Well the snow returned of course, and though we only got a light fall (barely one inch) it has been blummin’ cold. Our milk has been arriving already opened by the frost:

and yesterday I had to use the scraper on the INSIDE of the car’s windscreen as well as the outside. That’s pretty cold! At least the arctic weather has given us some very picturesque views on local walks:

Another benefit of the cold is that everything becomes twice as sniffy, and it’s much more fun to have to dig through the snow to find all the hidden poosicles!

It’s so sniffy, Beanie doesn’t even feel the cold on her exposed botty!

After walks we’ve seen some very excited play in the garden. There’s been chasing…

Hide and seek:

Wrestling..

Ear pulling…

Humping and kung fu:

You have nibbled my ears and offended a Shaolin Temple!

And, for the first time, there’s also been a bit of pole dancing:

It’s just as well the neighbor’s windows have been closed, because all this play has been rather noisy!

Our regular “parkrun” in Glasgow celebrated its 100th run and second anniversary this weekend, and was expected to have a really high turnout – not the most ideal conditions for running with dogs. We went along anyway – not to take part, but so that I could get some photos of the run and the two Bs could get a walk in one of their favorite old parks. As it turned out, a particularly heavy fall of the white stuff cut the number of participants down to below even the normal weekly level..

The run begins..

And the leaders head off on the first of three one-mile laps round a huge snow-covered field

As the tail of the pack went past me, I noticed three familiar figures tagging on at the end..

Despite being dressed more for an arctic expedition than a run, one of the marshals and two eager little Beagles had managed to talk Susan into joining the run. She only did one lap as heavy duty walking boots aren’t the best footwear for a 5K, but it was still appreciated by Beanie and Biggles; they got the rare chance to run as a single team rather than separately. And they loved it!

As we headed back home we planned to celebrate an anniversary of our own. It was exactly one year ago that we moved house and began our new life in Ayrshire – something worth marking with some Christmas cheer, and all the more fitting given all the snow on the ground. However when we got home, the snow had all but gone. Our area had only received a light dusting at best, and a short burst of above freezing temperatures had dispatched the last of it.

Still, the lack of snow didn’t get in the way of our decorations. The presence of our Beagles did get in the way of course – repeatedly – even though they both insisted that they were there to help.

Beanie’s chewing the tree, and Biggles has already been exiled for doing the same

Baubles! I can definitely help with them Mum!

Biggles seems hurt that we don’t want his “help”

And Beanie’s gone off to the other side of the room in a huff!

The sad life of the unappreciated Beagle

Our trees eventually went up..

..but I’m doubtful about how long they’ll stay up. This one in particular could be taking a fall before long:

The red “tablecloth” round that tree looks so tempting…

When it does, Biggles will be the chief suspect. The reason is that Biggles fancies himself as a magician. On several occasions he’s successfully made freshly baked peanut butter cookies disappear, and has even magicked away a loaf of bread. Now, he’s trying to master the tablecloth trick. His version of this entertaining classic comes with a twist though; where run-of-the-mill magicians merely withdraw the tablecloth leaving everything else intact, Biggles prefers to dump everything on the floor then chew as much of it as possible, aided by his glamorous assistant Beanie.

Click here to see the full set of shots I took at the 100th Glasgow parkrun.

We’ve always let our pups out of their crates and into our bed for a few minutes of snuggles before we get up, and they love it, but now it’s getting really cold they’re particularly eager to get under the covers with us on a morning. While they appreciate us sharing our bed with them, they’re not quite so generous; we often end up getting pushed out of bed as they stretch out. Clearly the bed’s not big enough for four of us, but sometimes it’s not even big enough for two of us, and a squabble breaks out..

It seems peaceful enough at first..

Then our two bedroom gladiators lock eyes..

And suddenly the fight is on!

It’s a no holds-barred punch up and it brings out a side of our little boy that others rarely see

The transformation begins…

and the normally mild mannered Dr. Biggles becomes..

Mr Hyde!

In addition to chewing each other, our pups also like to chew rawhide, paddywhack, pigs ears and tripe sticks. In a bid to save a bit of money I ordered up a big 5Kg box of paddywhack rather than getting the small, overpriced packets in the supermarket. It came just a couple of days ago and I’m happy to say it looks like a good deal, but there is a slight problem; unlike the stuff in the supermarket packs, this paddywhack hasn’t been cut into small chunks. I’d never tried cutting paddywhack until now, and the stuff is like iron!

Scissors? Forget it!

Garden shears? Not a chance!

I ended up breaking out the power tools. Really. I spent a good fifteen minutes stood out in the freezing cold cutting up the foot-long strips of tendon and ligament with my jigsaw. By the time I’d finished the blade was nearly blunt – and this is the stuff we give to our doggies for a recreational chewing session! It  shows just how powerful our Beagles’s chewing gear is – if I tried to crunch down on this stuff I’d be spitting out broken teeth for sure.