Snow dusting.

Whilst the rest of the UK has been having a fairly decent amount of snow (decent by our standards. My Americans, don't laugh!), here in the West Midlands we have had hardly anything!! I'm really not happy. All we've had are the abnormally freezing cold temperatures and a cold house. Yay.

This morning we did wake up to a light dusting of snow (still not too happy with that). I took the pup for a walk at the canal. It was really beautiful, with the water frozen over, and the canal boats seemingly trapped in the ice.

Here are some pics.

Ducks on the frozen water

Skye

Locks

Frozen water

Photography.

Was fooling around with a photography site builder thingy.

This is what I came up with:

www.wix.com/amytrollope/simplicityphotography

German Market, coffee and cold

Spent the evening walking around the German Market and other shops with mon and brother. Had some good food and a hot drink. Very enjoyable indeed! Everywhere is starting to feel christmasy.

Maybe...

...I should become a snowboard instructor. Just a thought.

Trees, chainsaws, and firemen....

Last night we looked out of the window to see a police car and a fire engine in the road right outside our house. The police and firemen are walking all over the place.

A policewoman starts walking up our drive, so we ask is everything ok?

Turns out a pretty big tree has fallen across the road (oh, did I mention that there are gale force winds racing around?).

My puppy and I sat for ages watching the activity through the window (disappointed to say that we couldn't see much!). She was so funny, woofing and 'talking' in protest of the firemen walking around, the fire engine, and the blue flashing lights.

Just before midnight, we lost power. Great.

Went to bed and woke up at 3am to the sound of the fire engine driving away.

Woke up again at 4am, and noticed that there were still flashing blue lights. The firemen were still outside trying to defeat the mighty tree! Went to bed to the sweet sound of chainsaws, and then woke again to hear the firemen driving off just after 4.

In the morning (still no power!), mom and I went and looked at the (remainder of) tree. It was BIG. And there were branches everywhere. And red and white Fire and Rescue tape fluttering from trees where it had been tied to section off the road. Then the 'wood people' came along and shredded all the unwanted branches.

I must say, the firemen stayed until after 4am to clear our road, but you don't see the electricity people around trying to get our power back (then found out later from the guys who came to fix our power at the end of the day, that they had been working since 5am because the winds had caused so much destruction!)

Very interesting night and day! Most excitement that we've seen around this village in a long time! I did enjoy it all though. It was very cool.

This whole thing has really made me appreciate firemen a whole lot more! Most of the time we associate firemen with putting out fires or cutting people out of cars, not jobs like this. Jobs that last until 4am in the morning, in blustery conditions, whilst trying to remove a fallen tree.

While we all slept, they worked to make our road safe. In the morning there were many people who didn't know what had gone on.

I really appreciate what they did while I was in my warm bed. So thank you!!

Starbucks and Apple....

....go hand in hand. Oh, and with some good music on the side. Sitting in Starbucks with a mocha waiting to start work. Feeling cosy and christmasy.

First pheasant day, as told by Skye

Today was the first pheasant day.

I was very excited because mom took with me with her again! It was fun to spend the day with her. She was very proud of me because I wasn't that scared of the other dogs, and I didn't run away from them.

It was very exciting going new places, and sniffing all the new smells. I didn't really like being on the lead, and loved it when she let me off so I could run.

On one of the drives we went through game cover, which was really just a tangle of beans (which mom got in her wellies! I thought it was funny), and it was really hard to get through. So because mom was already walking through it in front of me, I just decided to follow in her footsteps and follow the path she was making.

She told me that she didn't think that's what a gun dog was meant to do, but that she thought I was very smart anyway. I think she was secretly impressed with my cleverness (and to be honest, I think she thought it was cute!)

I'm starting to get the hang of this now, the whole thing about flushing the birds out. It's all so very exciting! And I love watching the birds flying!

On one of the drives, a lot of birds got up right in front of me, but mom wouldn't let me chase them :-( I was a good girl though and listened to the whistle and didn't go running after them. Tony (who has the pointers) told me that if it hadn't been for me, a lot of those birds wouldn't have got up and flown! Everyone kept telling me what a good girl I was and how well behaved I was (even the keeper said I was very good!) I think mom was very proud!

One of the drives went through the woods. I wasn't too keen on the briars in the beginning, but I was a brave girl and tackled the briars just like a good little Spaniel should. I did try and follow mom on this one as well, it made it easier! It was fun though going through the woods with mom.

It was a very exciting day, yet also tiring, and I curled up on the backseat of the car and went to sleep on the way home. I heard mom say something about the final number being 148 birds, which apparently is good. One of the last things I remember is Tony telling me that by the end of the season I was going to be a good little beating dog :-)

So there's this place....

....called Mexico. And I miss it so much. So many people who touched my life, and I just wanna see them again!!

2 down

Been turned down by 2 unis. Don't know why, wish I did. 2 more choices left. God, I'm glad you know what you're doing, because I sure don't!!

Abraham :: obedient and faithful

Read Genesis 22 this morning - the story of when God tells Abraham to take his only son (and note how God says 'the son you love') and sacrifice him. The thing that struck me was that Abraham was so obedient and had so much faith in God that he just did it. God only had to give this command once!! How many of us, had we been told to do that, would've gone 'are you sure God? I mean, is this really necessary?!' I know u would've done that! But Abraham gets told once, and he does it. Now that is a challenge!!