Salty tracts

What aspect of the weather have I taken for granted? What haven't I been full of praise for all the while whingeing and bemoaning the frost and the thaw and the freeze and the snow?

...

Of course Jussi getting out yesterday was less than half the battle - the real miracle was to be if she returned. And she did. With tales of farmyard ice rinks and blizzards she returned laden with provisions for all. Reports of our impending scurvy were grossly exaggerated.

Having unloaded the car of our food we had a couple of hundred weight of oats to get up to the croft - and with track freshly salted I jumped into the car and whizzed up no problem. In fact it was fun. Once unloaded, and with the car parked perfectly in front of the van, we thought we'd jump start the van while the car was up there and then drive the car and the van down the drive so we'd be in a better position to get out again when the time came.

The wind of course! By the time we'd found the jump leads, opening the bonnets of the vehicles was getting very tricky and just a bit dangerous as the wind flapped and tugged, and underfoot was still pure ice - so the effort of hanging on to the open bonnet sent yer feet splaying in all directions..... So we abandoned the attempt until the wind died down.

The wind picked up as the night wore on, though this morning it is calming down again. I've just been out with the anemometer and the maximum gust, down here around the sheltered cottage, was 23.7 m/s - about 53mph and 85kph. The wind is carrying with it little pellets of snow. Brings tears to yer eyes so it does.