Christmas is coming......

and the goose isn't getting fat - not around here at any rate. I left it too late to get one this year, as I was a bit concerned I didn't have enough grass to keep them going until it was time to fatten them up for Christmas. Next year my plan is to get a breeding pair and raise some.

Keeping the pigs has cost rather more than I realised - they certainly won't be the cheapest pork we have eaten, but at least they will have had a damn good life and eaten well in the meantime.

I have had an unexpected trip back to the UK since the last blog. My 66 year old Aunt died of cancer, so I headed back to the UK to go to the funeral. She lived in Yorkshire and they don't half talk funny up there!!
Everyone called me 'love' and they call baubles 'wasslecups' (actually it can't be that because I just googled wasslecups and the mighty google had no results. Either I completely misunderstood or they were making it up - perhaps someone can enlighten me).

Anyway it was lovely to get home, and although it is cold here the snow has gone and we are all wanting some more for Christmas day - unfortunately the forcast is for rain, bah humbug!! I'm still getting Christmassy though

A table for two.......

My days are even more busy recently because I am working a split shift. I come home and have just enough time to eat lunch and see to our menagerie before returning to work. If I leave my animals until I finish I have to do them in the dark, so I prefer to do them early.

It seems like a bit of a rush though, and today I was eating my lunch, a tuna pasta, and was engrossed in the lunchtime news, as they were discussing the student riots in London yesterday.
I used to work at the training centre for police horses in London, and was enjoying watching the horses on the news report. I casually glanced back at my plate and to my horror realised that Lenny, our young cat had taken advantage of my lack of attention to my plate and was happily helping himself to the tuna pasta from the other side of my dish.
I roared my displeasure at this gross act of misconduct and he just looked at me like "Yeah? So?" I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and deposited him on the floor whereupon he sauntered off licking his lips. Cheeky sod.

Ice in my house

In the same way most of us take our staircases for granted (note I said 'us', I can say that now the staircase is in woo-hoo!!) I am hoping those of you with central heating aren't taking that for granted either.

My mum (or inspector clouseau as we like to call her) noted that in the photo of Neil, Fred, Pat and the staircase, Fred and Pat were wearing their jackets.
Although it is true that they were on their way home it is also true that you really wouldn't want to spend any time in the hall without wrapping up warmly.

In the end of the house we are living it is lovely and warm, as our woodburner heats the kitchen and our bedroom above it, but it is fair to say that the rest of the house is suffering from the drop in temperature, in fact I just went into the hall to check on the animals drinking water to find a covering of ice over the bowl - so I'm kind of guessing that we are experiencing sub zero temperatures in the rest of our house.

Hopefully that will change reasonably quickly - now the staircase is in place the first floor going down is high on the 'to do' list and following that the upstairs can be partitioned and insulated, which will make a huge difference.
This renovation lark doesn't happen overnight does it?!!!

I was having a tough time getting out of bed this morning - I could see the snow falling from the safety of my duvet and I was so cosy. I've been feeling tired as Neil has driven back to the UK to pick up a load of building materials and I never sleep as well when he isn't around. Not that I am alone in the bedroom, since the staircase has been in place Tess has been thrilled that she is no longer confined to the ground floor and is quite insistent on accompanying me to bed, and to be honest that suits me fine as I like the company.

Anyway, I had just managed to drag myself out of bed when the phone rang. It was my boss calling to tell me not to worry about coming into work, she was going to leave all the horses in and was concerned about me coming out on my own. I didn't argue too much and then gleefully got undressed again and slid back under the duvet. Even Tess seemed to be happy to jump back in her basket and go back to sleep.

When I did get up I started feeling guilty about my boss having to do all 20 horses, so I brushed the snow off the quad and wrapped up against the arctic temperatures and headed off cross country towards work.

As I sped along a track across a field the snow stopped falling and sun came out and all of a sudden the landscape was stunningly beautiful, with blue skies and the snow glistening in the sun.

It was one of those moments when you realise just how good life can be and how lucky you are. I would have paid good money in the UK to go out quadding in the snow, and today I was heading to a job I enjoy and having fun getting there.

How lucky am I?!