MORE SNOW TALES

The snow has become the focal point of managing our daily lives. A whole day can be lost in the seemingly small task of delivering a loved one to the railway station. Thanks to the intervention of Gordon, yesterday Ed was safely dispatched onto a train for Edinburgh. Now I need to say farewell to Tess but my car is still under a foot of snow, wedged up the back lane. I agonise on how often I can impose upon my neighbour's goodwill to get various members of my family back 'down south'.

Rescue arrives in the shape of my sister and family who arrive to stay in their new 4WD. Hooray! A car to get my daughter Tess to her train in the morning! Plans were made to leave in plenty of time to get her to Perth for the Edinburgh train.

Overnight a hard frost covered the snow which gives the landscape a silvery twinkle but also heralds a deathly chill. Temperatures plummeted to -14.5. The heating in my sister's rental accommodation gave up the battle. Frozen to the bone by early morning and with ice coating the inside of their windows, they were glad to get back into the 4WD to take Tess to Perth. At least the car had a fairly reliable heating system although warmth never seemed to reach our feet. At Pitlochry railway station there was signal failure, and as the Edinburgh train comes through here from Inverness, all the trains were running late. Two hours later, a train chugged into Perth and we waved Tess goodbye and headed back to the village.

The heating in my sister's apartment was still temperamental so we decamped to the pub where a welcoming log fire burned. Eric, reliably, was propping up the bar. Discussion ensued on why their boiler had given up the ghost. The common consensus was that the oil pipes had frozen. After all, this is the worst winter Scotland has encountered for 20 years.

Eric told my family that he was born 1946 which was another unbelievably cold winter. So cold in fact, that his mum had to put snow chains on his pram wheels. This tale 'broke the ice' and once my brother Johnny learned that Eric was an expert on local whiskies, he asked him would he please talk (or drink) him through all the local varieties?  Eric looked up, pondered his response, and said, 'They're all not bad.' Thus bonded, they proceeded to drink beer and whiskey chasers til closing time.

Conversation once more turned to the weather. Another five inches of snow is expected. In anticipation that their boiler won't make it through the night we find hot water bottles and extra blankets for the family. I hope they don't end up looking like this unfortunate woman: