A Happy New Year!!!!!

Just a 'bit' of storm damage.

What a way to start 2012. The storms on 3rd January were not expected to be anything like the ones in December, but we still had a roof in December!!  A roofing expert came this afternoon to remove the dislodged tiles that hadn't hit the ground and will hopefully be back to start repairs tomorrow. In the meantime we are just hoping that it doesn't rain too much!! That was a scarey storm; I could hear the tiles crashing down and looked out of the window to see one miss the car by inches. Heart in mouth, I dashed out to move the car to a safer location and nearly got blown off my feet.. Thought we were going to lose power as well as the lights flickered on and off all morning. It was definitely not fun trying to toilet train Holly in those conditions.

10 WEEKS OLD TODAY

I can't believe that Holly has been with us for two weeks by tomorrow. In some ways, it seems like she has been with us forever; in others, it doesn't seem like two minutes ago that I went over to Mo's to help her socialise the pups with no thought whatsoever of having another puppy. This was a real heart over head event and we don't regret it at all. What a different Christmas she made for us, we dreaded it so much and it became magical.

A strange thing happened the other day. I always leave my keys in the back door. Ghillie used to go and rattle them when he wanted to go outside. Of all the dogs we have had over the years, he was the only one that ever did that. A couple of days ago, the keys rattled in the door; I got up and went into the kitchen- old habits die hard I guess,- and there was Holly standing at the door. A munster thing?...or?.... Whatever, Ghillie, carry on watching over your wee beautiful successor.

We've had a ball today...

....but we're getting tired

Peace perfect peace.

What a lovely surprise we had today. I took up an old hobby again after losing Ghillie last year. I set up a large tropical fish tank hoping to keep some dwarf cichlids, - these are species I haven't kept before. Cichlids are very good parents and fascinating to watch. My pair of Pelvicachromis Taeniatus produced eggs in November but the eggs didn't survive. I noticed movement at the front of the tank this afternoon and thought it was the brine shrimp that I fed them yesterday. On closer inspection, there were nine tiny fry. Not quite a munster-sized litter but enough to send me into a complete panic as I forgot everything I had read about breeding cichlids and spent 2 hours on the internet reading everything I could get hold of. I had thought about moving them to another tank but the experts say they thrive better if left with their parents. Mum and dad are certainly guarding them from all comers at the moment, so I can only keep my fingers crossed that they will survive the traumas of life in a community tank.

Male Pel.Taeniatus with fry below him on rock.

Male and female on guard duty.

Female Pel. Taeniatus with fry hiding behind males tail.

I think the fry are 7-10 days old. Guess they will be easier to home than puppies, always on the assumption, they survive the rigors of maturing in a community tank.