Christmas Day 2010

Having had a few grey days in Bicester, Christmas Day dawned bright & sunny. Andy broke off some of the larger icicles as we were worried in the sun they could fall on one of the dogs. However Crag thought they were just great big ice cubes to be eaten

But soon it was time to come in & open the presents

Lots of new toys to play with

We then headed over to the local park to give the dogs a run

Playing with the new frisbee rings

A short clip chasing around

Anne & Ian

The snow clung onto the greenhouse - just

Christmas Dinner

Andy preparing the dogs dinner too

Turkey, roasties, veg & a little dog food (don't forget the gravy)

Tucking in

Pudding time for us

We had a lovely time & a massive thanks to Anne & Ian for all their efforts & cooking over the period we were there, it was quite a shock to come home & have to fend for ourselves.

On Christmas Eve we headed back over to Bure Park

Karen, Andy, Ian, Adrian & David

Karen, Andy, Ian, Anne & Adrian

Christmas Eve dinner

And some of Anne's pictures when the snow first fell in Bicester

One of the longer icicles

Snowy Oxfordshire

Yesterday we travelled south to spend Christmas with Karen's parents in Oxfordshire. It was an interesting journey with temperatures as low as -12c in northern Britain & with the roads covered in salt & the sun very low & bright it made keeping the windscreen clean a constant challenge. Below Manchester we entered cloud & once at Birmingham we could start to see just how much more snow the southern part of the country has had. This is the view this morning in the back garden where it is just starting to snow again It is just above zero here so these icicles are slowly melting At the front the roads are packed with snow And you can see from our car that more has fallen since we arrived

Karen's brother Adrian & partner David are back over here from Canada for a few weeks. We went for a walk today at Bure Park

As you can see it is a winter wonderland here

A proper whiteout

The dogs as always loving it

Andy & Adrian at one of the bridges over the River Bure

Walking along one of the many tracks here

The river (stream) again

And clinging to the trees

Ennerdale

On Tuesday we were on a work party at Ennerdale, well Andy was. On Saturday with the thaw we had tried to drive over to Bowness Knott to look at the wildlife cameras but it was still very slushy & icy on the approach roads so we turned back. Todays work party was based near Bleach Green so Andy participated & Karen set off on the 1.5hr over to the cameras. The thaw has left a mottling of snow on Pillar Looking down the valley, Crag Fell Here at Irish Bridge the track is still very icy And further along the road

The lake is frozen here too

The cloud lifts off Pillar, Scoat Fell & Steeple

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures from the cameras this time, however Andy's work party was able to create a path through some of the forest & create 4glades where local school children can have outdoor lessons (when it warms up I guess)