I thought I’d better provide a quick update as we haven’t posted for a while.

We’ve had a fairly thick layer of snow on the ground since well before Christmas. I think it’s only snowed twice but it’s so cold there’s been no thaw. On a positive note most days have been gloriously sunny with clear blue skies. We haven’t been able to get out and about to activities due to the weather but we have had lots of beautiful walks on the beach and along the nearby cycle path. Sadly it’s been a little too slippery underfoot to cope with the camera and two naughty Beagles!

We’re seriously considering getting our hardy little Beanie a pair of walking boots. On walks we have to stop every few minutes to pick her up and rub her paws to thaw out all the little icicles that form. She always lets us know she’s ready to be thawed out – she stops in her tracks, lifts one paw pathetically and looks at us with big sad eyes. As soon as she’s had her paws warmed up she trots away quite happily. Biggles doesn’t seem to be affected.

On New Year’s Day we met Cuillen & Jamie on the beach along with Susan and Karen. They had a couple of their ‘lodgers’ with them (Karen is a dog walker and also looks after dogs while their owners are on holiday). They put our ‘hardy’ Beagles to shame by diving into the ice cold sea. We managed to get one or two snaps of this.

On this particular day there were huge slabs of ice floating in the sea and the salt water was freezing on the beach as the tide went out. Even the fast-moving burn at the bottom of our garden is frozen solid.

You can just about make out the snow-covered peaks of Arran in this photo – sometimes it looks more like the Arctic than the West Coast of Scotland!

Sadly Rumbling Bridge is still well and truly buried in snow so little chance of the special “Christmas Lure Coursing Event” taking place any time soon. However, on a positive note Sue and Kevin have a brand new website for the lure coursing events. And even better still Beanie and Biggles lure has now been released from customs and is apparantly being delivered tomorrow!

We’d been looking forward to the lure-coursing ‘Christmas Special’ at Rumbling Bridge but sadly it was not to be. The weather has been milder here and the big thaw had started so we were hopeful that the roads would be clear. But last night Susan (Cuillen & Jamie’s mum) emailed to say that it was snowing again in Glasgow and they weren’t happy about risking the trip. By midnight another of our fellow race-goers reported a few inches of snow in Stirling and more still falling. We were still hopefull – Sue had been reporting reasonable conditions last evening, but by this morning one by one all the regulars reported that they were snowed in – even the locals weren’t willing to risk the trip – they have 6 to 8 inches of snow! Everyone is very dissapointed, but the good news is that Sue and Kevin are rescheduling for another day. Probably sometime around New Year. So my giant doggy christmas cake is now in the freezer – I just hope it isn’t a giant SOGGY christmas cake when it’s thawed out!

As the snow has been on the ground for so long we’ve been putting plenty of food out for the birds. I hung some bags of seed and fat balls from the trees in our garden. Beanie and Biggles have been quite comical in their attempt to steal it. They’re trying every trick in the book. Firstly they sit nicely in front of the tree and when that doesn’t work they rapidly go through their full repetoir – down, paw, beg, dance, roll-over. When that hard hearted tree still wouldn’t relent it got a stern woofing. They’ve tried climbing the tree, jumping and trying to grab their prize and last night Paul spotted them both in the dark, dancing on two legs around the tree in some kind of weird pagan ritual.

Taking advantage of Beanie & Biggles nap time to have a quick snack

We racked our brains for something special to do today to make up for the dissapointment over the lure coursing but it’s really quite a drab, grey day out our way and the weather meant that trips further North were out of the question. We finally settled on Troon beach for a change as it’s only 15 minutes away. It was bitterly cold but Beanie and Biggles had a good time and even went paddling in the sea!

New beaches, new friends

Why is it that when we want our Beagles to learn do something we have to reward the behaviour over and over before they start to get the message. Yet when we don’t want them to repeat something just one itteration and it’s carved in stone in the Beagle rule book?

Take a couple of weeks ago for example. Beanie had pulled a nail slightly during some rough play. She had a couple of days enforced rest, an all-clear from the vet and then it was business as usual. A few days later she woke up at 5am and was obviously in quite a bit of pain. I got her some metacalm from the kitchen, and as it can’t be given on an empty stomach, came back through to the bedroom with sausage sandwiches for both of them (Biggles doesn’t like to miss out on anything). Of course, the new rule-that-can-never-be-broken-ever is that at 5am precisely you bang on the crate door and mum goes out to the kitchen for sausage sandwiches. Always! (Beanie’s sore paw turned out to be a nailbed infection which was cleared up quickly by some anti-biotics).

Another day Biggles had been so preoccupied on his walk that he didn’t get his share of the treats. Biggles was in the kitchen with me after the walk and Beanie was in the bedroom. I took the opportunity to redress the balance. I told him “shhhhh” while I quietly opened the cupboard door and took out a whole slice of bread and gave it to him. His eyes were like saucers and his tail wagged like a little propeller. That was quite a few weeks ago now yet still I can’t say “shhhh” or take out a loaf of bread with out Biggles’ tail wagging in anticipation. And of course, Beanie knows what the sound of his tail banging against the furniture means so she comes running to get her share!

So you can imagine the trouble we’ve had today after yesterday’s treats. “Where’s our turkey dinner?”, “It’s boxing day – where’s our box full of pressies?”, “Why won’t you spend hours and hours playing with us in the garden?”. Of course, it sounds more like whining, barking and scratching at doors to the untrained ear.

So we decided to take them somewhere new for their walk in the hope of stimulating them and tiring them out. Eglington Park is only 10 minutes down the road so we decided to check it out. Beanie and Biggles loved it – full of interesting country smells. I think it’s going to be one of our regular walks.

Exploring the ruins of Eglington Castle:

Weather permitting we’ll all be heading up to Rumbling Bridge tomorrow for a special Christmas Lure Coursing get together. I decided to bake a special sardine Christmas Cake with liver pate icing for the occasion. Judging by Beanie and Biggles behaviour tonight I think it’s a good ‘un. They’ve been howling and whining franticly all evening. Even my Christmas turkey didn’t get that response!