The Big Thaw!

With perfect timing Cologin has seen a complete thaw over the last two days and whilst it was a beautiful WHITE CHRISTMAS it's a relief to finally see the green grass on our hills and the driveway free from snow just in time for the changeovers. I hope all our Christmas customers had a wonderful stay and I trust our Hogmanay visitors will also fall under the Cologin spell. The bonfire is getting bigger by the day and excitement is mounting as we prepare to see in the New Year.

Santa was very good to the Battison family this Christmas. Jim decided that the Great Dane was now mature enough to become the eldest dog so a new labrador puppy arrived gift wrapped just in time for lunch! Named Benjie by the girls, the chocolate lab makes Alfie look even bigger. I will upload some more photos when I can find the camera!

Snow, what snow!

Well the severe weather warnings came home in the school bags last night but so far today we have only seen a few light flurries. No snow lying at Cologin or in Oban. My daughter is just home from Aberdeen (where she is at Uni) and the north east has had heaps of snow over the last few weeks, but still nothing of significance today. The younger girls have the High School Jingles Christmas dance tonight so we hope the snow will stay away as they will refuse to wear a coat over their (very short) dresses and platform high heels are not the best thing to wear on icy pavements!

 I was hoping to post a video of the meteor shower over Scotland earlier this week but I completely failed to capture them - much better viewing them with the naked eye!

The Big Chill!

Well it might look very pretty but quite frankly I'm looking forward to the thaw! The poor horses have been stuck in their stables for days as the ice underfoot makes it far too dangerous to get them out and onto their fields. We've only had two burst pipes so far - none in any of the lodges or houses, as we've left taps running and all the heating on frost control, but we completely forgot about the onsite laundry. A couple of bust pipes in there so we can't use the washing machines just now - fortunately we don't have many intrepid visitors at this time of year so it's not a complete disaster.

The forecast is for a thaw tomorrow so that will give us a chance to mend the pipes, grit the access road and turn the horses out. Hooray!