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A day of ups and downs. When Angie left at 5:30 this morning she said the car shows -18°C. At 7:00, the thermometer on the outside wall that controls the central heating showed -14°C and the terrace showed -17°C. In other words, cool. Causing this was the clear skies and so we were then rewarded during the day with wonderful sunshine even if it couldn't do better than get the mercury up to -10°C.

While waiting for the postmangirl (he had the day off) to bring our weekends online shopping basket, played with the dogs & the camera in the snow. While we were on the goose field, Flash automatically went in to Border Collie mode and in his wonderful style he did his "Babe" bit moving slowly and calmly up to them and asking if they would be kind enough to move. Cracks me up. (see extra photo).

Then with turmeric, book and new batteries for the mobiles safely delivered set off for a beautiful walk in Ottobeuren, along the river with amazing ice sculptures at the waterfalls but sadly I only had my mobile along - another extra photo but not great.

Back home and lunch for the horses, chickens and the dogs. Finally my turn for a sandwich and coffee. Thankfully a cup came out before the machine died. Having had it for 14 years now and prior to that the almost identical machine, I knew it was not a simple problem. In fact it seems to die about every two years and the manufacturers offer a set price, very fast service. Phoned them, they listen to the machine noise on the phone, yes has to come in. However the set price is simply a number to big for me and so I will think about it. I had by pure chance seen a brand name coffee machine in the supermarket on Saturday evening - hadn't done more than register that they were selling such a thing.

So did a quick bit of online research to find out the model and prices generally. The supermarket's price was the best and 20 Euros cheaper than the repair cost. Not knowing if any still on the shelf, set off for another dog walk in Ottobeuren, this time the Schickling walk, just as the sun set and the mercury started slipping down.

Long story  but as we set off from the car park, a number of dog walkers appeared and I could sense Flash was unhappy - he is hyper sensitive and there was just too much action. He lagged far behind me and then made a big detour to avoid everyone and even lay down. One of the other dog owners saw him, stopped and bent down and Flash realised he could get a stroke so got up and went over and got his reward but then another dog walker with a large St Bernard type he was struggling to hold stopped nearby and for some reason Flash didn't appreciate this, put up his tail and walked straight in to a left/right hook and luckily got off the floor, walked about 20m towards me then fell over and started an epileptic fit. I threw myself on him and luckily it was over very quickly and we lay together in the snow while I chatted to the other dog walkers. Naturally there was nothing they could do for it and they were truly concerned. He has had these fits from time to time since his operation in 2014. I have seen two which I am sure were caused by medication but Angie said he had a further two last autumn when no pills were in play.

We then got up and I feared the worse but he took off not towards the car but in the direction of the walk, with a spring in his step and a waggle in the tail as if nothing had happened!

Then got the last coffee machine in the supermarket and got home to bed down .... the chickens, the horses, the geese and finally at 9:00pm got in to set up the machine for Angie's 5:00 am caffeine boost to get her to the station.

The days plan had been to make my first batch of "Golden Paste" with the turmeric but had to put this off and simply quickly cooked myself a meal and sat down to do the BlipFuture pledge I had promised to do yesterday, together with an excellent cup of "new" coffee - was very surprised. The model equivalent to my old one costs, new, 1500 Euros! Even for me as a coffee addict, that was no match for the value for money Blip offers. Would be nice to be able to pledge the 1250 Euros saved today but the few pennies I did manage all help. so please if.........................

The Blip is of the area we did the morning walk, taken from the starting point at the mill (on the left) with it's extra mill stream.