Hi, and welcome to the winter issue of Country Lifestyle Scotland

It's been a busy few months putting together this issue, the highlight, as always, is trying to fasten a santa hat onto an unimpressed animal for the front cover. It has become a tradition and thoughts of contacting Edinburgh zoo for next year to ask for a panda photoshoot have had to be forcibly removed from my mind.

This year's cover star is Kirsty the Fifth of Gartocharn, and she was a delight. She cared not a jot about having a hat on and tinsel wrapped round her; when her hair was combed over her eyes, I doubt she knew what was happening.

In years gone by, the one that sticks in the memory is wrestling a goose in an attempt to get the elastic of the stanta hat under its beak while it honked for its life.

It then scoffed all the tinsel we had put around its neck, basically in disgust at our feeble festive attempts. I feared it would meet its end with tinsel compaction of the crop. (Is that a thing?)

Anyway, it legged it into the burn and we had to go in after it to get the photo. The lengths we go to for a festive front cover, but they are usually worth it.

In this issue we had a frank interview with Steve Mitchell about his mozarella plan and the problems he has faced getting it off the ground, it's a strong lesson in never giving up when the going gets tough.

I hope you enjoy the read.