No energetic snow clearing or beautiful scenery for the Aberdeen crowd. Here the snow is turning a bit slushy and we had a small avalanche peel off the roof of the house and bury a few unlucky birds feeding at the bird table. Indoors, Freda and Ali's Mum got stuck into some serious baking (while Edie and Ali played Othello in the sitting room). Here's|Freda preparing some fine-tasting parmesan cheese and chilli biscuits to accompany tonight's tea. We might take a few on the train tomorrow when we head up to Inverness. Next into the oven is the fairy cakes...

The girls' Festive Season relaxation has been more Wizard of Oz than Avatar, and the electronic toys have been relegated for now in favour of Ali's 30 year-old steam engine dug out of the attic (it must have been watching The Railway Children that pushed them over the edge. So the house is filled with hissing steam sounds and the smells of homebaking and burning meths as the adults cower in the wake of Playmobil figures careering across the hall floor in the Mamod steam car like Toad in The Wind in the Willows. Are you getting nostalgic?

My new year got off to a good start with a snow-shoveling workout this morning. Not only did I have to dig out the car, the garage and the porch but I cleared twenty-five metres of road so that we could get the car up the slope. My whole body was like jelly afterwards, including my fingers. I did, however develop some excellent techniques, that saved twisting my back and put all dormant muscles into use. By the time I was finished it seemed we had a strange traffic island of snow left in the parking area. Before heading in for a mince pie and tipple we added some special features.

Lesley and her Mum are snowed in up at Craiglea. Meanwhile Ali, his parents, Freda and Edie went for a traditional New Year's Day stroll along the boulevard at Aberdeen beach. The weather was bracing, with a strong wind off the sea and occasional flurries of snow. The girls really enjoyed the fresh air and were fascinated by the crashing waves - we haven't seen much of the sea in recent years, certainly not a energised wintery one like this. We all enjoyed checking out Ali's Dad's new gadget - an in-car satellite navigation system. Very "Tomorrow's World" (or maybe I've been living in Yesterday for the past few years?). "You have arrived at your destination..."

The weather has been very cold the last couple of weeks and the main river (Dee) froze over for the first time in many years (it's thawing again now). At the harbour the scene was like something out of the Baltic with slow moving icebergs filling the basin. Upstream there was even more ice backing up at bridge pillars. It's all so very different from what we see in Simao!