Deep and crisp and otters etc

Tuesday today. Haven't moved the car out of our driveway since the Big Snow set in, Thursday last. See pic below, (for the special benefit of at least one reader in Spain and at least two in The Canaries). I could of course have shifted it, given an hour on the shovel and a kilo or two of salted gravel. But what for? We're nice and warm inside, the shop and post office is ten minutes walk away; so we are saving the energy (mine) and the carbon emissions, (everyone's). And in due course nature will take care of the ice and the snow anyway.

Last night we opened the curtains to find our virginally white lawns criss-crossed with deer  prints. Just as well we put out a bowlfull of broccoli and cut apples. The prints contained what looked disconcertingly like bit of broken hoofs but on closer examination indoors they were just rock hard ice shards detached from the deer's split feet. Dee watched an otter working his way along the sea-shore by Kirkhill.Rumour has it that one of our neighbours actually has an otter holt in his back garden. He's been watching the female as she comes and goes and the other day witnessed the male otter paying her a visit. Great expectations.