Endeavouring to get the car up the drive one morning I completely lost any kind of grip and slid backwards down the drive unable to steer and certain I was going to end up in the pond. Fortunately I came to rest against the fence but across the drive. I called Richard to see if he could turn the car by towing it and as he shot by in his 4x4 I was just about to call out 'show off' when he too started to slide backwards - towards my car!! Fortunately he stopped a few feet away but it was a nasty moment! 
The ice melted enough to move the cars a few hours later but that little episode cost £149 to replace the tail light which had cracked when I hit the fence and as the car had to go for MOT the next week I had no option but to replace it. I now try to stop anyone driving on the snow until I've had a chance to plough it.We spent a lovely week away in Winchester looking after Bethan and Toby while Tim and Ruth went ski-ing and were able to meet up with Daniel, Julie and Leo twice during the week as well. They will be coming up in March which we are really looking forward to. While we were down we were also able to catch up with several sets of old friends which was great.
Back here we have had visits from both Richards' brothers, David and Trevor who came to see how Mum and Dad are settling in. They have decided that they don't have enough storage space in their bedroom, so next week they will move into our bedroom while the fireplace and built in cupboards in their room are removed and they have fitted furniture installed. Their radiator is being moved as well and the challenge will be to get the work finished and them re-installed before Daniel and Julie arrive as the contents of their bedroom will be in the spare room! The remaining units in the library are due to be installed this week which is exciting and will mean that we can finally unpack our books. We have had trouble getting workmen back to finish the bathrooms but do at last have hot water in our shower and underfloor heating - Sarah and Joe are still waiting for theirs to be connected.
Other than a bit more paint stripping I have made little progress myself but did take advantage of a lovely sunny day to clean out the greenhouse and do a bit of tidying in the garden. The first seeds are in the polytunnel and I am looking forward to seeing how it performs this season. It certainly stood up well in the 100mile/hr wind that we had one day! We had to move the chicken coop into the walled garden as it was at risk of ending up in the field but all was well and the girls are back to full laying again.
Sarah and Joe took the opportunity to go to Lanzarote for a week and came back having enjoyed temperatures that we have forgotten existed. The golf course should re-open in March and then it will be a busy year as the Scottish open is being held up here this year. They have held an 'open house' games evening here for their life group which was thoroughly enjoyed.
Contrary to popular opinion life does carry on up here despite the weather and Mum and Dad are enjoying a hectic life with Church, the community coffee morning, church teas, SWRI and the SWRI choir. Dad has also attended a computer class but decided that he'd rather play scrabble so we are looking at starting a village board games group. We had a crowd back for coffee the last time that the church service was at Moy and are expecting to do the same this week. Sadly, the church will be closing next month as it is the most expensive of the three to maintain and there are only five members of the congregation who actually live in Moy (and three of them are Mum, Dad and me!) Somehow they manage to fit in all their GP,hospital, hearing aid etc appointments as well and Dad is gradually finding his way round the unfamiliar territory although the road conditions have meant that he hasn't done as much driving as we had hoped and so it is taking longer to find his way about. Mum and Dad also had a long week-end in Sutton meeting their latest great grandchild and catching up with some of their friends from the flats where they used to live. Assisted boarding gives them a degree of independence that they wouldn't have otherwise and we are grateful to Graham who takes such good care of them at the other end. They had one amusing incident where the power was switched off while work was being done leaving Mum stranded in her electric recliner chair with her legs in the air - technology isn't always a good thing!
Other activities have involved (for Liz)cooking for the homeless ( a project that runs for six months throught the winter, providing a hot meal and a bed for the night and is very necessary with temperatures down to -20), giving a talk about life on a neonatal unit to the SWRI and taking on the role of treasurer for the Stratdearn youth group. Their current project is building a Yurt - a large, wooden framed, tent-like structure, which they hope to use/hire out in the future. This has involved them learning skills such as bending wood using steam and one of the young men has been given some short term employment with the company as a result- always good when unemployment is such an issue amongst young people. They are going to organise an easter egg hunt here for us in April which should be good fun. 
Spotting seville oranges half price in Tesco provoked a burst of marmalade making which I hadn't done before and resulted in eighty jars which worked out at around 35p a jar. Richard has been heard to remark that now I've done the trial run I'll be able to go into production properly! Work has been spasmodic with a few shifts before Christmas but only one since and the promising start hasn't really amounted to much - the cutbacks are certainly in evidence here.
Richard continues to volunteer one morning a week at his church coffee shop but has taken a break from honing his barista skills in order to master the till - tricky when you forget your glasses and end up trying to charge someone £40 for their coffee! Most of his time is taken up however with a group he formed to try and secure community benefits from a windfarm company who are building one locally. It involves lots of meetings, lots of fraught phone calls and days in e-mail exchanges interspersed with trips to a coffee shop or two - nothing new there then....
We are enjoying the days lengthening and now have ten hours of daylight which hopefully will soon start everything into life in the garden. The grass is beginning to green up again - it goes a kind of dull yellow when it is under snow for any length of time and the neglect of last year is very evident. However - we have to remember that this time last year we were living in a house with walls so wet that the paper was peeling off, with the dining room unusable, no ceiling in the stairwell and were waiting to hear when we would have to move out - this year has to be better!
