Bracing!

So there I was sitting there mucking about on the computer and looking at the snoring dogs mindful that they needed to be exercised as did I. I had no excuse lovely bright sunny afternoon, dry , bit blowy but nothing we could not handle.

So after 10 then 1..2..3..4.. up I get, change into the muddy clothes from yesterday it will be muddy, lots of rain overnight.Dogs collared up , bum bag with essential supplies - biscuits and the like and into the car just as it starts to rain, just a few spots. Despite having no waterproof thought all would be well, I may be sweet but I'm not made of sugar at least I will be warm enough, well fleeced and hatted.

After the short drive got out the car just as the rain started to pick up, dogs released as usual bolting out of the boot as if the artificial rabbit from the dog track was spending his afternoon off just up the path,

"there it is"
you can imagine them sensing to each other.






It's Mine!







So off we toddle rain in one's face , wind picking up convincing yourself that it will be fine once we get into the cover off the trees. This thought being followed by the memory of yesterdays weather forecast "winds of 50, 60, 70 mph tomorrow hitting the western part of the country". Although not living in the west being quite rural there is nothing between us and the west so the wind just zooms across the country our only defence being the trees and they do suffer, an example here from the start of the week .







Wind 1 Tree 0














So we walked on the dogs roaming around as usual probably too small to be much of a target for the wind however I was not. Pursed lips or was that a stiff upper lip to the fore?


on we stomped the mud quite thick and glutinous and as you would expect slippery however under the cover of the trees the worst of the elements were hidden from us. As darkness fell we walked back out of the shelter of the forest to be met by the now fairly rattled weather, wind blowing just as the weather man had said. I spotted a bird leaving the safety of the tree tops trying to get , well I don't know where as it was a case of one flap forward three right and backwards!

By now the rain was driving across the open fields before hitting me in the face. A feeling akin to projectile barley zooming across the classroom all those years before having just left a fellow pupils improvised "bic biro" casing without the plastic ink tube or indeed the plastic cap end - a great wee barley shooter, the pain not dissimilar today.

The dogs were by now not so bold with their inquisitive wanderlust dampened or indeed blown out of them and wary of straying too far from me just as well really if they had decided to head off after some smell or other that would have been a real pain with failing light and the weather closing in. A few shouts brought them to heel. Shouts being the operative word as any sort of half hearted call was lost to the wind.

The trees were starting to take a battering and the wind noise as it sped through the trees was almost entrancing as one was belittled by the elements. A few trees had started too look shakey





















Soon we were safe in the car, soaked and buffeted by the wind. The dogs looking as if they had just been to the local baths for a swim but it was all good clean fun. Bracing even.

Ice with that?

So another year dawns, glasses filled and raised and toasts made

"Happy New Year"

Some drinks work best with ice and some without. Numerous companies make ice an integral part of the marketing of their product with slogans such as cold filtered or ice chilled - you will have seen the type of thing.
Magners cider and their campaign to have their product served over ice is regarded by some as having been the catalyst in reviving the cider market.

As a quaffer of cider from Scotland I never heard of such nonsense until I traveled to London in the first week of my new employment in August 2005. Attending a team social event I was asked by the bar keeper if I wanted ice with my cider something he had to repeat several times before I appreciated what he was asking, such was the lack of cultural understanding of this concept. Ultimately I said no, a response the bar keeper actually gave positive affirmation to, he also being from the outposts of the empire where such a thing was met with disdain, cider over ice - pah!

However some need no drink as an excuse to have ice, crunching the cubes as they are "au naturale". Such is Mishbosh's approach to ice, regarding ice as he does, as a treat much to the disdain of his canine colleauge Bormish who gladly turns his nose up to offered ice even on the hottest of days. Not our Mishbosh though, in there at the merest sniff of ice or crack of the ice cube tray.

This can be a bit of a worry though, however it's not as if he jumps up on customers exiting from fast food restaurants demanding the ice from their small, medium, large or X-large drinks fizzy pop containers. No being a country dog he takes his ice in a more traditional fashion. Sitting by the side of the frozen water eyeing the ice, calculating how he can digest so much frozen stuff.

Then he's in delicately...well alright he's in selecting the ice with the same amount of grace as a 30 kilo brick.

















Its not thin stuff it's real dog size portions

















Of course our ice bon viveur does not stop there as he seeks out the best cuts, the more selective and by their nature more difficult to obtain. Driven on by his love of ice.











Off he heads onto the ice!.....what! yes the ice, a good 6 to 7 metres out by the time realisation has set in. One's mind forcibly being brought to bear by the creaking, protesting ice. Of course if he goes through I'll probably end up cold and wet if he cannot get out.






In the end though the one thing better than ice is a biscuit and when this is on offer the ice practically melts as a result of the speed he will travel getting back to the shore.