My last Skywatch photo of 2009.

The ancient Celtic Roundtower in Abernethy, Perthshire, Scotland, reaches up into the bright December sky from the snowy street.

There are plenty more sky photos, worldwide in this site.

...and

Happy New Year, to All,

wherever you are!

I remember previous "snows".

The top two rather bleary photographs were taken by the then cutting edge camera, the Instamatic. But all credit to the camera, I see from a scribbled note on the back of the photos they were taken at 4pm in February 1978 between Carrbridge and Inverness, so the light was fading pretty much by then and there was no flash.

We were living near Nethybridge, in the Highlands, at that time and awoke one morning to about 3 feet of snow. We and everyone else were marooned for 3 weeks with eventually bread and vital supplies being dropped by helicopter at the nearby village. No milk could be collected from the neighbouring dairy farm so they were "stockpiled" and so long as you could make your way there you could have as much as you liked---we did have to remember that it had to be carried the 2 miles home!

Snowploughs became stuck fast in the massive drifts which had formed when a high wind got up and the photos were taken when we finally were joined up to the rest of the world when a huge cutting and blowing machine cleared the A9, the main road to Inverness from the south. I think we just ventured out in the car because we could!

The bottom photo was taken sometime in the 1980s when we were living on a farm in the Lammermuir hills to the south east of Edinburgh. It was another snowy region and it was always windy there. Since the roads in the hills were a bit like Cornish lanes they very quickly filled in with snow and again this year we had to wait for the blowers to rescue us. The power lines ALWAYS came down but luckily we used log fires and although it took longer we managed to balance the pans in the small fireplace and food was cooked eventually. We also had a small battery powered TV so what else did we need?

Those were the days, but we are much older now and have to be a bit more careful when we venture out on to icy, snowy pavements and roads. We don't want to end up another statistic at Perth Royal Infirmary!

For more memories from other folk around the world look here.

My Wintry World.

Here in Scotland the weather is not USUALLY too hot, too cold, too wet nor too dry and for quite a few years now we haven't had much snow. I have not worn winter boots for years but over the past week winter has returned with a vengeance with temperatures dipping well below zero (degrees centigrade) and over a foot of snow. Just as well this is largely a holiday period as most cars in the village, whilst they may make it down the snowy, icy, as yet untreated hilly roads, none but the 4 wheeled drive vehicles can make it back home.

It does look lovely in the bright winter sun though.

To see more seasonal photos, some wintry and some not, look here.

More snow.

The back and front of the house and the streets leading to the centre of the village this morning.

Well, Christmas day may have been free of falling snow but we've had quite a lot since then. This morning after it stopped snowing there was about 15" level fall. Luckily there hasn't been a puff of wind otherwise things could have been a lot worse. As it is, the only things moving around the village are 4-wheeled drives....and we don't have one. The bus route through the north side of the village is clear as it has been kept well salted and gritted but it is the getting there that is the problem.

Chic and I have another problem............we have only one pair of wellies between us and they are a must for this amount of snow.

I had to clear a bit for the dogs, and the pups in particular, to get out the door but they soon trampled it down a bit. Charlie wasn't too keen on the balls of snow collecting on his coat.

The 2 pups, in the bottom photo are now tired after all their playing in the snow and are huddling against the radiator for a heat and a sleep!

A slightly more modern Nativity story!

A long time ago, in Kinross-shire in the land of the Scots, on Christmas day, a child was born to Jess and Tam....no, not in a stable but in a farmhouse, slap bang in the middle of the day while Jess was serving the midday meal to a gang of men (and a couple of hardy women) who were working on the travelling threshing mill which, as was his custom, Tam had booked to come to the farm on 25th December--no holidays then!- to thresh the grain from the sheaves in the cornstacks. The midwife was summoned and the men finished their meal and went back to work. The child wasn't actually born in the kitchen, but you know what I mean. It was a close thing!
There were no shepherds out in the fields (not a sheep area) or wise men/Kings who came visiting as this was wartime and fuel was rationed, as was nearly everything else, but there was an Italian prisoner of war, who lived with the couple, and he brought his handmade wooden gifts which were much enjoyed, but over the ensuing years, they disappeared. How they all wished, in later years, that they had looked after them better as they may well have been worth quite a bit of money today!

SEASON'S GREETINGS 2009

Charlie at his first show. The photo is by "photocallnortheast."

The snow in daylight.

The blanket of snow makes everywhere look just that little bit more picturesque...to make up for the inconvenience! Our village is pretty old with narrow streets built on a hill and so far we haven't seen a gritter. It wasn't so bad negotiating the downward route but coming up homeward was a trickier story, not helped by the parked cars at the narrowest part. We ventured out for some last minute shopping to Perth, only 6 miles away. I had managed to find my wellies which I haven't worn for at least 12 years and had to spring clean the dead insects and spider webs from the inside before donning them for the trip. I was a bit embarrassed to be seen wearing these, still embellished with "something" from our farm days when we found that Perth had very little snow.
Hard frost is forecast for tonight, with temperatures dropping to minus 16 degrees C...(might not be THAT cold here, but very frosty all the same)...so it's still looking good for a White Christmas.

At last--the snow came to Abernethy.

Snowfall.

The back garden after breakfast.


Outside the front of the house before daylight.

Anyone for coffee?

This was outside my back door at 6.30am this morning. There had been a good few inches of snow and of course the pups went daft in this lovely powdery stuff! Before they went out it was lovely and smooth!

There has been another couple of inches. Prior to this our particular part of the country had escaped most of the snow, although we did have a lot of frost and ice everywhere.

Will it last till 25th and give us our first White Christmas in years? Maybe..............but this is UK and anything can happen, weatherwise!

Ringcraft Christmas Match.---some photos.

This is a knock-out competition between all breeds, with several classes according to age.
The eventual Best in Match rosette was won by my own papillon, Mo. I didn't take a photo of him then.
The evening ended off with a buffet supplied by committee and members and the drawing of the raffle prizes.
We were lucky in that the really bad weather didn't start till the next day so although many people taking part came from a fairly wide area all made it home safely that night.

A great start to my diet!

The raffle table.

Setter versus Smooth Coat Chihuahua

The Pug starts his "triangle".

Corgis

Angus the Cavalier

Pippa, the Papillon

My Charlie, the Papillon.

Viszla

Basset Griffon Vendeen, Petit.

Shetland Sheepdog versus Cavalier

Cavalier

Smooth Coat Chihuahua

Brussels Griffon--Rough Coat

Irish Setter

Great Dane.

My Skywatch Photo.

Taken on a cold December afternoon with a band of freezing fog leaving only the top of the hill visible. This is near Abernethy, in south Perthshire, Scotland.

Go to the Skywatch Friday site to see many more skyscapes from all over the globe!

Tass' pups (2008) revisited.

This photo of Wee Geoffie, now renamed Pepe, fell out of a Christmas Card from his owner, Eunice. It's hard to imagine that he was only one and a half ounces when he was born.

..and this photo of George, his litter brother, but MUCH bigger at two ounces(!) at birth, came several weeks ago from Sandra, his new owner. Here he is relaxing on Sandra's husband, Bill.

Both "boys" seem to have inherited their mother, Tass', lovely eyes, (although George must have been looking directly at the flash!).

I love to be kept up to date with any dogs I've sold and enjoy seeing their photos. Both these dogs have lovely homes.

Although Geoffie is not a big dog, George grew to over eleven inches and it just goes to prove that birthweight has no bearing on final size. It's all to do with your particular "recipe".