Animal magic...

2 girls in love with Ottie

It all started with a dog. 

We had friends (David and Lesley) come to stay with their daughter Alicia and their dog Ottie. The girls loved Ottie, (the rest of them too), but they really loved Ottie. They fed Ottie, followed Ottie and petted Ottie. Poor thing didn't get a moments peace. And when she did, Niomi would pipe up "Wed Ottie?" And off they'd go again.

And then it was the cat's turn.

We visited the in-laws in North Berwick to see their new kittens Bubble and Squeak. The same thing happened and the girls loved them both (clearly not fussy as they just made me sneeze). They fed them, followed them and petted them. Poor things. And guess what? If one escaped then Niomi would chirp up "Wed udder one". And she'd track it down. The hunter became the hunted.

But then the animals came thick and fast. My parents arrived and so did the Easter Bunny and chocolates all round. We did trips out to country parks, lunches by lochs and spring begun in the garden. A tiger appeared, and then a dragon. A pair of goldfinches were spotted, before monkeys, kokkaburras and wallabies in a nearby mini-zoo. And finally a unicorn appeared, and then all the animals you can think of courtesy of good old Julia Donaldson. It's sure been a few weeks of animal magic.

 Easter bunny and chick

 A first time tiger

 And then a dragon

 Old and young still doing fine

 Resident goldfinches in the garden

A (very) short unicorn story by Emily

Videoclip: The Julia Donaldson collection by Niomi

It's no(w) joke...

And then it snowed.

And then it snowed a bit more. And a bit more...And yes, a bit more still. There was an awful lot of it.

Under snow

Coming home from work on the 27th February, the first few flakes were in the air, but really - I had no idea just quite what was in store. I woke on 28th to find a good few inches but nothing worse than we'd had all winter. 2 hours crawling on a bus later, I began to think things might just get serious.

And so as the weather warning turned RED, I escaped Glasgow by train this time and walked through the beginnings of a blizzard for half an hour to get home. Quick thinking was needed and I made a bid for the supermarket - lucky I did as it was shutting in 5 mins (at 3pm), not to be opened again for a few days - and returned home with provisions to see us through the next few days.

And they were some few days. The Beast from the East raged. I couldn't get into work - first time ever defeated by weather. Trains, buses, cars just weren't going anywhere - everyone was on foot. And planes weren't going anywhere either - and so our trip down South got cancelled.

But we made the best of it. A bit of sledging was had, a snowman built, and a very valiant effort to the shops was made, only to discover some sort of post-apocalyptic panic buying going on. The world went mad. The kids tried their best but it was just a bit too deep for Niomi and despite her love of the outdoors she spent a lot of time indoors. Emily fared a bit better but even she got bored of the snow by the end of it all. Cabin fever set in but we Paw Patrolled our way through it.

Anyway - its definitely one to go down in history. Beast from the East, March 2018 - we were there.

14 inches of the white stuff

A girl still needs her sleep

 Enjoying before it got waist deep

 Our road as I've never seen it before

 Adventuring on the 'road' by foot and sledge

 Snow everywhere

Snowman

Winter Wonderland - in Spring