surviving

Well I managed to get through last week, apparently, because here I am. Mr J is now on his feet too, if still somewhat fragile. Although he still has to be careful, today he's back in the kitchen cooking lunch. Mmmm. I'm smiling, rubbing my tummy and knocking on wood all at the same time. I'm a multi-tasking genius.

The financial year-end at work has come and gone and we got most things done that we needed to. There only remains to finish straightening the books and get them off to the accountant and then it's back to the normal levels of frenzy that constitute an average day at the office.

Yesterday we had our club's spring dog show which requires a minimum in the way of advance planning for me but a great deal of stamina for setting up the evening before and then getting through the long, tiring day with it's various crises of greater or smaller proportion. Just being on your feet on a concrete floor for 8 hours is hard going, before you even factor in the running around, crowds, rush & stress. Not to mention the interminable cleaning up at the end. Under normal circumstances it's tough, but rewarding. This year, with everything else that has been going on, I thought it would be impossible and I've been so dreading those two days. However, today I seem to be enjoying a kind of mild euphoria now that it's over - it was a success and we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Phew.

Today was earmarked for making sure the dogs got a good run after having their normal levels of daily exercise pretty much neglected for two days. Apart from that, we thought we would eat, sleep and recover from the week. And hopefully recharge a bit for next week. After a gloriously sunny day yesterday, the weather forecast was not good for today, so it was a pleasant surprise to wake up (only little later than usual) to a bright blue sky. What a shock when we got outside, though - it started to snow! Now, we just don't get snow in southwest England. We have a couple of weeks of frosty days in December, a couple of months of frosty nights, and occasional flurries of snow but it almost never stays. In fact, that's one the great things about the weather here. But today turned out to be one of those perfect mornings. Snow had fallen quickly, but without wind, so that it settled not only on the ground but also on every branch and twig. The forest where we went for our walk was frosted with the most delicate powdering. The ground was carpeted with fluffy mounds interspersed with wet, bare patches where it had already started to melt. The sky was clear with puffy clouds and the sun sparkled through the winter branches.

Did I mention the dogs are Finnish? Well, their parents are from Finland, anyway - my dogs are actually from Surrey, which is a very different circumstance entirely. At any rate, these dogs were traditionally bred to herd reindeer and with their long, thick double coat, they are designed to live in very cold conditions. Much colder than they ever experience in England - or, indeed, anywhere in Britain. They are so well suited to surviving the cold that they are one of only two breeds that are permitted to live outdoors year-round in Finland. I often say that the worse the weather gets the better our dogs like it.

So you can imagine their thrill at being let loose from the car into a snowy wood. It even had an energising effect on the old girl Annie, who is neither Finnish nor from Surrey, and conducts herself with a great deal of dignity at almost all times. She snuffled around in the mounds on the verges, picking up the pace from time to time to catch up if we got too far ahead. In the meantime, the Lapphunds raced each through the wood, throwing up curtains of glittering powder. They pounced, cat-like, on imagined creatures under the tussocks and came galloping back with big smiles, tongues hanging out sideways and snowy noses.

So, I must have taken loads of fantastic photos, right? Er, well, in the haste to get out while the sun was still shining and the snow was still on the ground, I managed to forget the camera. So, I will forever have the memory of this lovely morning and you will have to make do with my description of it all.

But, oh, we had a great walk. We were out for well over an hour, but we didn't cover much in the way of distance. Hopefully I'll get back to racking up the miles in the course of the coming week.