Selecting a puppy breeder

My husband has wanted a puppy for as long as I've known him, and longer. When we moved house last year it seemed as if it was the right time, he works from home so they'd be good company for each other. When anyone asked what breed he wanted, he used to have a top ten, but suddenly it seemed to have been cut down to a single breed. That just left the quest to find the perfect puppy.

A friend who I used to work with had a dog of the same breed, I got in touch with her and asked about her breeder. She gave rave reviews and we contacted them and were subjected to a pretty thorough interview process. Luckily we were deemed to be suitable puppy parents and advised that they were planning for a litter of puppies early in 2016 and they would be back in touch in late November or early December.

We didn't want to be pushy, but by the end of December we hadn't heard anything, we contacted them to be told that due to ill health, the owner had had to give up puppy breeding. We were naturally disappointed, but with the saga of Andrew's ill health in the first couple of months of the year, resigned ourselves to thinking that it was all for the best.

Once Andrew was fully recovered, the subject of puppies inevitably came up again. This time we were on our own. We joined a couple of forums for the breed we wanted and started researching. We were nervous about being sucked in by a puppy farm and didn't want to risk getting a poorly puppy and so were looking for a breeder with a good reputation. Unfortunately what we found was that there were very few approved breeders within a couple of hours of where we lived. We mulled it over and decided that the quality of the breeder was much more important than convenience. The name of one breeder had come up a number of times, with owners who'd bought dogs from him singing his praises, both in respect of him personally and the quality of dogs he produced.

We contacted him, he wasn't the easiest person to get hold of, but when we did it was worthwhile. He chatted to Andrew on the phone for about an hour, about what we should be looking for in a breeder and telling him more about the breed. He was happy for us to come and see his set up, but advised us to see at least two other breeders first, as it would make our trip to see him more worthwhile. I grumbled a bit, as it is so difficult to find local breeders, but accepted it as perhaps a test of our commitment to getting a dog.

I'd seen one breeder mentioned online, about 45 minutes from us. She was a hobby breeder but I'd seen some good feedback. We contacted her and asked if we could visit and she agreed. I'm not sure if it's unusual to meet a breeder when they don't have any available puppies, but she didn't really seem to know what to tell us. Luckily we'd gone armed with plenty of questions. She had one dam currently in pup waddling around, and the father was bouncing around as we chatted. It was good to see both parents, but the puppies weren't quite what we were looking for and we were anxious that she wasn't giving the puppies their first injections whilst they were with her. However, she was a hobby breeder and had had issues with conflicting types of vaccines before, so I could understand her point of view.

Our next visit was to a commercial puppy breeder about ninety minutes from home. Just writing that, it sounds like a puppy farm. They assured us that they were fully licenced, but not being able to see where the dogs lived, and only being able to meet the dogs they had chosen for us to see made me a bit unsettled. They even suggested that as a first time dog owner, we shouldn't proceed with our puppy choice, but should choose something slightly different (and coincidentally something that they had an unsold litter of!) It was a much more professional outfit and I'm sure all the dogs had the right injections and health checks, but it just wasn't right for us.

That then just left the visit to our preferred breeder, the drive took about three and a half hours, but it was completely worth it. We met a young puppy, an expectant dam, a grown dog of the breed we were looking at, a prospective father, and a litter of nine three week old puppies with their mother. He was happy to talk for hours about the breed and answer any questions we had. The more he spoke and the more we saw of the temperament of his dogs, the more we were convinced that this was the right breeder. Again, he was a commerical breeder, but you could freely see the pack of dogs and how they lived. He left us to mull it over and contact him in a couple of weeks. 

I feel like I've learned an awful lot over the last couple of months and hopefully all the research will pay off. If I were to summarise what I've learned, it would be:

• See if there is a list of recommended breeders for the breed of dog you want.
• Ask on forums for feedback about your chosen breeders.
• Ask about the dogs which are being bred from, to make sure they're not being overbred, or being bred at too young an age.
• Check what health screening is recommended for your chosen breed of dog, and make sure that the parents have been appropriately tested.
• When you're viewing puppies, make sure their mother is there and assess her temperament.
• Look at where the puppies are being brought up. They'll make an easier transition to your home if they're initially brought up with the hustle and bustle of a normal household rather than in an old outbuilding.
• Always go to view the puppies, if the seller suggests coming to you, meeting in a car park or the like, alarm bells should be ringing.
• Expect to be asked questions. A breeder who cares about his dogs will only want them to do to a safe home.

The important thing is really just to listen to your gut. If something doesn't feel right, walk away.

Isle of Wight travel blog

I have to start by saying that we nearly didn't go to the Isle of Wight. We were looking at taking a trip to the New Forest, I asked if we could do a day trip to the Isle of Wight and the rest is history. 

We'd had a bit of a rough start to the year and just needed a chance to get away, put our feet up and do some walking and sightseeing. If that's what you're looking for, book your ferry crossing now, as the Isle of Wight will be perfect for you.

We drove down to Lymington and then got the ferry across, which only took forty minutes or so. From there it was a quick trip to our home for the week, which looked a little like this. I'm feeling relaxed already, although my slightly taller husband did spend much of the week swearing after banging his head on low doorways. Oops.

Our first trip out was to Carisbrooke Castle, I'm lucky enough to have an English Heritage travel trade pass so admission was free. I love a bargain, and what a bargain it was. The castle was a really good example, with ramparts that you could walk all the way around and plenty of areas to explore. It even had the most important thing a historic castle could have, a good place to stop for lunch.  
We took one look at the forecast and decided the next day should be a walking day. We wanted to do some geocaches whilst we were away, and with it being April, I was overdue a visit to some bluebell fields, so I was hoping we'd manage to do both. Starting from Mottistone, a two and a half mile walk later through stunning scenery and we'd succeeded. Thirteen caches and bluebells as far as the eye could see. 

Another day, another sight to take in. This time we headed to Osborne, if it's good enough for Queen Victoria, it's good enough for us and another chance to use my trade pass. Initially I was really impressed with Osborne, there were plenty of information boards to make you understand how important the house was to Queen Victoria and how it was used, and access was given to numerous rooms. If anything it just seemed a bit much, and there always seemed to be someone standing in front of the information board you wanted to read. We also missed part of the estate as there were no free maps available on the day of our visit and we just forgot about it. It's probably the one place visitors flock to above all other attractions on the island, so I'm glad we saw it. Oh, and there are some bluebells here in a field next to the Swiss Cottage, makes it worth the walk!
We took a bit of a detour on the way back to our cottage. I love a miniature village, I've been to the one in Bourton-on-the-Water several times, and so had to see the one in Godshill. Honestly, I can't recommend it enough. The buildings were in great condition, but the one thing that set it apart from Bourton, was the tiny residents. They gave the place a bit of extra character and humour. If you can't tell, I loved it!

It was Andrew's birthday the next day, so I'd tried to come up with Andrew-type things to do. He loves steam trains, so we started with a trip on the Steam Railway. We started at Wootton and travelled down to the other end of the line at Smallbrook before returning to Havenstreet to look around the displays there. It wasn't as long a line as others we've been on, but the trains and carriages are beautifully restored. It was just a shame about the weather, I wasn't expecting snow in April!

Afterwards we took a trip out to Bembridge Windmill, this time making use of our National Trust membership. It was only a quick stop to have a look around and hear about how windmills worked, but interesting nonetheless.

This is all sounding a bit full on, this was actually quite a relaxing holiday for us! Nowhere is far away on the Isle of Wight, so we could get up late, or head home early and still have had a good day out. Anyway, next up was St Catherine's Lighthouse. As we were out of season we had a guide to ourselves, he was excellent, very knowledgeable and made the tour interesting. It's a bit of a walk down from the local village, but I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the area.
For our last full day we took ourselves out for a proper walk, walking poles and all. We started from the High Down Chalk Pit car park, hiked up to the cliff top (and then halfway back down again before returning, the curse of solving a puzzle geocache), before walking along to the Needles and the Old Battery, over to the New Battery and Alum Bay and then back across the fields. It was just over six miles in total, but such a good walk. 

And that was that, the journey home was smooth, in fact we were home in just over three hours.

If like me you're looking for somewhere in the UK for a trip and consider the Isle of Wight, don't overthink it, just book it. You won't be disappointed.

Lydiard Millicent Village Show 2016

When we moved house last year, we basically wanted to move to Midsomer, but with fewer murders. As it turned out, we didn't quite manage it, but I was very excited to hear that our new home has a Village Show.

This was the third year that the show has run, it's designed to have a category for everyone, from baking and flower-arranging to painting, photography and writing. Entries had to be in about ten days before the date of the show, which took place on 2nd May.

Predictably, when the date of the Village Show arrived, the weather had turned for the worse. Not to be deterred we donned hats and waterproofs and marched through the rain to join in. The photography, writing, flower arranging and art entries were displayed in the Church, so we started there first. I was surprised there were so many entries, with only 700 or so houses in the Parish I was concerned I might be the only entrant. Did I mention I’d submitted a couple of entries?!

I had a bit of a vested interest in the photography class so we headed there first. We had a good look around the entries, there was plenty of variety with some stunning, some amusing entries and some that we weren't quite sure how they fitted the category name.

It was only when we'd been around most of the photographs that we noticed that the winners were marked. Gold, silver and bronze prizes were awarded in each category, with recognition for other entries that were highly commended. We made a quick trip back to look at our own photos, I was surprised to see that I'd won a bronze in one category and a highly commended in another. Not bad for my first year!

We looked around the other classes displayed in the Church. The flower arranging entries were beautiful and creative. The art categories had some excellent entries, I always think a portrait must be good if you can tell who the subject is! 

We cast our eyes over the creative writing and limerick entries before heading to the Parish Hall. The local school had arranged a display of maypole dancing, but not only were the participants and spectators soaked, so was the music system, which refused to play a note. Not to be deterred, the spectators clapped a rhythm which the children danced around the maypole to. 

We headed inside the Parish Hall next to shake off our waterproofs and to have a well deserved cup of tea and slice of cake. You have to do your bit for fundraising!! The rain seemed to be easing off so we headed back out to look at the television and film themed scarecrows which were on display as part of another competition class. Some of them had suffered a bit in the weather, but Mr Bean made me laugh as soon as I saw him and got my vote.

We returned to the Hall planning to look at the other entries on display inside, but the prize giving had started early, presumably due to the poor weather. I had a quick look around, but it was difficult to get around the tables with the Hall filling up. I only realised how many classes there were when the prize giving started. It took ages! I was determined to stay and get my moment of fame though! 

It may not seem much, but who would have thought a rosette and a certificate would make me so happy?!

I'd better get out with my camera so I have something to submit next year. Next stop silver rosette?

April round up

April has really flown by and it was a great month. Things are getting busier at work, so the days are passing more quickly and weekends have been fairly full. It's so nice that the weather is getting warmer and drier, it means I've been keener to venture outside, away from the fire. We had the roof fixed on the outbuilding too, so we're watertight again, and don't need to worry about any rainy weather forecasts.

Andrew's wanted a dog since I met him (and long before), eleven years on and I think it's about time. As such, we're hoping to get a dog over the summer. As Andrew works from home, it's probably the only time that we'll be in the right situation with time and energy to get a puppy, so that's the plan. We've heard so many horror stories about puppy farms that we're doing our research and getting out and meeting breeders before we make any decisions. We met one breeder in South Gloucestershire at the start of the month, one in Monmouthshire a couple of weeks later, and one in Merseyside yesterday. We've read a lot and learned a lot more by speaking to the breeders, so much so that we've decided where we'll get our puppy from. Eek! We're now just waiting to hear back from the breeder about availability so that we have a date to work towards. I've never had a dog before, so I'm terrified and excited in fairly equal quantities. Yesterday's visit really helped, as we got to meet a variety of dogs, from three week old puppies up to sires and dams. It's still a bit hard to get my head around the commitment of taking on a puppy, but I'm sure everything will fall into place when we get him home. 

We did a detour on our way to the South Gloucestershire breeder to see a friend who's recently had a baby (well, not that recently, time flies!) It was lovely to see them, they're a really happy little family. We headed to Zizzi in Cheltenham after meeting the breeder for food. The restaurant is based in a former church, they've made such good use of the space whilst retaining as many original features as they could. Beautifully done!

We also met up with a friend for lunch the following Saturday, it was just after Andrew had had his eyes tested for the first time since his surgery. He passed with flying colours, I can't tell you how nice it is not to have to drive everywhere anymore!

More recently, we've just come back from a week on the Isle of Wight, it was lovely. Really relaxing but with plenty to keep us occupied. I'll do a separate post about that once I've had a chance to get all of my photos off my camera memory card. It was Andrew's birthday whilst we were away, so I tried to come up with a day of Andrew-type things to do. We went on the Steam Railway in the morning and then took a trip to a windmill in the afternoon, followed by dinner out in the evening. I think the girl did good, phew!

Now onto how I'm doing against my plans for the year...

Read sixteen books
I read 'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins whilst we were on holiday. It tells the story of Rachel and the seemingly perfect couple that she sees from the train on her journey into London every day. It was pretty good, but equally not that memorable. I've also got an audio book on my phone which I'm listening too every time I go to the gym. It's a long one though (over twenty hours!) so I don't think I'll reach the end too soon.

Find one hundred geocaches
We're up to 36/100 after a much better month, helped a lot by doing twenty in the Isle of Wight. We did a really nice series of nine near Mottistone which took us through fields of bluebells, followed by a Church Micro at the village church, which was where Benedict Cumberbatch got married. Who knew?!

Maintain Vitality gold status
Well, I did, but they gave us such a poor renewal quote that I've actually moved our work private medical cover to a different insurer. One to remove from the list!

Try three gym classes
Still not made any progress on this one. I've been blaming my ankle and had made an appointment with a physio to have it looked at, but after changing insurer, I'm back to the drawing board. That said, it put up with a lot of walking on holiday, so maybe it's no longer a good excuse!

Meet up with an old friend
I've not had much of a chance this month, with dog breeders and holidays taking up so much of my time. Hopefully things will change over the forthcoming months.

Blog once a month
I'm almost taking this a bit too literally and blogging only once a month, I'm sure that will change when I've got hundreds of puppy photos that I want to share with the world!

Watch a new film once a month
There were a selection of DVDs next to the television in the cottage we stayed in last week. We watched one, Miss Potter, which is about Beatrix Potter. I was vaguely interested as her cottage in the Lake District is in the village that Andrew's aunt lives in, we visited it a couple of years ago. My only issue with the film was that Renee Zellweger plays every English character in the same way, she was just a bit too Bridget Jones-y for me. It was a perfectly pleasant film though.

Take two holidays
First one in the bag! I'm not sure the second will happen, it all depends upon puppy timing. My second holiday may just be puppy maternity leave, but so be it!

Take six day trips
We took lots of day trips whilst on holiday, but I don't think I should really count those. I'm sure there will be plenty more over the forthcoming months.


I'm not really sure what May will hold, watch this space... Work will no doubt be hectic, thank God for weekends!

March round up

March has been a funny month, the weekends and Easter break have flown by, but the weekdays have really dragged. We're leading up to our busy time at work and I've clearly been too efficient and got all my admin out of the way too early. I'm now really looking forward to things picking up, but I'm sure I'll change my mind once I'm in the middle of May! Most importantly, Spring seems to have arrived! It's nice to have lighter evenings and not be woken up so early by the light in the mornings, even the rain seems to be have abated. I just hope it lasts.

Work has been full of mixed emotions, we had two members of staff leave, but have managed to recruit replacements and I've met our Orkney contractor for the first time. She's definitely made me want to plan a visit. I love Scotland but haven't ventured quite that far north before.

In other news, Andrew had his final procedure following on from his eye surgery and has now been discharged. Hurrah! He's finally been able to remove the bracelet which warned him against flying or having a general anaesthetic, which has been on his wrist since New Year's Eve. We went out for lunch in an old haunt in Bristol to celebrate.

Cleared to fly!

I gave HD Brows a go, I wasn't sure they'd be able to do much with me as I'm fairly pale, but I was quite impressed, they enhanced them but without making me look as if my eyebrows had been drawn on with marker pen. I'm now on a regrowth programme, which isn't something that I thought would be asked of me as far as my eyebrows are concerned.

I'm not really this cross eyed!

Most importantly, it was Easter, we took an extra day's holiday for a nice five day break. We fitted in some gardening, a day trip to Longleat (more about that here), and finally finished our understairs cupboard. It was the only part of the house which really needed some work when we moved in, with holes from shelves, tumble dryer vents and who knows what else. It's now fit to store coats and the Dyson. We'd planned to finish it over the New Year, but as with so many things, eye events overtook us.

You can't beat having a boss who buys you Easter Eggs

Before and after

As for how I'm doing against my plans for the year:

Read sixteen books
No progress on this, still at 1/16 I'm afraid. I have made some slight progress by buying more books for my Kindle, now just to find the time to read them. 

Find one hundred geocaches
We've done much better this month, we're now on 15/100 after starting the year on 488 finds. We did them over three days which must show that the weather's improving, if I feel there's a chance of venturing out for a walk without being caught in a deluge. 

Maintain Vitality gold status
At least this is one that I don't have to do anything about until the policy renews in May!

Try three gym classes
No progress on this as I'm still waiting for Vitality to approve my claim for my poor ankle. Honestly, I'm thinking it would have been quicker to be referred to a physio through the NHS. 

Meet up with an old friend
After last month's success it's been a quiet month for catch ups, but I'm sure that will change when the weather improves.

Blog once a month
We had a really good day out at Longleat which I was keen to blog about, honestly the monkeys are so much fun, it's well worth the risk of losing a windscreen wiper!

Watch a new film once a month
No progress on this one, the loss of my work-free Friday afternoons has meant we've not made it to the cinema in March. At home we've watched huge numbers of episodes of House and I was fairly late in hearing about the Night Manager, so we watched that over a week. They definitely left it lined up for a second series!

Take two holidays
I'm really looking forward to our trip to the Isle of Wight at the end of April. We should get plenty of opportunity for geocaching, sight seeing and curling up in front of the fire to read books. I can't wait :) 

Take six day trips
Longleat has been our first day trip of the year, but it was such a good one! I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve which I'm looking forward to over the next few months.


April should be a good one with our holiday, Andrew's birthday and a few other things we have planned. I'm looking forward to fully coming out of hibernation now that Spring is here.

Braving the monkeys at Longleat

Last week over the Easter break, we were both keen to escape chores by getting out of the house for a day. Friday seemed to be the only day with a half decent weather forecast which just left us to decide what to do. Andrew said he wasn't sure whether he wanted to see animals or look around a house, that's where the idea of visiting Longleat came from, it offered both!

We arrived at about 10.30 and queued for about half an hour to get to the ticket booth. We'd bought our tickets in advance to save a little money and soon had our etickets exchanged for paper versions. It was our first visit and we didn't know the layout of the site, but we'd heard that the safari can get very busy so planned to head there first. The safari is a little drive away from the rest of the site, but when we got to the next ticket booths, we were handed a CD and waved through. The CD was quite useful, there is a section about each species of animal that you'll see, you just have to remember to start and stop it at the appropriate times.

Our first stop was in the African Village for a comfort stop after our drive, via the giraffes at the entrance. We then had a wander through the Lemur Walkthrough and the Wallaby Wood before stopping to pick up drinks for the car. With that we headed into the safari park.

Lemurs always look like they're evil geniuses plotting some terrible plan

Andrew still can't drive at the moment and it was only once we'd entered the safari park that I realised how difficult it is to drive and take photos whilst looking out for wildlife, all at the same time. There were plenty of animals to see, we passed zebras, flamingos, tapirs and vultures before arriving at the bit that I'd both been dreading and looking forward to in equal quantities.

We queued for about half an hour to get into the Monkey Drive Thru, as they let a certain number of cars out before letting more in. Within about fifty metres of entering the drive through, we had our first monkey on the car. We got off surprisingly lightly, we had a fairly chilled monkey who seemed to treat us as an open top bus tour, he sat on the roof with the wind ruffling his fur, watching the world go by. He stayed for a while before wandering off. We had one youngster join us and give my car aerial a bit of a nibble, but it just added to the enjoyment of the day. We saw other cars with monkeys peering inside, or others with a monkey on each wing mirror. It was definitely the highpoint of the safari and something I'd be keen to do again, perhaps as a passenger next time though.

Once we left the monkeys, we passed ostriches, camels and rhinos then drove through the deer park. You can stop and buy food to hand feed the deer, but we passed on that and instead headed on to the big cats; the tigers, lions and cheetahs before finishing with the wolves. 

Camel stampede!

Overall we were in the safari park for about two and a half hours, I couldn't believe that we were there so long! We were hungry by this point and so headed to the Orangery Cafe for a sandwich and drink. Afterwards we went to see the other animals in the area. There were stingray and penguins as well as butterflies and even a chance to handle a tarantula or snake if you so wished. The queues for the Jungle Cruise were a bit off-putting so we didn't make it over to see the gorillas or sea lions, but I'm sure we can do that next time.

Finally, we ended our visit with a wander around Longleat House. Visitors are only allowed access to a small proportion of the rooms and, as they tend to be in stately homes, they were dimly lit to preserve the contents. They did however give an indication of the grand nature of the house. With that we stopped for a final cup of tea to prepare us for the drive home.

I'd thoroughly recommend it as a day out, but definitely allow a full day if you want to see everything. We'll be back to brave the monkeys again and visit the gorillas. Now, if I could just find out where the red pandas were hiding, we can see them next time too!

February round up

I'm not quite sure where February went, but I know it wasn't spent writing blog posts. Oops! 

Work has been a bit of a challenge as we had a couple of resignations and so have been furiously recruiting. It's all been a bit frantic, but I think we're almost there. 

My parents did their first house viewing as part of their plans to move closer to my brother and me, it was the first house viewing I've done as part of a team of five! It wasn't quite right for them, but you've got to start somewhere. 

Luckily, Andrew's on the mend. Bizarrely he's been discharged from hospital despite not being fully recovered, but everything is going in the right direction. He's planning to write a post about his operation once he's reached the end of treatment, so not one for those who are squeamish about eyes! 

We also caught up with a couple of friends over the month which has really nice, and is definitely a sign that he's well on the road to recovery. 

Unfortunately in one of the storms we lost a section of roof from one of our outbuildings. Andrew's done sterling work battling wtih the insurance company, now we just need to find someone to do the work. Luckily it seems to be watertight, but the longer it takes, the less sure I am that it will stay like that! It was apparently very impressive when the damage assessor turned up with what was effectively a camera on a very long selfie stick, operated by his mobile phone in his hand. Who needs aerial photos if you can have a selfie stick that extends further than your roof!

Thanks Storm Imogen

As for how I'm doing against my plans for the year:

Read sixteen books
No progress on this, in fact I'd even forgotten it was something I'd planned to do, so I'm still on 1/16. We're off on holiday at the end of April, so I'll hopefully make some progress then.

Find one hundred geocaches
Well, we've made a start! We're now on 1/100 :) The one we did was actually quite fun, there were a number of sections of photographs which had been taken out our local Outlet Centre which you had a locate and then use the solutions to get to the final cache location. We had a false start initially as we'd make a mistake with the calculations. Honestly, you couldn't tell that we're both accountants!

Maintain Vitality gold status
At least this is one that I don't have to do anything about until the policy renews in May!

Try three gym classes
No progress on this as I'm still struggling with my sprained ankle. I've finally got my GP to refer me to Vitality, so hopefully I can get passed to a physiotherapist who can fix me so I can get back to regular exercise.

Meet up with an old friend
One of Andrew's school friends came to see us in February. It was really nice as he spends a lot of time out of the country so opportunities to see him are few and far between. He was passing on his way home from a meeting, so it worked perfectly. We also had a nice lunch in Bristol with a friend I used to work with. It was so nice to go to Bristol for something fun, rather than just medical appointments. 

Blog once a month
I didn't do so well with blog posts in February as in January, but maybe it's settling down to a more sustainable level?!

Watch a new film once a month
We went to see the new Dad's Army film on the day it was released, probably the first time I've ever seen a new film so quickly! Andrew was keen to see it and as it had Bill Nighy in it, I thought I'd give it a go. I'd probably best describe it as harmless. It passed a couple of hours and I even managed to have a nap in the middle without losing track of the plot!

My film viewing for the year to date

Take two holidays
We've booked a trip for the end of April, which I'm really looking forward to. As we're currently looking at getting a puppy, I'm not sure what will happen with our second holiday, it may just turn into puppy maternity leave!

Take six day trips
We've not ventured far from home, but had a bracing walk around Stanton Country Park one weekend. The skies were beautiful, but it was a properly chilly day. I just keep hoping that we'll have one weekend without rain or icy winds!

The blue skies disguise how cold it really was!

It's starting to feel like spring is just around the corner, and I'm feeling a little bit like a caged animal so it can't come soon enough. I really want to get out and about, but hate trudging through mud whilst walking into an icy wind. Hopefully March will bring some weather which will encourage me to get out of the house more!