It used to be rain again but there’s an awful lot of the white stuff out there.  Nothing is moving except tractors.  A neighbour has brought over an 08 bale of silage, it’s good stuff though.  Even with a 4 wheel drive tractor he slipped and slid up the hill, at least the tack sheep have that. 

John has brought his ewes down to the barn, it’ll make it easier for feeding them.  Having to carry buckets of water fom the house.

The bath outlet pipe froze last night and the water was still in the bath this morning but the temp must have gone up a notch as it disappeared an hour ago. 

Well. it sure is not fun for anyone.  Except the children who won’t be  able to get to school.   John says he’ll go into town on the quad if he has to, which I think he will. 

There’ll be no post.  Gina from the oxygen centre rang yesterday to see if I was going today. There’s even less chance today.  I really want to go next week though.  John’ll have to take me.

I ought to get down to some letters and emails but I don’t feel brilliant, have a bit of a cold. 

We’ve got plenty of food in the feezer, we had duck breast last night, I made an orange and port sauce that turned out to be delicious.

We have snow here, 2 – 3 ” of it, melting in the sun but such a nuisance.  I thought the weather was going to be good for the party tomorrow but now, not everyone will be able to come.

For those who can walk or drive it will still be on, I’ll just keep open house .  Holly and Small love the snow, Small was out in the moonlight last night, jumping and frisking around in the snow – what it is to be young and carefree!

Got a bit overtired last night so am just catching up on jobs.  Have done a lot of cooking so we’re eating left overs.

Altho the lane is clear of ice along here, down by the bridge it  was still sheet ice with rain on top yesterday, even the scooter which has been excellent in the snow, could have slid a little if I wasn” such a brilliant driver.

Sunshine, windy, showery here, supposed to be -1 tonight.

Just hope and pray that the weather is good for my brothers coming on Sat and the party on Sun.

are changed.  I got it a bit wrong last night. Mark,  Paul and Jules have taken the Sierra and are driving down to Gibraltar and then over to Morocco to join others from Plymouth/Banjul to a drive round the Atlas mountains.

They are going to ship the clinic lory from Tilbury to Freetown in February and then fly out to to Freetown  and put the enine in the other lorry and anything else that needs doing and Vivi will go out there for a week as well.  So a compromise that hopefully suits all. 

V Cold here but now snow yet.  Waiting for John who has gone shopping .  I need to take Holly out. I don’t like coming up the lane when the sun is v low, it’s dangerous, so bright, drivers can’t see you.

I’ve just been on Twitter and seen that Eurotunnel  is booked for 9.00 am tomorow morning, Friday and they are going to Morocco, so presumably are going to ship the clinic lorry from there.  I truly hope they are not going to try and drive down to Sierra Leone. 

I’ve been out to lunch today and then went to Matalans.  I even bought Mark and Vivi a special ’son and daughter in law’ Christmas card as I thought they would be there, well Vivi will have it when she gets back.  Perhaps all the Christmas plans are changed, we shall be flexible and see what happens. 

I just hope they all come back safely and well.

I’ve put up the title as the photo.  I want to put some info on but I think I need Vivi to help me.

is cancelled at the moment.  The President of Guinea was shot on 3d Dec so it is all a big melting pot and the F.O. strongly advise not to go.

We’re so sorry for Mark, Viv and co. bu he’s looking at ohers options like shipping the lorry there.

Another lovely day here.

today, sunshine and a few clouds.  I wanted to give Holly a decent walk so we went straight across at Black Oak square and right down the road to the old caravan site corner.  I saw a man and dog turn up into the lane so we turned round smartish.

But as we came back along to the square, three people and a boxer dog were walking towards us.  I stopped and Holly got anxious, but I told her, there’s a dog coming behind and one in front.  I stopped and spoke to the people and Holly ran by the boxer.  I expected her to freak out and run home but she went twenty yards and waited whilst I spoke to them, so she had a lot of praise. 

A month ago she would have panicked and run.

Then we met a big lorry coming back up the hill so I backed back to the square and she stayed with me and waited whilst it past.

I got down past Pen Ffynnon when it came back down again, I had already seen cars coming up the hill so I stopped the lorry at the passing place, Holly was waiting in a gateway and we had two cars coming up so we all passed each other nicely and she was good.

Pity that afte her tea when the back door was closed that she wee’ed in the kitchen. 

We can’t win them all – yet.

Holly woke me up at 6.30, playing.  I left her some cardboard last night, thick stuff, quite a challenge. She also has her boot.  I dozed inermittently until 7.45 then got up, wondering what sort of mess there was.  It had actually gone quiet and I think she had gone back to her chair.

it was a pleasure to see no p’s and p’s and very little cardboard mess.  Small is always anxious to go out and Holly,  if it’s not raining just loves to run round and around.

I wanted to make my gluten free bread after breakfast.  I mixed it up, put it into greased tins and on to the Rayburn to rise.  As I was starting to make a cake mixture I realised I had forgotten to put the yeast into the bread mix.  So I scraped it allout, made up a yeast mix with warm water and sugar and left it to rise on the Rayburn.

I mixed it into the flour mix, it was softer than normal but the bread rose, and then baked and is nicer than  normal.  The mixture needs more water than the recipe says.

So what with all that by the time it came to Holly’s walk it was raining so I went to bed and had a sleep, I really needed it.

Small has been fighting and has a claw slash down one ear.  He stayed out one night, John heard cats fighting and called but he either couldn’t  or didn’t want to come in. He was waiting on the doorstep at 8.00 when I opened the door.  He looked a bit wan and sought into.  He had his breakfast and an Arnica in milk (for the limp) and went out again. 

He looks bigger, he has a thick coat like a guardsman’s bearskin. He has  put on muscle but is still not a big cat.

We thought with the darker mornings that Holly would sleep longer but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

It’s not much good to have the weather clearing up now now when it’s too dark to take Hollyout.

It’s not been the best day,  rain all morning. A mess from Holly partly because she didn’t go out last night.  She doesn’tlike it when it’s raining, John won’t force her. He thought he’d lost twolambs down the fields somewhere but they were in the bottom of the old vegetable garden.  My front bumper is scratched aftergetting stuck in a gutter down the road last night.  It could have been a lot worse. 

Raquel has told me how to resize photos so that I can do my party email invites .  I can’t get a decent photo of the book, using the flash indoors causes reflections. John says to wait for a sunny day. ha ha !!!