Temperature fluctuations

The weather can't make its mind up - one minute it's cold, then suddenly it gets ridiculously mild for this time of year. Yesterday (Friday) morning, our car roofs had those swirly patterns on them brought on by a light overnight frost, but by the time we left Keith and Annette Gray's house at midnight (we had dinner there) the temperature was 12 C.

So this morning, Jo and I took a walk along the river to Morrison's and we were astonished to see that the Dee was in spate - it had burst its banks and flooded some of the adjoining fields, apparently brought on by snow melt coming down from the mountains. We would normally have gone down to the lower level of the Platties walkway - a place Luca loves - but it was completely under water, right up to the very top of the handrail:

We also had a visitation this morning from a couple of deer in our back garden:

Usually we only see them when it's cold and snowy and they come down from the forests looking for food, so it was strange to see them today, of all days. Yesterday, we had our first sighting of the winter of our old friend the red squirrel. With all the leaves being down now from the trees out front, he/she's much easier to spot now.

I went out for a cycle again on Wednesday afternoon - and what a struggle it was. I was completely shattered and my pals constantly had to stop and wait for me. I must have either been slightly under the weather, or, it's these new pills - Rivaroxaban. I'm certainly getting more dizzy turns since I started taking them. I can't make up my mind whether to continue with them or not. What's the alternative - back to Warfarin? That means regular monitoring and that's going to be difficult to do when we're away in Australia and USA for long periods. I'll chat this through with the Doctor on 21st December.

I went to the CAMRA committee meeting on Wednesday night, and, on Thursday, I managed to write all my Christmas cards - hooray! Now over to you, Jo!

On Friday afternoon, when Jo went swimming, I jumped on my bike again and went round the Banchory pubs etc, dropping off the latest editions of our quarterly newsletter North Sea Ale and also completing the annual pub surveys as well. Scott Skinner's, Buchanan's, Deeside Brewery, the Legion, Burnett Arms, Douglas Arms & the Golf Club were all visited, so now I've just got to put this information on to CAMRA's national database - then do the same for the other 10 outlets in Deeside.