Monday 4 December 2023
It’s been a weekend of snow. Today it is grey, wet and windy and the last of the snow has pretty much gone. I had an amazing walk in a thin layer of snow in the woods yesterday, one of those walks that makes you feel that all is good with the world. The moment passed, unsurprisingly, but it was great while it lasted.
On Saturday morning, I opened the tap in the upstairs wash basin. No water. Ditto all cold taps except the one in the downstairs loo, which is right at the beginning of our water supply from the stopcock. Water came out the hot tap so I wasn’t too worried. By early evening, still no water, including from the shower, which it hadn’t occurred to me wouldn’t work. By the time it got to my pre-bedtime show, it was surprisingly milder and the water supply to all taps and the shower returned to normal.
As happened a lot last year with the ice we had, it turns out we’re in a microclimate in our area of the valley. I drove to Selkirk and Galashiels on Saturday at 11:00, by which time it had got a bit warmer (only just under zero). Our part of the road had a lot of stripes of thick ice; I figured I could turn back if it got too tiresome. Within half a mile, the roads were absolutely fine and within a few more miles there was less snow on the trees. I mean, the trees hadn’t been laden with snow, but I think the snow had clung to the trees and grass because it first had a thick layer of frost. I kept wanting to stop and take photographs; everywhere looked stunning.
It felt like a different world in the towns. There were Christmas markets in both Selkirk and Galashiels so more people than normal were out and about. I wouldn’t say it made me feel massively Christmassy but it was good to be around Christmassy events. While driving along our road, I looked at a field of sheep and couldn’t work out what was wrong with two of the sheep grazing. Truly, it took me a few seconds to register that there were two deer grazing amidst the sheep. Similarly, while out in the forest on Sunday, I heard a rustling from the trees and saw a deer. Considering how many deer there are around, how often I’ve seen them on our wildlife cameras and the amount of deer droppings I see, it’s not very often that I see deer.
Chris was in Nice this weekend, enjoying sunshine (and a bit of rain). I largely spent the evenings in the small area of the house where the TV is (the “Indian” room/annexe) watching dreadful Christmas films. They finally made me feel a bit more Christmassy so last night I put up some fairly lights. I’m not going to do a tree or other decorations as I’m probably going to be away for ten days as of Wednesday, then Chris is away again, then we will both hopefully be in London for Christmas. I am so, so not ready for Christmas this year.