At 9.00am there was a loud knock on the door. Gordon was standing in six inches of snow. In a voice that brooked no argument he told me that he would take Ed to Pitlochry station in his 4WD, but he would like to allow an hour and a half for the journey, which normally takes 30 minutes. I blessed Jeanette for the kindest husband in the world.
"Can Tess and I come with you?" I asked.
"Oh yes," said Gordon. "I've got a couple of extra shovels in the back of the car so you can help dig me out if we get stuck."
The snow ploughs had not cleared the road so the drive was very slow but oh so beautiful. The sheep were buried to their tummies. Icicles hung by the foot from gutters. We passed Andrew on skis, making his way to the village shop. This is Gordon standing in the middle of the road. As you can see, there is no road.
Finally we made it to the railway station. As we turned into the carpark, we saw a large sign to say all trains were cancelled. The railway tracks were under about a foot of snow. The main road to Perth and Edinburgh was closed. Ed remained remarkably calm, especially considering he was due to fly out to Sydney, with seemingly no way of leaving Scotland.
But these Scots are not easily deterred by a bit of bad weather. Gordon decided that we would risk the main road to Perth and trust that the snow ploughs had come through. By now we were all heartily glad to be in such safe hands, and in a car which could get through the snow - others had not been so lucky and had slid into drifts at the roadside.
At 11.51 we drew into Perth railway station. The only train to Edinburgh was leaving at 11.57am. I gave Ed a packed lunch and piece of Mahri's chocolate cake. We waved him off, hardly believing our lucky timing.
It was a good job we didn't need to stop for petrol:
Footnote to my mother:
Our return journey on the road more travelled, which you will use, had been ploughed and a thaw was starting.
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