaps someone might persuade him to take over the Brexit talks after all we don’t seem to be getting anywhere with them at the moment.
A lady interviewed on the lunchtime news (from Barclaycard I think) said that they were looking at how they can get customer confidence back to spend more on the high street by introducing memorable ‘instagram’ moments through experiences whilst shopping. As an example she said such things as free coffees and Yoga mornings. I smiled thinking of my aging mum doing Yoga whilst shopping and then perhaps taking a selfie – not that she isn’t active still but I think when she needs a new dress she might just want to go and choose one without having to contort herself in the process!
I wonder too at the necessity to make the whole of life an instagram moment.
I don’t often mention the news but I am feeling more and more concerned over the things that I am hearing and the messages we are receiving through the media.  Maybe the reason sales are down is just that people don’t want to buy so much stuff any longer or perhaps don’t have the means to keep on spending with prices rising on food and the basic essentials.
We seem to have got into a catch 22 situation now where we have to keep spending to keep everyone in a job. That is quite a burden for me as I don’t actually want to keep buying stuff any more – nor do I want to buy into these ‘experiences’ either – I can find my own by just having a walk along the seashore or a picnic in the country.
It has seemed quite strange not going back to work after Christmas but it is nice to have more time now to plan out the year ahead and set new goals. I will get back to chatting about my progress tomorrow. x
It is a community in mourning, feeling the loss of a friend and neighbour – many of the locals are calling for a road barrier to be put in place now so this loss of life does not happen again in the future when the sea is at high tide. The sea that I love so much has suddenly become quite a fearful place but even so now I am back in landlocked Yorkshire I miss going to sleep with the roar of the waves in the background.
Our nearest store is – a bit too far away for a our weekly shopping but we always call in on our way to or back from Scotland at the Penrith or Kendal branch. It is packed with photographs of deliciously tempting Christmas fayre to order or buy in store interspersed with a few recipes to make.
So I collected mine yesterday and spent my elevenses this morning pouring over all the Christmas food on offer and a quick look at the recipes in the back. I find it remarkable that Booths can produce such a lovely little book and give it away free – I was a truly happy bunny.
As you may remember from last year I decided to do something different to the usual wreath on our front door so I hung my chicken wire cone 
Pack the front and sides with moss (I had collected a small heap in the summer in readiness). Find an empty jam jar and push down into the cone as far as it will fit and so it is not visible.
Remove the jar again and push some chicken wire into the jar to hold the stems steady when filling with foliage. Fill the jar with cold water and start arranging pieces of foliage. Hold the cone steady in a small bucket then lower the jar into the cone making sure it is a snug fit.
At the moment I am using some dried red hydrangea heads and a dried white one, some ivy and a few holly stems. As we get closer to Christmas I will swap these for eucalyptus, holly and Hypericum like last years.
As you can see I am no florist but it is not too difficult to get a pleasing arrangement. You could add sprayed leaves, ribbon or pretty much anything. Just remember to keep topping up the jar of water.
…a pack of watercolour notelets (right) painted by a local artist to support the Aldouran Wetland Garden and these two pretty little felted Christmas tree cards for each of my daughters – made by a local crafter.
The frilly cake band takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of Christmases past – they would appear each Christmas round our Christmas cake – at 99p I just had to have one. The packet contains an iced ginger cake – we always buy one when we are at the cottage but usually we get the un-iced version – these too are only £1 from Tesco or Morrisons but I have never seen them south of the border. I thought the iced one would be a nice treat for Christmas. 
And on the way home a few small inexpensive things for Christmas from Tebay services of all places – each of these little tissue parcels were a £1 – you will have to wait a while until I unwrap them to find out what is in them.
 What a surprise when we drove up the road and onto the moor that takes us over the tops of Saddleworth to Greenfield, Mossley, Ashton, Stockport and finally Cheadle Royal our destination – there was a covering of snow. 
On the way home it was thick fog too and a bit hairy coming over the winding moor road but at least it was still open as often when there is any snowfall it is soon closed off and we have been stuck getting home a few times, you really have to watch the weather here if you venture far when it snows.
where the journey takes me 2 