Well, after a long and fraught 8 months, we are finally moving out of Essex and into Shrewsbury!

We will be arriving on the 3rd December (only 3 days before my daughter's birthday) and moving into our new home on the 4th.

Thank you all so much for your advice and welcome.

Just one other question: Where can we take our children to see Santa?

Thanks,
Schizoidgal and family.

Darwin Shopping Centre I think..?

Welcome to Shrewsbury...

I don't think there are any Santa's in town this year or for the last few years...

As far as I know the only locations are Percy Throwers Garden Centre and Dobbies which both have Grotto's...

Oh well - so long as the Wroxeter wine shop is back I'm happy.. ;)

if you fancy doing a really special santa trip there is the hawkstone follies which is north of shrewsbury but other people have told me this is great and when my son is older we are going to take him.
santa is in a cave in the follies which they take you to and it is supposed to be quite magical.
:D

Where will the Wroxeter shop be this year P.S?

Here is a link for xmassy happenings in Shropshire clic here Doesnt Santa get about :rolleyes:

Don't know. They're usually in a vacant shop unit in one of the two main shopping centres.

The wroxeter wine shop is open at Xmas Avron B clic Here

Its located on the second level of the Darwin Centre this year near to Mothercare...

Ford Hall Farm are also in the same unit.

Excellent. Always have a bottle or two of Salopian wine over the festive period! B)

the huge struggle to get planning for Wroxeter vineyard

Now you can see 'how lucky' you are they are there at all PS !!!!! :D

I know - it's all very silly isn't it?

Their wine shop in Wroxeter is quite a place. When I visited it in August they had a large group of visitors there and were giving presentations and tours. The shop itself is large and sells much local produce, including of course local beers. I hope they will expand the actual vineyard over the coming years too - elsewhere in Shropshire new vineyards are popping up, including one at Tern Hill. With climate change who knows... Shropshire could end up being a major wine producing county in England! Clean air, inland climate, slopes, etc.

I'd like to imagine that the Long Mynd, Corvedale and parts of the Clun district could became major grape-growing areas, with Craven Arms ideally sited to be the new Bordeaux. Although the predicted increases in rainfall intensity (especially in autumn) will probably detract from the Mediterranean image of vineyards!

Should be good for fungi forays! :D

Well, anything would be an improvement on this year's mushroom harvest!

Not sure how grapes get on in cold weather but Corvedale has to be about the coldest place on the planet in winter. There are still snow pockets from last weekend. I'm not sure Corvedale gets enough sun to be a grape area.

i went to the wroxeter wine shop yesterday and bought some wine from there as a present and a few other bits.
well chuffed when i saw it as i like to buy local and makes a nice present i thought rather than an ordinary bottle from sainsburys!
bought some cheese from there too as i am pregnant at the mo and like cheese for a nibble but there are so many i cant have i dont always bother. but found some really nice ones which were mature cheddar with cranberries, pickle, whiskey etc so i can actually have some more interesting cheese this xmas!

I had a real passion for blue cheese and also avocados with my youngest son, now 15. luckily nobody had decided I shouldn't eat them then!!! ;)

He actually likes both of those too, interestingly!

my main craving is chocolate and funnily enough my son loves sweet things too-but i somehow think that may have happened anyway
xx :D

I crave for wine! This may seem strange Squeezer, I always thought you were male, dont know why !

Thanks for the list, Andy (plus I thought lemon queezer was male too).

Kate, the Follies looks great but I don't think we will have the time this year. Our eldest may say she's a bit old next year when she will be going on 11 but we can always persuade her to take her little brother who will be almost 4 by then. And, congrats to you too.

I am also sure that we will be amking a visit to the wine shop. We have been to the vineyard and shop and,of course, sampled some of their ware :D . The 'must-have' addition to our christmas table, I am sure.

It certainly is strange to think that a week from now we will be in Shropshire and it will no longer be the 'pipe dream'. Also very nice to think we don't have to spend the christmas holidays with the in-laws, we can just visit them on appropriate days instead. Wow, we're so excited.

Schizoidgal.

Your first Christmas in Salopia with Salopian wine on the table... good going. :)