And to end the year..

.. Hester watching a dripping tap. This is one of her Favourite Things!

fine dining

A meal out with some of the inlaws.

Our table was near the 'hatch' where the food appeared and just behind there were the pizza ovens. I liked the effect of the green light on the coving above the hatch but only took a really quick picture for fear of unnerving the pizza guys.

tinkering time

From the confusion that is our garage.

in the bleak midwinter

Actually not really so bleak - thaw! It feels positively tropical!

It's still winter on my cake though!

The great outdoors

We took the kids to the country park to get some air and run around. Unfortunately although the snow was thawing the paths were still pretty icy so there wasn't much running to be done.

And obviously the playpark was not entirely in an ideal condition. but we had fun, despite some minor whinging.

Magical

Look at my little cherubs!

And once they'd gone to bed the cat settled down to watch Dr Who (recorded from earlier).

Excuse the detritus of a lovely Christmas Day :-).

freesia'n

Even the flowers look cold.

yaaaaay!

chillin'

Sirius (Black)

Miss Mouse and I spent a lovely few hours at my friend's house meeting her new cat, Sirius.

twinkly

MrBorg sorting the outside Christmas lights. In the dark and cold - there's dedication to his family for you.

here we go again

Mr Borg has been grocery shopping for an impending zombie apocalypse. We will mostly be repelling them with pickled beetroot and crisps. Fortunately we also have a second line of defence:

Make yourself comfortable why don't you

This is really testament to the underlying strength of our Christmas tree (bought from Argos last year - mixed reviews on the website, I may have to add one stating 'withstands sturdy cat'). Branches may come out as they're the slot in type but the tree hasn't fallen over or collapsed under the cat yet. I'm impressed.

UPDATE: I never learn do I? Half an hour after posting that Toby ran into the tree at warp speed and knocked the whole thing over. Took both cats another half hour to un-bottlebrush their tails!

shiny

Instant artiness

Just add frost!

A grand day out

It was the Christmas event at Kittochside and we were determined to get the kids out in the fresh air. This is my (much-photographed) Favourite Tree, on the way up to the farm. As you see, a bit of a thaw since the last blog-post!

And this is view from the stackyard.

There were still some patches of snow but it didn't seem to bother the sows.


Ah, I do like the piggies!

About to head back down the hill for a very late lunch.

Then we got home, put up the Christmas tree and somebody made a beeline for it!

Paperchain mountain

cold

And this is why I love my camera so much! You think you haven't got much, then you get the image onto the computer, start zooming in and there's all this detail you had no idea you had!

So obviously the snow was still here. The cats had fun - briefly.

I dragged the kids out for a walk and to build a snowman but the snow was too cold and wouldn't stick to itself so the snowman was a non-starter. The kids went back in to the warm and I stayed out for five minutes to take some pictures in peace!

Stick a robin on top and I'd have the perfect Christmas card..

Mr Borg getting home and having to dig his parking spot clear again. I think he was the only bit of colour for miles!


Evening beginning to happen and it all looks very peaceful.

clear

Hester on the back steps showing some reluctance to go out - I wasn't forcing her! She wanted to go out - it's just that her feet didn't agree with her brain on this issue..

It was a beautiful clear day though correspondingly chilly, so the cats only stayed out a few minutes. Toby thought about jumping down into the garden behind then saw the depth of snow and commonsense prevailed. Look at my washing-line - I never thought a whirlie could hold so much snow!

And this evening's I've-got-to-get-out-and-get-some-air-or-I'll-crack-up picture - it was lovely but really cold.

cool

It was actually snowing very heavily in this picture, and the next - hence the slightly blurry look - they are in focus, honestly!

Although it was actually raining lightly when we left the house in the morning, it quickly turned to snow and stayed like that all morning and half of the afternoon.

The residents of our street really got going with the shovels and salt once the snow eased a bit - no point up until then as it was so heavy.

Weird night-time picture!

Sunset

Lovely clear night.

chilled

Love the weird shapes in the snow.

Look at that sky!

Big icicles.

Little icicle.

Brrrr.