Brrr!

Brrr!

When snow is forecast before Christmas in Scotland we don't usually pay much attention since it is usually only a short-lived dusting, or so I kept telling Marjorie who came up to learn about longarm quilting. We had a busy couple of days looking at gadgets and techniques and I kept dismissing the flurries as being too early to take seriously. I had to take her to the airport on Wednesday evening while weather conditions became serious and none of the roads had been treated. It was an eventful journey on icy, white roads, with cars sliding off or getting stuck. The local radio news kept announcing fresh accidents and blocked roads so I had to make several detours. It took twice as long as it should have and the airport was even closed for a while to clear the runway.

Obviously, schools were closed for the rest of the week as we were hit by the worst pre-Christmas snowstorm for 17 years. We had pink sheet lightning, thunder, blizzards and the roads were unusually quiet. The children arranged a sledging party so I lit the Yurt stove and made a large flask of hot chocolate. Over the weekend we had a lengthy power-cut which meant that we had a full day without heat, hot water and worst of all, technology. Thankfully we were able to light the wood stove and warm up one room downstairs; it is amazing how reliant we are upon electricity even to make a cup of tea. We have got candles lined up and a flask of hot water ready in case we get cut off again since there is no sign of it thawing just yet. I could do some sewing using the hand crank machine but when the workshop heaters are not working I would rather do something else. I will make sure that the laptop and ipad is fully charged so I can do some writing at least. I could even write the dreaded Christmas cards if I get really desperate.

At least I have made up my mind that I will now be keeping my trusty Landy since it is definitely the only way to get about with caution in these conditions. I did some internet research on roof-racks and made some calls to find out what alternatives there are to the over-priced Landrover branded ones. I already have a ladder, so will have to practise standing on the wheels and doing lorry-driver knots to hold on my cargo. I will manufacture some sort of heavy-duty canvas bags to transport the Yurt roof poles. The other option is to get a trailer but if I get lost somewhere I don't fancy reversing more than is strictly necessary.