Life...

Hardly had time to breathe today, and certainly won't get any work done. First of all took Tim to the field at 9am where he had a great gallop around at full speed. Then dh and I left Tim at home and went to the Metrocentre and spent an hour on a little retail therapy. We don't do it often, so it's fun when we do.

Chopwell Woods yesterday

Then back home in time for lunch, fending off an ecstatic dog who was so pleased to see us he nearly didn't eat his biscuits. Once lunch was over, I got into my dog-walking gear - well might you ask - green wellies, Goretex jacket (I worked out the other day it is at least eighteen years old and still giving great service) woolly ski hat, thermal gloves, and then collected all the things I need - dog lead, poo bags, a few dog biscuits, a hanky, car keys. Then off we went three miles down the road to a lovely area at Stocksfield. It belongs to Lord Allendale, but he allows public access and dog walkers love it. It wasn't cold, and I take it as challenge to walk where there is no mud, and as you can imagine, with all the rain we've had, that is quite a challenge. Tim was in one of his I Don't Care moods and scampered through all the mud he could find  instead of keeping to the pine needles and leaves and dry bits. That meant that when we got home and hour and a half later, he had to suffer having his paws washed in a bucket. Still, he was nothing like as bad as he was when we got back from Chopwell yesterday! See picture!

Tim changed colour due to mud

Then it was time to make some chocolate brownies for tonight. Dh will make bruschetta with his homemade sourdough bread, too. Friends are coming for drinks, arriving about 8pm. Once the brownies were in the oven, it was a chance to sit down and watch the men's figure skating at Sochi. such a pity Evgenie Plushenko has had to withdraw through injury. I was looking forward to seeing him skate, but now there is a new wonder child from Japan - Hanyu, I think his name is. A quick supper of pizza and chips (we're lazy with our fresh food programme sometimes!) and once the skating is done I'll run upstairs and have a shower etc in time for our guests arriving. Phew! A glass or two of wine will be most welcome by then.

Goodbye Christmas, hello New Year

Christmas is over for another year, and we can all calm down and gather our strength for New Year. Our guests are leaving today, jetting off to Zermatt for some skiing, so the house will soon be calm and quiet again and I'll have to get to grips with catching up on household tasks. One thing we won't have to do is go shopping. It seems we overshopped by a mile and seriously over estimated how much we would eat. OTOH, we have drunk all the alcoholic supplies - surprise, surprise!

Thanks to the good weather, which has been so mild that honeysuckle is budding and gorse is flowering in sheltered spots, we've indulged in some bracing walks - Stocksfield woods,  Chopwell woods, the beach at Seaton Sluice, and our regular good old riverside walks. Our guests travelled as far afield as the creamery at Hawes in search of real Wensleydale cheese. Evidently they can't get it in Australia. Nor can they take any back as the regulations on food importation are very strict and quite rightly so. The UK has suffered from the import of so many species like the grey squirrel, mink and a particular kind of crayfish to name but three. Travellers brought back all sorts of things from abroad, and some were good like the glorious rhododendron  but then we suffer with Himalayan Balsalm crowding our hedgerows and riverbanks.

Very little writing or critiquing was done by moi in the last week, so I'll have to get back into the grind again. Not that it is a grind, really. I wouldn't do it if it were something I hated. Sometimes getting the words down or deciding which way to go next in the story is difficult, but I let it simmer about on the back burner for a while and it usually becomes clear which way I want to go, and the words start to flow.  I'm really behind with critiques for my writing colleagues, so perhaps that is what I shall start with this afternoon.

I haven't even seen Death comes to Pemberley yet!