Pick Me Up! 20-Dec-2022_Double issue

Grabbing yet another ball of brightly-coloured wool from my craft box, I got started on my next creation. Christmas was fast approaching and I was making my family’s gifts. My parents had always been creative, so I guess you could say it’s in my blood. In 2000, I moved to Cumbria with my family and that’s when I fell in love with spinning. If I wasn’t at the wheel or teaching my wool workshops, I was exploring the peaks. Putting my yarn down and instead opting for walking boots, I went from strength to strength. And before I knew it, I’d climbed 214 peaks over the course of 17 years! I’ve managed to raise £1,000 A few years ago on a particularly long hike, my son Bheinn asked if we…

WHAT’S TRENDING Christmas dinner isn’t just for one day! Try this dough-liciously different take on a festive roast – on a tree-shaped pizza! Topped with juice turkey breast, sage and onion stuffing balls, crispy bacon, cheese and with an optional sachet of cranberry sauce, it’s a tasty new take on tradition. Perfect for those yuletide get-togethers, it’s the best of both worlds – a tree-mendous treat! • £3.75, available at in-store Asda Pizza Counters from 12 December We’re loving No one does Christmas quite like Buddy the Elf – and now you can have him in your home, too! Enjoy a big plate of spaghetti with candy and syrup, followed by cookie dough and gingerbread men, with this life-sized cardboard cutout of everyone’s favourite giant elf. Don’t worry though –…

Hayley, my eight-year-old granddaughter, is learning about famous inventors. ‘Macaroni invented the radio,’ she wrote in her homework book. I think that she may have meant Marconi! Carol Casan, Tiverton Forget all the high-tech gifts of today. 53 years ago, I was more than happy with my dolly and nurse’s outfit. Tina Vowels, Stroud This is my sweet little Jack Russell, Pippameana, having fun climbing trees in our local park. Paula Eakins, Preston This is my son Riley, nine, making homemade cookies for his teachers. They have helped him so much with school, he wanted to do something for them. Rebecca Key, Norwich If your letter makes Star Letter of the week, you will receive some beautiful blooms from Flying Flowers. With over 30 years’ experience of helping celebrate life’s…

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I’d caught sight of a spider. ‘Paul, come and get rid of this for me!’ I shouted to my hubby, 40, not wanting to pick it up for myself. ‘No! I want to keep it,’ our daughter Charley smiled, taking it into her cupped hands. Ever since a young age, she’d always been interested in animals even down to the smallest ant on the pavement, wanting to look after them. That’s something that her siblings Jake, now 11, Callum, now 17, Kylah, now 18, and Sophie, now 20, weren’t so keen on! But Charley didn’t mind, she even had her own catchphrase as a toddler… Charley was a real firecracker – outgoing and fun! ‘I do it by my own,’ she’d mutter, which…

Only, the noise that I heard him make next made my blood run cold. ‘Charley,’ he screamed in a way I had never heard him say her voice before. But without thinking, I already knew what it meant – Paul had found Charley unresponsive in her room. Darting upstairs, telling Jake and Callum to stay away, I didn’t want them to see. With Paul starting CPR, I frantically dialled 999, hoping that Charley would come back. How could she have listened to the bullies? Within minutes three ambulances arrived – I didn’t know what to do. Being able to sit in the back of the ambulance, me and Charley were rushed to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital. Only, I wasn’t able to hold her hand, she was still being worked…

Wincing as I pushed with all my might, the leg press came back down with a clunk. Taking a rest in between sets at the gym, my legs felt shaky. But then someone appeared in front of me. ‘Angie?’ the man said. ‘Wow, how are you?’ ‘Steve?’ I said in shock. Steve and I had gone to school together, but I hadn’t seen him since we were 16 – 20 years later, he was nothing like I remembered. We got chatting, and there was a spark between us – but saying our goodbyes, I carried on with my workout. Back at home though, I was swiping through Tinder and I came across Steve! I swiped right, not thinking much of it – and then later, got a message from him.…