I’m not sure if they were disturbed by the sound of hooves drumming on the roof, but Beanie & Biggles got out of their crates and snuggled into bed with us at about 5 am this morning. They managed to contain their excitement until about 6.30 am before hauling us out of bed to let them out into the garden. We couldn’t believe it when we got out there – patches of brilliant blue sky, sunshine, golden clouds and large flakes of snow drifting down.

What a great start to christmas! Beanie and Biggles celebrated as only they know how:

A chase around the garden

Some tail biting

A punch up

And a quiet sniff

After breakfast we set off for our morning walk on the beach. It was beautiful – it’s such a shame we didn’t have the camera with us. The sky and sea were blue and clear and the sun was shining. It almost looked like a warm summers day if you ignored the snow frosting on the sand and the snow covered peaks of Aran towering out of the sea like a huge iceberg. There were a few dog walkers on the beach but it’s so vast that they were just little dots on the horizon. Silence apart from the sound of the waves lapping onto the beach…and Beanie and Biggles ‘aarrff, aaaarff, aaarrrfffing’ of course!

Just as we got back to the car and were about to drive off another Beagle arrived. Her owner shouted over “Is that Beanie and Biggles by any chance?”. It was  Bundy and her owners who’d recently written to Beanie and Biggles via their blog to welcome them to Ayrshire. Bundy lives just a few miles away from us and goes to the beach regularly – they got along very well so hopefully they’ll turn out to be great buddies. It turned out Beanie and Bundy are related. Bundy’s dad is Newlin Sailor and Beanie’s mum is Newlin Kelsey – both share an ancestor in Newlin Nonesense (very fitting!). Although I have to say that Paul and I think Bundy is actually a Collie in a Beagle suit – she’s FAR too good to be a Beagle. Here’s hoping that some of it rubs off on our two!

Next it was back home for Christmas presents. We had two fantastic presents on order for Beanie and Biggles but sadly neither turned up. We were let down over the first, a superb play kennel, but happily ‘Uncle Fergus’ (our Neighbours Nephew who built our Beagle proof back fence) is going to custom build one for us.  The second, a portable lure coursing set which we were importing from America  has been sitting in customs for a week! We didn’t have time to get anything else at the last minute so I improvised by popping a few tasty treats in cardboard boxes, wrapping them and then putting all the little boxes in a big box along with a handful of treats. Two Beagles have never had a better present – it took them about 20 minutes but they destroyed it completely and loved every minute.

We wound up the day with Christmas Dinner and chews:

And then slept it off on the sofa (Beanie decided she didn’t approve of the plan to keep her off the new cream leather sofa):