Hang on – is it really only a month today since Christmas? That can’t be true – so, so much has happened and changed in just four weeks. We’ve had snow, floods, some blue skies, real cold and a few properly windy days. Isobel has butchered the roses (we’ll all thank her for it later in the year) and mulched them all; she and I have slashed three wisterias to within an inch of their respective lives, and the nights are full of the mooing of cows in the barns delivering the next generation. Lambs abound but don’t yet bound – it’s a bit chilly for jollity – and the snowdrops are out wherever you look. And the biggest, BIGGEST change is …. Sizzles! The new L&F pooch and Isobel’s utter delight (but she’s fickle: she’s currently sitting on my right foot, as I type). She’s an eight week old miniature wirehaired Dachshund, and the most appalling waste of time. It’s too easy to sit and marvel at her tininess and cuteness and then to realise that an hour has gone by – hard to begrudge, when she brings joy and hilarity in such disproportionally huge helpings. Callie the lurcher is patient beyond words and puts up with having her tail chewed – pretty heroic for a dog wired to see something so small and mobile as a snack … New year: new life. It feels good.
