No, I'm not dead.  I know, I know, it's been like forever since I wrote my blog.  I've just been so darned BUSY!  Dogs to walk, nuts to pick, Christmas trees to erect, even a blizzard on Friday...  Busy busy busy.

Christmas was suitably Christmassy with a HUGE tree so big Rud had to cut the top off to get it into the hall.  Surrounded by parcels and twinkly lights and pinecones etc etc.  Now we are back in the rainy season.  The stream has burst its banks yet again and I am so glad we bought a house on a hill!  The dogs don't seem to care that it is pouring with rain they still want to go into the Forest every day.

2008 will be a good year I'm sure.  Homoeopathy study seems to be going well.  I have Stained Glass every Thursday morning, and sitting in the studio waiting for me is my epic FISH window which is cut and leaded into place, and awaiting soldering.  Rud has even agreed I can replace the GIANT window in the hall with a stained glass one I make myself!

And tomorrow I go to testdrive my new car... it's still not a done deal but we narrowed it down to a fairly logical (if incomprehensible to the outside world) choice between 2 cars that are halfway houses.  The Nissan Quashqai, cross between a 4x4 and a family hatchback, and an Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon, cross between an estate and... well, an Alfa Romeo.  One is just a teensy bit more BEAUTIFUL... and I am beginning to understand why Alfa chose the marketing phrase "Follow your heart". 

A top of the range Alfa Romeo... yes the one with the USB port for music, full leather interior, metallic paint and  all the gizmos you could shake a stick at labelled in Italian in red glowing letters.... I'm sure I'll cope.  How hard can it be to learn Fuel, Temp, Climate Control, and a few other bits and pieces?  I'm fluent in Latin (or at least as fluent as anyone can be in a language that nobody knows it should sound anyway...)  I think the dogs will prefer  dark leather interior, don't you?   Not sure cream leather is their thing really... 

New Year, new car... yes, it's a slippery slope watching Top Gear, people, you have been warned... 

The other big change here is the new fishtank in the office.  Nothing but sand in it yet but as soon as I pick up the new Reverse Osmosis Water unit, I can start making water and adding salt for my other new babies.  Venturing into the world of Marine fish, starfish, hermit crabs, corals and sea anemones for the first time is really exciting!  But it has to be done SOOOO SLOWLY - like weeks before you can even put the rocks into the water everything is so sensitive!  Delayed gratification never was my thing... still, just think in 4 weeks time my tank of sand will be totaly transformed.  In just 4 weeks I'll have a tank full of water, sand AND rocks.  Sigh.