Hapy New Year

Yes, I know it's been ages! I've been a tad busy!

Christmas in France was great, although I did miss out on a UK white Christmas! The recent weather has made up for all that though, with me being snowed in last week unable to get to work! The problem is, that in my wee street the snow that fell before Christmas never cleared up and just turned into ice, so the more recent snow has fallen onto that and made driving pretty treachorous!

F was down last weekend, and we went out on the Monday for a swim and dinner before he headed back up to Edinburgh. I came home, parked the car, and overnight it snowed. I tried to get the car out the next day to go to work, but it was stuck on the ice and wouldn't move! I had to phone into work, and apparently I wasn't the only one not able to get in, which made me feel a bit better. I was off work for three days unable to get in. The only reason I got the car out eventually was because the other day I saw a van in the street with a bunch of men with grit and shovels. They put loads of grit under all four tyres, and it took the five of them to push the car off the ice! The road to Castle Douglas was dreadful, but Loch Ken was totally frozen over and snowed on - the first time in my entire life that has ever happened! It was spectacular!

It is stunningly beautiful at the moment - because the snow has been lying for so long, it's got that crispy crust on the top and during the day it sparkles in the sunshine. Driving home at night with the headlights on, it's like there are millions of tiny fireflies on the ground.





Despite the problems the snow brings, it is nothing compared to the problems they're having down south. Out main problem is a lot of ice, and no salt for the roads. In the south of England they have extremely heavy snow, and there are a lot of people left without power. So I'm not complaining! I spent my days off making soup and casseroles and filling the freezer up with nice, warming food!

My favourite author is coming up to Scotland too, so fingers crossed I can get my books signed! I know, it doesn't sound very rock'n'roll, but I've always been a bookworm, and Diana Gabaldon's books ust suck you in so that you believe you are living them. She's doing a book signing in Edinburgh so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get there. To learn more about her books, visit her website here or visit Karen Henry's brilliant blog, Outlandish Observations, about the books here.