Nice snowing you!

Well it has been over a year since my last post. I cant believe a year has even passed and to look at the picture below you wouldn't believe it either. Snow has once again covered Cardiff (or perhaps just our road!) with over 12 inches of snow.

As usual there is one suspect who is much more excited about the snow than anyone else. Yep our little Rosie is now worse than ever as she now cries by the backdoor because she wants to go out and play.

The downside to where we live is the two hills we have to navigate to get here! On your average day of the week this wouldn't be a problem, however add a blanket of snow, a sprinkle of ice and an empty grit bucket (grrr) we get a couple of ski slopes instead! I did try to dig our road out as the first two pictures show, I got most of the way up the road before cold, wet, white drops of snow decided to thwart me!

It didn't take long for inches more snow to fill back all the hard work I had done, luckily I managed to get my car to the top of the first hill at least.

The second hill where we are and the MAIN!!! roads near us really didn't look much better.

So as you can see we cant go very far at the moment. Enough of the grumbling anyway below are some nice pictures of the snow around us. Including pictures of the Long-tailed tit gang that ambushes our bird feeder (more so when we stick mince pies out!)

Finally, part of the reason we haven't done any posts during the year as it has been very hectic, we have been doing a lot of interior decorating as well as putting in a new kitchen, our new folding sliding doors and many other things! I will have to do a house update later to show what its like now. Below you can see a random sneak peak of what the kitchen now looks like.

Its Just An Illusion

Week 19
After the Builders left we decided we also needed some chillout time so on Monday we went to Lynmouth for a well deserved break. We chatted to the Building Inspector who was fab and letters and emails were sent. Things were pretty dire and the hope of achieving any form of resolution was dwindling rapidly.

Week 20 (89 - 90)
On Monday I started to organise new quotes to finish the work, one of the builders I contacted put the willies up me by pointing out serious "faults". I called the Building Inspector who again was brilliant and agreed to visit and bring Tony along so that he could comment, so on the big day (Wednesday) they both arrived. Tensions were running high and I really couldn't see us achieving much. After looking over the house with its "faults" we were all stood in the hallway and the Building Inspector was trying to urge us to talk things over, again the air was thick with tension but Tim saved the day with his suggestion for compromise and we all sat down and chatted. Eventually we came to an agreement and kissed and made up!
The builders returned on Saturday and Sunday and built the framework for the canopy and screed the floor in the hallway. The radiators in the hall and lounge we also fitted.

Week 21 (91 - 95)
Work continued in dribs and drabs with the canopy getting tiled and trimmed up. We finally got our new front door and garage door fitted on Thursday and the windows were fitted with the correct handles and glass. Buster worked over the weekend finishing off skirting and putting in some of the glass in the hallway. Unfortunately the panels that were meant to go up the stairs had to returned because the pattern was on the wrongside!

Week 22 (96 - 102)
Buster had a weeks holiday!!! This meant we got Nick who is a lovely bloke but sadly not a "finisher". Bits and bobs got done throughout the week, filling, plastering, painting, trimming up windows, brickying and rendering, culminating in Busters return at the weekend to fit the remaining glass panels and the coving going up which really made it feel like we were now done! Saturday night we opened the bubbly and gave a big sigh of relief!

Rosie goes to Brecon Beacons

It was a beautiful sunny day so we took a trip out to the waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons (near Neath). Its a very long walk - almost 4 hours taking it slowly but fantastic scenery, waterfalls weren't very spectacular because it hadn't rained for over a week. Rosie loved paddling in the stream and getting muddy!

Rosie goes to crufts

Well the day me and little Rosie were waiting for finally came, after qualifying at the 3 Counties show in June last year, yesterday we went to Crufts

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Wednesday night we traveled up with the car bursting at the seams and stayed at the Coleshill Hotel. This was great cause it was only 5 minutes down the road from the NEC and it meant we got a huge fry up to start the day yummy! The NEC was packed and there were about 169 Cairns entered this year. Luckily my military style organization paid off and everything ran smoothly, we were definitely glad we took our folding chairs cause our feet were dropping off by the end of the day.

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Anyway down to the nitty gritty! Unfortunately we didn’t get placed in the yearling bitch class but we did get 2^nd place in the Good Citizen class!!! I was so proud of my little princess Rosie, she did everything right, walked nicely, wagged her tail and smiled at the judge (luckily the judge didn’t notice when Rosie snapped at her competitor). We got 2 rosettes – 1 has Wallace + Gromit on it and loads of people took photos – it was like the paparazzi! Not bad for a first timer at Crufts.

It was great to see Alex, his sister and her boyfriend there to support us and get us a lucky charm and we all had a really great day. Now I just need to work out what to enter to qualify again for next year!