Daisies, River Forks Park, Roseburg, Oregon 2011

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Birthdays

Today is Ozzy's 7th birthday...Woo hoo...!!  How he got to be so old when I haven't aged a bit is beyond me.  (Don't I wish...sigh).  He still looks like a kid, and I look like...well...not a kid.  Ah well.

And speaking of older...tomorrow is Alan's birthday, a birth date he shares with our neighbor and friend, Morag.  So, if you've been following this blog, you know that I bake a cake and cut it in half so Alan gets his half and Morag gets the other half.  Works for me.

I thought I would share some photos of Oz, though I don't have his first two years.  In his first year he was a show dog and lived with other people.  Two days before his first birthday, he came to live with us and start a normal dog's life.  I didn't have the digital camera then, so all the photos are in a box in storage. I don't think he's changed much, even considering he only weighed 4 lbs on his first birthday.  Now, in his manly years, he's a perfect hunk at about 8 lbs.


4 years ago I went to the States for 6 months or so, and of course, took Oz with me.  About a month before we came back to Scotland, I got him this very cool traveling crate, that he actually loved to hang out in.  I left it open so he could wander in and out, which made it ever so much easier when it was time to fly away as he was so comfortable in it.  He looks so little in this photo.  He was three.

He loves his birthday presents...and Christmas presents...in fact, any presents in the house he considers are his.  He is the Prince, you know.
Ozzy with his monkey bear.  We bought him this little squeak toy that I thought was a bear and Alan thought was a monkey.  It became the monkey bear.  He still loves it.
Good grief.  Could he be more handsome..??  No wonder he thinks he's the Prince.

Every bed, couch and chair belong to Ozzy.  Good thing he's so small, huh?
So. Happy Birthday, my adorable, sweet, drive-me-nuts-when-you-freak-out-at-the-postman, darling boy! And just to prove it's not all about Ozzy: Happy Birthday to Alan and Morag, too..!!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Amazing photo

This photo was taken last week (and obviously not by me).  Doesn't this look like a scene straight out of the movie, "Day After Tomorrow"...??  It's beautiful, but also scary, to see the whole of Great Britain totally covered in snow and ice.



Saturday, January 9, 2010

Day 24...and counting

And the snow just keeps coming. Who would believe this kind of Winter in Edinburgh? 

Alan (unfortunately) is like the Voice of the BBC with his hourly reports. Annoying to say the least. All through this week I've had to hear that this is the worst cold/snow spell since 1981. Now, because the frigging temperatures have been in the low teens with snow every day for what seems most of my life, this morning the update is:  Worst Snow Since 1963

Sadly (for me), if the snowstorm we are having right this minute is any indication, tomorrow I will have to listen to: Worst Winter Weather in 50 Years..!! I swear--and I do every time I have to listen to the next Alan Weather Report--if I wanted to return to the Mother Ship (Alaska) of Arctic weather, I would be living there, not here..!!

The snow is falling thick and fast, though doesn't look like it in the photo.  You'll have to trust me on this one.



The hazy look in this picture out the kitchen door is really falling snow.



Okay, this is more like it.  Though the photo looks over-exposed, it's not, it's the sheer volume of snow.


Oddly, it doesn't look like a lot of snow on the ground.  We've had several days of such bitter low temps that the snow is actually evaporating, rather than melting.  Only in Scotland, where weird weather takes on a whole new meaning.

Remember that old chesnut: "Don't say anything if you can't say something nice"..??  I think I'll finish this with the "something nice".

The book is now at 493 pages, 101,211 words.  Seriously.  

I lost the plot, big time, over the holidays, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get it back.  I had dropped the threads and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to weave the story back together.  I almost gave up.  Is there anything worse than trying to unravel a ball of yarn that is hopelessly tangled?  But, yet again, my main man and cheerleader, Mr Hourly Weather Reports, spurred me on.  Still, I struggled, and last week only wrote one day out of seven.  While I wasn't writing, I pondered, made notes, read a couple books, then yesterday I sat down and cranked out nearly 4,000 words and typed my way over the hurdle and into the impossible 100K range.

That's something really nice, isn't it?

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Thunder in the snow...Summer in a bottle

The snow just won't stop falling in Edinburgh this year.  In a way, it makes a real change from the usual weather of cold and rain, but it's been at or below freezing now for nearly three weeks and that part is getting to be a bit much.  Twice this week we've had thunderstorms with the snow, or maybe it's snowstorms with thunder??  I don't remember ever experiencing thunder while it's snowing so I'm not too sure what the actual meteorological term is.  Other than the standard scientific one: Crap.

So, it snows, then partially melts, then freezes...over and over, day after day.  Yesterday, after struggling to walk Oz on his afternoon trek, in treacherous icy conditions, my mind drifted back to Italy, the Summer heat, the beautiful aqua waters of the Med, the Limoncello, the pizza, the coffee...sigh...

In light of my drifting, Alan and I drank a bottle of Prosecco last night, and toasted the sunny climes of southern Italy.  Or, maybe I should say we got toasted.  Whatever.  It was a deliciously good bottle, filled with memories and sunshine and a really nice buzz.  Since we didn't overindulge on New Year's Eve, we felt totally justified in celebrating last night instead.  It was fun, and as soon as we can dig out the popsicle car, we will be rushing off to the store for more.

Until then...here are some photos to remind us all that eventually Summer comes...

Photo taken from our hotel balcony of the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius looming in the heat haze.  Heat haze...isn't that a concept almost too nebulous to fathom in the Winter??



View from the Art College in Sorrento, looking back to our hotel in Sant Agnello (far in the distance on the jutting headland) and the mountains.  If you keep going, through the winding, white-knuckled mountain pass, you will arrive in Naples in about an hour, give or take the traffic and the scooter maniacs.



Sun sets on the Bay.  Photo taken from our balcony as we sat sipping Limoncello and planning where to go for dinner.



Okay, I can't take anymore, so will stop with just these few photos.  If I close my eyes I can smell the Umbrella pines, and the Olive trees, the hot Summer air mixed with hints of orange and lemon.

I think it's time for the first batch of chocolate chip cookies of the new year...maybe I can bribe Alan so he'll scrape the ice off the car and go get more Prosecco...