Winter has Arrived

Well, it was -3C on the dog walk this morning. Time to pack away all things autumn, winter is here!

Been a busy few weeks, November is always a busy month where I try and cram in all my Christmas making and coordinate with friends to fit in visits before the Christmas Chaos. And fit in all the fair weather walking, especially when the Christmas markets are in full swing.

Talking of Christmas markets, I met up with a friend and we had a dither around Newhailes. Whilst we only purchased hot drinks, its set off the Christmas vibes.

Just a short update this week, got a very busy run coming up.

Something "fabulous" you could say....

Getting ready for Spring

Either we are in the eye of the storm, or spring is starting to wake up and ease us into the year ahead. The temperature high this week has crept up from a balmy 7C to an almost tropical 10C!

Nicer weather, and the ground beginning to dry, means nice woodland walks! Missy is pleased to with the improvement too, bunnies and squirrels are peeking out thier winter hidey holes and she has enthusiastically greeted them.

Whilst she has been chasing small furry things, I've enjoyed all the late winter flowers as carpets of snowdrops have been popping up. I've also started to get the calendar filled up with dates for interesting events and our explorer to do list is getting pretty long.

Its still chilly in the evenings, so I've managed to get a good dent in my project to do list. I've got mother's day sorted for the MIL and I'm pretty certain she'll love it:

There are some bigger projects on the machine, which hopefully I'll share soon! Until then, we shall be enjoying the respite from winter. 

A wintry day

Well, we've had our first snowfall of the year and the nights are officially drawing in, so in my books, winter has arrived. Its not all gloom and doom, we have an action plan in place to try and help Missy get over her Christmas phobia and December is pretty much full up already with plans to see people and spend time with one another.

We managed a lovely winter walk up and around Cockleroy today. It was surprisingly busy around Beecraigs, but we had the hill to ourselves for the most part. The wind was bitter though! I thought I was going to get blown away and Missy just showed off and trotted around us happily. She loves the snow, all the scents sit fresh on top of it and, thankfully, we only lost sight of her the once. She came back to us a minute later looking mighty pleased with herself and out of breath, so she had fun!

In other news, our plecs have had babies again - slightly later than last year! We spotted the eggs straight away and got them into a nursery tank this time, so no need to try and stress out fishing tiny babies from the big tank. Its been tremendous fun watching them grow up from eggs, to larvae, to fry and now proper juvenile fish. We hadnt expected so many to survive, but out of the whole clutch we've only lost half a dozen, so out best estimate of 70-100 fish still stands. I already have a shop lined up to take them off us once they get a little bigger, so its all ok, although I am watching out in the main tank in case we get another cluster of eggs!

I'll leave you with the development photos of the babies and aim to be back soon - I've got some fun sewing projects on the go that I'm looking forward to sharing, and if all goes well, Missy is meeting someone special tomorrow!