Monday 31.12.2012

Walks, work, Christmas cards, more walks, more work, Christmas shopping, more walks, more work, Christmas trees,

Christmas lights, Christmas meal,Christmas walk:it all merges into one during the darkest fortnight of the year.

Some walks in air so damp the lichen on the trees seemed to expand and pulsate.

Christmas day, the son et lumiere of a late midwinter afternoon.

On Boxing Day we met an Ent.......

....and suddenly it`s the end of December and the skies put on a pyrotechnic display to bring the year to a close.

So Happy Hogmanay and onwards and upwards as the days draw out and we get more walking time!

Sunday 16.12.2012

Sneezy, coughy cold; shin splints(see previous post);a persistent pesky mouth ulcer; short days;long working hours; a succession of unfriendly weather days: combined they make you feel twice your actual age.
But then, hey presto, the aforementioned ailments clear up, the weather perks up and suddenly you feel half of it again.
Perfect winters day, the snow and ice only beginning to melt where the sun reaches, unmoving where it doesn`t.

Air so still, every sound echoed round the woods as if bouncing off each individual tree. Dogs delirious with the joy of being out again, racing in and out of the trees, disturbing every other living thing in the neighbourhood.

And everything freezing up again nicely by the time we were coming back down the hill.

And by the way, if you`re at all worried about the impending End of the World, might be worth catching up with Saturday`s post on Deadhorse to Ushuaia (link on the right)J & C`s rather brilliant blog, which will allay all fears.
Sleep well.

Friday 14.12.2012

Walked and walked and walked on Wednesday, up and down Aberdeen`s Union Street, hitting the charity shops and later to the Lemon Tree to see Frank Turner who as always was fun, furious and generally fantabidozy.
Worth the subsequent ear worms*(only now beginning to fade) and shin splints** (from too much walking on tarmac)but really too wet and cold even for the dogs to want to go out today so stayed in, wrapped up Christmas parcels..........

.....and hula-hooped.......got to get your exercise somewhere.


*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints

Sunday 02.12.2012

Day off on a bright and crisp and even Friday with a thin layer of the white stuff coating everything.
Made a slow start - and a Christmas cake - and didn`t get out there `til gone half two, the sparkle aready gone leaving the icy-blue light of a proper wintry late afternoon. Dozens of geese overhead - going in all directions - and very still air added to the deep midwinter feel of things though it was only the last day of November....

And then came more of the white stuff...and more...and now more due overnight.

Christmas pudding duly stirred with a few proxy wishes for absentees and left simmering as I came to work today, mincemeat nicely marinading and soon ready for putting in jars. That festive aroma of spices and brandy and .......more brandy.

Even the dogs didn`t seem to mind that we didn`t get a walk: they might even agree that the world, or this part of it, should now semi-hibernate in front of the fire until Twelfth Night.

(Oh, on second thoughts, not until after 12th Dec: http://www.boxofficeaberdeen.com/events/frank-turner)

White stuff permitting of course.