dear green place

Gigha is green. Or at least it was on Tuesday when we came back from the family pre-Christmas in Chester with the Miller tribe. It had been a lovely weekend and we headed back to Glasgow on Monday morning. It took the usual 3 and a half hours. No problems with the M74 as we had feared, given the blizzards only 20 miles further east. Glasgow was white and ice-bound as was most of the drive north of Lancaster - though Chester had been Baltic it was clear of the white stuff. We did all our shopping at important locations like Tool Station and retired to our hotel only venturing out for a fantastic Indian meal at the Banana Leaf. Very highly recommended especially the Dosas - tiny sit in though and formica topped/ceramic tiled in the early Bradford style of curry house decor.

Tuesday morning was very icy. We had a text message from MIcky that the Rest and Be Thankful had been blocked the previous day and Tracy Burler had been stranded. However we had the speediest run ever back from Dumbarton with almost no traffic on the road and only one patch of black ice on the way up RaBT. Ben Lomond and the Cobbler were incredibly foreshortened by the snow and dominated the fantastic landscape. Snow really does transform. Even the Balloch roundabout was pretty.

By the time we got to Tarbert we were back to green with just a dusting and Gigha was clear. Tuesday evening everything changed with heavy snow spreading westwards and we would have been stranded at Gretna some 200 miles down the line. The ground here is frozen solid so no concreting or blockwork this week. Some shed work on Wednesday but it was very, very cold up that ladder.