The Journey: Finally!

We have been hearing tales that Sofie makes regular trips
to our neighbour for a drink of fresh milk

Finally! Finally I got an article finished for submission to an academic journal this week. It only required minor changes from its first submission, so it should be fine. It still took nearly six weeks to get it done, but that was partly due to end of term hassles for my co-author, then Christmas and then health issues at both ends. Still we got there in the end and my head has finally cleared from the bug I picked up, so I felt I could actually put more than two coherent sentences together. Only another three or four more papers to go and a thesis.

Finally some sunshine, but poor Freddie has been feeling
the cold

Aggie looks like she needs a good strong coffee on
this rather bright day. Ian has been testing poo samples
all week and Aggie's is clear of anything. After last year's
performance with her health that is a relief

Finally Ian is also improving. He not only drives himself out to the land, but he has started getting some work done like cutting down trees. Winter time, when we don't have a lot of snow that is, is the ideal time to get some forest clearing done and at the moment we only have a dusting. He did manage to whack himself on the chin though with a branch that hit a hazel tree and bounced. Hazel is renowned for its bending properties and why it is used in basket making. Not that we have the right kind of branches for basket-making yet, but Ian is working on having coppice hazel in the future and then maybe we can.

Unfortunately we can't say the same for Chanel. There seems
to be parasites of some description but he is still trying to
work out what. She looks like she may be a candidate for
treatment. Apparently it is better to just treat the ones with
the parasites and not all animals routinely. This helps to
reduce resistance and one of the reasons for doing our own
testing. Unfortunately the camera that Ian bought to take
photos of what he sees down the microscope also seems to have
stopped working.

George looking very fluffy

Although Ian is much better than he was, he still gets tired, but as I said, he isn't superman with superhuman recovery powers. He was shocked! Well in an understated way. It is hard when you spend your life outdoors to be confined. I haven't been out that much this week due to the writing project and the fact it has been so cold. It has felt rather mild for this time of the year until this week when most of the time it has been below freezing. In fact Ian recorded it at -9.5C when he was working in the forest. I noticed the forecast is for more this week - just in time for it to be our snow clearing duties for our apartment. Typical! I would like to go out to the land more but due to the time it takes to warm up the caravan to a temperature where I could type, it isn't really worth it. There is just not that much for me to do out there and plenty for me to do at the apartment. With Ian's appetite returning there will probably be more baking required to keep him fed in these temperatures for a start.

Mr. Tellus looking very elegant in the winter sunshine

Not looking quite so elegant here

It is lovely to see Herkules covered in fleece again. It is
definitely growing back better this year

After I had finished my article and was just waiting for the final proofread I decided I had better head up to the other apartment and get some heating on. We didn't want any frozen pipes. It was also a chance to get some sorting out and tidying done. Nothing had been done on it since I sorted out the shelving before Christmas and there were still boxes everywhere and bits and pieces to pick up off the floor. It was nice just to work on making the place look presentable again, in case either we or guests were to end up stopping there. It is also one more step closer to getting it ready for when we move there permanently.

Mr. P nibbling on the alpaca house

Mr. B, however, can reach much higher up the alpaca
house than Mr.P. This really shows how big he has grown

A little pair of Santa's boots. When I went for my haircut
before Christmas there was a little pair of red and white
boots that the hairdresser had felted. The white was
from our very own Mr. B. I couldn't resist adding a few
embellishments. The original is below

I forgot to mention last week that we had a late visit from Santa. A friend of ours quite often visits on Christmas Eve but of course we were in the UK this year. We don't hear from him for ages because he works away and then he turns up bearing gifts. Well he persevered and eventually he saw lights on and assumed we were back. He bought bottle of wine and a box of Lindt chocolates in a fuzzy box - you know the stuff if you ever played with fuzzy felt (now doesn't that date me or do they still have that in schools?), which seems rather posh for chocolates. They are rather nice though. The bottle of wine will have to wait to be tested.