Week 6: The snow must go on... and on... and on...

Yesterday the snow finally disappeared, and I was beginning to daydream about the start of spring - the miracle of life, the return of the birds and so much more. Then in the afternoon the whole process started again. In 24 hours we've had a foot of snow:

Lazy Car-Car
The car had the day off since Siegrid was too scared to try out automobile ice skating. Once I'd cleared the snow off it I decided to leave it with a nice mohican (a snowhican? No? Oh...) hairstyle:

A Snowhican

I think the funny looks I got driving it around were ones of admiration, but you can never be sure.

My driving exploits were rewarded with a couple of shots of Ostermiething basking in the snow:

 A shiver runs through it

Brrrrr

More on this week to follow at the weekend.

Days 30 - 37: Twilight - Nippy Moon

You would never have guessed it, but Nippy has turned into a Vampire hamster! Last week the wee beastie savagely attacked Ewan. This was a horrific assault, but thankfully Ewan did just about survive and shows no signs of becoming a vampire himself.

A Vampire hamster

Siegrid has been very busy this week, and while I've also had the chance to take some photos everyday, she now has permanent custody of the PC. I have secured visiting rights at the weekend - but even now I'm under pressure to blog asap so that the boys can play on it :(

So, short and sweet, here are this week's magnificent seven (with bonus extras)...

 

 

 

So now I have to go, before Ewan sets Nippy on me...

Days 23 - 29: The Big Hairy Beast vs. the offspring of Shelob & Aragog

Well no blogs this past week, mainly due to the amount of time it takes to get everything done. I'm trying this weekly format to sum up the photos I've done. Let me know if you really can't live without my inane ramblings on a daily basis ;-)

Last saturday I was feeling under the weather, having caught Siegrid's flu. Now she might not have taken it seriously, but I'm a man - and that meant MANFLU!!!! Luckily I had the Big Hairy Beast (or the big hairy hot water bottle - more of whom below) lying on me as I watched the football in the afternoon so I didn't have to get up to take my photo :D

 

The Big Hairy Beast (Ginny), after a hard day's work

The Big Hairy Beast does come in extremely useful in other ways too. Living in the country, she delights in dragging all sorts of animals home which, more often than not, the head of which I am given as a trophy. This kind of behaviour doesn't always meet Siegrid's approval. The rat's head before christmas was particularly bloody, the wild hare she dragged through the house was rather messy (it wasn't even in season! tut tut!) and the various detached mice heads left in a ritual manner outside the front door are just freaky.
The Big Hairy Beast topped all of her previous behaviour this week. Not once, but twice. She saved Siegrid from certain mutilation at the hands, or limbs, of the arachnid offspring of Shelob and Aragog. Now, I didn't see this spider alive myself, but according to Siegrid it was biiiiiiiiiiig. Big big:

An artist's impression of the size of the spider according to eyewitness accounts (to scale)

The Big Hairy Beast responded to the 1st attack by the Spider on Siegrid by bravely fighting it off, forcing it to hide (though how something that big can hide in our house I don't know). When it sneakily reappeared hours later, Ginny stepped in again. This battle of beasts will become the stuff of legend. Already Hollywood Moguls have comissioned a remake of "Clash of the Titans" in its honour. The Big Hairy Beast triumphed. As I strolled into the lounge to be greeted by the sight of Siegrid (stood on a chair just like in a Tom & Jerry cartoon) screaming while Ginny batted the spider all around the lounge, I wondered what the all the fuss was about, it looked tiny to me. BUT I didn't know that when giant spiders die, they shrink back to a normal size. Now that is something that J. K. Rowling got wrong, and thanks to Siegrid for pointing that out to me.

Anyhoo, a selection of other snaps from this week, the sharper-eyed amongst might notice the general snowy theme:

Thanks for stopping by...

Day 22: The way to a boy's heart is....

with PIZZA! Poor Siegrid is recuperating on the couch after a nasty bout of flu (buried under a pile of knitting watching sit coms AND moaning about how guilty she feels for doing it! Good luck to her I say...). What better way for me to practise my culinary skills than by picking up the phone and calling the local Pizzeria?

What did Ewan think of the idea?

"Pizza? Oh daddy, how did you know?"

One down, one to go. Surely Denis isn't as easy to please?

Actually, yes.

So, one megafeast later, we're all settling down around Siegrid to watch a film. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Day 21: Fool's Gold

One of Denis's hobbies (and believe me, he has many) is collecting crystals, fossils and "cool" rocks. Whenever the River Salzach gets low enough, we spend hours turning over stones, and we always end up with a bag bulging full of almost identical rocks. Not identical to the boys though, oh no. Each and every rock will have a definite and valid reason why it has to be brought home with us. I'm just happy that we don't live next door to a crystal mine, otherwise we'd be putting in shifts like the seven dwarves in 'Snow White'.

Last week Denis did visit some crystal caves however, and brought us a few beauties back...

A prize to the first person to name all of the above crystals and minerals ;)

Day 20: Rodents of the Lost Ark

Bah, today's trip to the gym robbed me of valuable time again, so what better way to rush a post reintroduce Nippy than with a sequel? Nippy's house is a Pirate Ship,

which she doesn't venture out of too often. That might be because the big hairy beast (Ginny the Cat) is often sitting on the other side of the glass, wishing she had opposable digits in order to open the cage.
Today Nippy scaled the mast of the ship for the 1st time, making it to the Crow's nest. Bravo Nippy.

In other bizarre news, the boys have been playing Lego Star Wars this week, and yesterday got stuck on a level. Ewan dreamt about how to solve the problem overnight and woke up this morning telling us all about it. The weird thing is, he was right! The force is strong in this one :D

Day 19: Boyz n the Wood

The woods can be a dangerous place to be, especially with playas like these guys guarding their turf. Tru dat.

Anyway, now I've got that ridiculous pun out of my system, today's photo was not that one, but the one below. Many thanks to the lads for their posing - I wonder how many photos they will have posed for before this year is out?

Our local woods are a wonderful place for a walk, but we did have to beat a hasty retreat once we heard the growling of a Gruffalo in the undergrowth. Just don't tell Ewan there's no such thing :D

A special mention has to go to Siegrid's photos of Ewan, which are exceptional  - check them out