I always feel creative when a new year begins. So since January, I've been working on a diptych: 'Primavera. The Three Graces' - Spring with a classical twist!

It's now in the final stage, after lots of fraught rejigging. No doubt, you will still find elements of the figures worrying, but it satisfies me. And that's the main thing! Hopefully, the pic will find its way to Gallery1 towards the end of next week.

So it's been hard to concentrate on anything else for the past month or so. It's even occupied all my thinking time!

Meanwhile, Hector-the-pup has been growing rapidly. He now stands well above Hebe-the-dog. Although that hasn't altered her resolve to maintain the pack hierarchy. She remains Big Sister. Firmly in charge.

Hector-the-pup's reaction is always to test the absolute limit of her authority - quickly lying on his back in submission when he realises he's gone too far. But I always detect a sly grin on his face. He is very clever, with a hint of cunning, I suspect.

To illustrate this: there is a gate leading to the railway station platform from the park, where we take our first walk of the day. One frosty morning, when the train was late and the platform was full of people shuffling around on the spot to keep warm, Hector-the-pup sneaked under the gate and introduced himself to the waiting crowd, ingratiating himself especially with those eating snacks.

Of course, he'd forgotten his name, and when I eventually caught up with him, he was networking down the line of people - sampling a range of titbits.

I managed to intercept the wee rascal and quickly put on his lead. Good job, 'cos when the train approached and the doors opened, I could see he was maybe considering an adventure in Inverness? Luckily, I had nipped that idea in the bud!

With all the wet days we've had in the north, I've been drying my clothes in front of the logburner. It's common for me to come upstairs (my livingroom is upstairs) and find Hector-the-pup scooting about with a pair of pants in his mouth, or trailing a pair of tights behind him.

That dog has mischief written through him like candy rock!

However the two pairs of chewed-up reading glasses were not funny. I've learnt the hard way not to nip downstairs to make a coffee, when my glasses, phone and remote are still on the shelf near the couch.

They were just so accessible and tempting to a fearless mountaineer with impeccable balance. So easy to negotiate the shelf after a daring walk along the back of the couch. Not clever and not funny, in my book. Luckily they were both cheap reading glasses. But all the same, very naughty.

And Hector-the-pup still loves to chew holes - specifically in blankets. I have a range of small fleece throws that double up as dog blankets. They now look like a map of the lochans of Harris.

They remind me of illustrations of the garb of the poorest Dickensian street urchins. After I wash them and hold them up in their tattered state, and before I hang them on the washing line, I have to hope that I'm not expecting a parcel, 'cos if I'm out, the postie always comes round the back and leaves it in the shed. How embarrassing if he clocks a line of multi-coloured rags!

Hebe-the-dog, almost 4, has found renewed energy. Gone are the pre-Hector-the-pup days, when she could doze in her bed in the morning until she heard the toaster pop, and then come down for her breakfast. Now she gets up with me and is first to say good morning to Hector-the-pup. He doesn't seem too intimidated by seeing her face looming into his crate, while he's still opening his peepers!

There's lots of chasing and careering around on woodland walks, and the same at nighttime in the livingroom, before they eventually tire each other out and relax in front of the logburner.

And I'm now able to work on art ideas - so that's progress! Although, to be honest, the studio looks more like the dogs' bedroom - with Hebe-the-dog's daytime donut bed on my worktop, offering full views of the street from the window, while Hector-the-pup's crate is on the floor beside my easel.

It's been rather difficult to get my trays of pastels rowed up. Everything's a bit make-shift at the mo. But until I claim it back as exclusively MY room, it seems to be everyone's happy place.

Now that's a positive statement for the start of 2024. Here's hoping it continues in that vein!