A RESCUE CHRISTMAS TREE

It is the last day of November and it is Sunday.  It has been bitterly cold this week but I am staying warm inside the house. It is called 'hibernating'.

But today is the day to get out the lights and Advent candles and put them in the windows.  It gets dark earlier and earlier now. I am in the habit of turning them on both evening and early morning... along with most of the neighbours whose windows are now showing both white and coloured lights.

The Wonky Christmas Tree

I have decided to start a new trend; it is called 'resuce Christmas trees'.  If there are 'rescue dogs and donkeys' why not trees? 

 It was a reject from a community tree planting exercise back in May this year (Balloch Country Park).  I brought it home and put it in a pot.  It has been sitting outside the kitchen window facing south and has done... not a lot.  

It is a Western Red Cedar. Time to put it to use...

The bit with the S bend is the tree. I stuck some fir tree branches cut from my friend, Willie's 'plantation' (while he is up north on his boat)... into the pot.  Viola! One Christmas tree...needing some lights.... they will come next.

xxxx tree with lights goes here xxxxx still holding......

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I also hauled wood today.  The sun at noon was shining throwing its long shadows on the grass behind the woodshed in the adjacent park. 

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The Eskimo stone sculpture along with the stone seals are struggling in the iced over birth bath.

And so are the local birds...

WEEK 46 CORNAVIRUS RATE TREBLING AND NHS IN OVER-DRIVE

The coronavirus is spreading rapidly as new variants emerge.  The  number of cases being admitted to hospitals is soaring. More younger people are being admitted to hospital. Ambulances are sitting in the hospital emergency bays waiting to unload.  The death rate is up.

On the other side of this worsening situation (along with the usual winter ailments and accidents due to the icy conditions) the new vaccine (actually 2) is now being rolled out.  

We received a text from our doctor's surgery to say they are not taking any appointments.  Some weeks ago we had a letter from the Scottish government saying we would be contacted in due course by our doctor as to when to present ourselves for vaccination.  Presumably this is what is going on in the practice.

Retired NHS people are being used to help vaccinate; pharmacies offered too but apparently offer not taken up (maybe that has changed). Facilities are still being set up e.g. exhibition centres, halls. The Pfizer vaccine has been used so far and the Astra-Zeneca one is due to be used now as well. (Have been awaiting shipments.)

So we wait patiently and continue to lead a very monastic life.  The sun has been shining on recent snow and the skies remain blue.  That helps!  Iain continues his daily Route March locally; I busy myself with house and garden and lots of piano practice.  We are also getting through a pile of pleasant reading!

A friend noted that this is what it must have been like in the 1920s as people were treated in sanatoriums for TB for example. There were no antibiotics so infections and recovery was so much different than we have got used in my (and subsequent) generation.

Harriet (7)  and Ellie(6 next week) here on Saturday morning.

The Florida flamingos are my outside temperature gauge.  This one has its nose dripping so I know the thaw is happening outside.

(These flamingos were sent via Amazon from Florida and arrived in a box the size of a car tyre.  There are 2 and they are surviving outside all year round.)

Flowers in the garden porch. An absolute joy!

MONTREAL BUS BONSPIEL

Here is a 2 minute action packed video of a 'bonspiel' during a winter freeze in the city.  Click on this link in capital letters below (not the image).

  CURLING IN MONTREAL

And here is what an owl might have seen had he been passing overhead instead of investigating a traffic camera (not sure of location....).

WAITING FOR THE NEW BABY

Ishbel, Alastair and wee Harriet are getting excited as their new baby brother or sister is now due.  As I anxiously look out the window at the falling snow I hope it soon passes over so we can manage to get out and about in readiness for the delivery of this new little person.

First thing this morning I shoveled the driveway just to make sure there would be no hold-up if I got a phone call to say Mairi had gone into labour and was off to the hospital.

Meanwhile, at home, Mairi's 9 months is nearly over. This is John's photo of Ishbel and Alastair building a snowman outside while Mairi and Harriet look out the window.

I looked out the window at 10 pm to see Mr Fox heading down the street, no doubt hungry in this winter weather.

 

Babies come in their own time ... time to close the curtains and put my feet up in front of the fire.

GLUHWEIN WINTER WARMER

Winter has arrived with a repeat pattern of the past 2 years - very, very cold, then snow, then thaw, then freezing temperatures.   We are back to sliding on ice everywhere we walk.

There is nothing for it, but to get off the wet clothes, dry out the boots and draw up a chair in front of the fire.  Time for a glass of gluhwein from Germany. (I heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds then add a few plump raisins.)

WINTER RITUALS

Now that the yachting publication is away to the printers it is time to turn to Christmas preparations. It is like finishing exams; a weight is lifted off and I float to more pleasurable activities and also attend to things which were, of necessity, neglected.

I am quite please with the new working arrangement re. the 12 page publication now done at a graphics outfit. I simply send the material along and check over the proofs. It means a lot less eye strain for me and also I get to turn my attention to more creative stuff e.g. articles, notices, photographs.

First thing to do is bake some shortbread. It was very wet for days on end, so nothing for it but to get stuck in to the baking. Also Ishie comes after school so it gives me a "project" for her (cutting out cookies).

Ishie unpacked the Christmas decorations. Not having a tree to hang things on we did the next best thing - hung the (Canadian Tyre outside) lights of 110 volts on the clothes pulley and plugged them into the transformer under the sewing table (which runs my mother's Bernina sewing machine).

The first mail has arrived. I make a ritual of sitting down with a cup of tea and a letter opener and take my time reading the cards and perhaps circular letters, poems, etc that get enclosed.

Ishie walks around the house giving orders to herself about where things could be draped. "Now I think the best idea is to put it here but if you don't like it you can change your mind." I see a headmistress or hospital matron in the making.

We have now had our first fall of snow. However, this year, especially after the last two years, we and the public works department are much better prepared for it!

WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

Freezing weather has meant it is still a winter wonderland out there! Today I walked over to Mairi's to do a few hours of Granny Duty. This involves a walk through unpopulated section on this suburb to the northeast side of Glasgow. This was my route through what we call The Gut (grassy area with bushes between 2 built-up areas of houses):

Path through The Gap which comes out at Kilmardinny Loch.

Pass alongside the farmer's fields on my right and a small burn flowing on my left.

Trees at Kilmardinny Loch.

I left the children to walk the return route home, again passing beside the Loch. When I got there I found the sun, on this solstice day, just setting at 3:15 pm. I stopped to take some photos using my iPhone.

A couple of moments later I took another shot and then I continued on my way as it was -5 degrees Centigrade.

I had only gone 100 yards when I found a woman's wallet, with credit cards etc, lying on the path. I spent a short time looking around to see if anyone was hurrying back searching the path for their lost item. Eventually I headed off after trying a couple of phone numbers (unsuccessfully) in the wallet. There was no identification.

I got home still with the wallet in my pocket and after wolfing down a couple of mince pies I walked down the hill to the Milngavie police station (at the bottom of our street!) and handed it in.

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In case someone is searching the web this may be of help:

Lost item found at Kilmardinny Loch 3:15 pm December 22, 2010. Claim at Milngavie Police Station!

VICTUALLING ON ICE

Our televisions continue to feature the bad weather stories which are affecting the south-east of the UK and also the Welsh valleys. This is now the end of our second week of freezing temperatures. After an initial large snowfall at peak travel times, things have scaled down to 'merely' snow flurries or freezing fog. The airports in Scotland are open and functioning this week but Heathrow which normally moves 180,000 passengers a day is really having problems with planes covered in snow and ice and only one of its two runways open.

This is a small island and it certainly brings home the fact that goods and people have to be first of all imported (if not produced here) and then for those of living north of the major ports and airports moved about the country by road or rail. Both have been badly disrupted. So I was mighty relieved to see this big truck pulling into the loading bay of our local supermarket, Tesco's. The shelves are not empty but we are all mindful that our food supply in this big city all comes up the motorway from somewhere else.

Believe it or not this is a big supermarket where I shop. It is the approach to the side of the front entrance of Tesco's. I tend to park in the smaller eastern car park and also happens to be adjacent to the Milngavie British Rail train station. It was a stunning day today when I was out doing the Christmas shopping (as more severe weather is forecast).

The Allander which flows below the bridge to the main entrance of Tesco's was icy cold as the temperature has been -3 to -5 degrees Centigrade all day... in fact, all week!

And lastly this is the British Rail car park - lovely to look at, a sheet of ice between the main entrance and exit roadway.

ALL IS CALM; ALL IS BRIGHT

It rained last night just as I was coming home from the Bearsden Burgh Choir concert in New Kilpatrick Church. The good news was that it was rain and not snow as the temperature was a balmy +5 degrees Centigrade. The bad news was that my windscreen wipers and scoosher wouldn't work. However I have been on the internet today and found the problem is that they were frozen. More on this anon as Iain still has to fix them.

Overnight the temperature went down to - 4.8 degree Centigrade so all that rain turned to ice. Having caught up on the chores I decided to stay inside today and to that end did a test bake of some sausage rolls (using Christmassy sausage meat stuffing for the filling and store-bought roll-out flaky pastry).

Both Bill and Adam arrived for morning coffee so the rolls were pretty well polished off! This exercise is my attempt to Christmas bake NOT using sugary sweet stuff. I love mince pies, fruit cake, candied fruit but lately I am staying off this stuff for dental reasons, i.e. with gum recession I am more prone to tooth decay as there is no enamel at the gum border. Iain never eats this stuff anyway and Mairi is very mindful of the kiddies eating sweet stuff; they simply are not in the habit of it.

Afterward coffee time Iain headed out to Edinburgh to a meeting about Scotland's Energy Policy. Yes, he is still spending much of his time on the phone and the internet trying to solve the World ... the UK ... Scotland's energy crisis position!

Meanwhile I am solving the energy crisis in our house by finishing the painting. You know how it is: 90% of a job gets done but that last 10% takes 90% of the time (and effort)!

Not one of my favourite chores but it was helped by two things: a glass of mulled wine and Classic FM radio playing Christmas carols and other Christmas music of the cathedral or college choirs of England. Lovely. I can conduct Hark the Herald admirably perched on a ladder.

I finished the painting to Silent Night, and yes, All is [now] calm; all is bright. Time to open the lovely mail that daily arrives. I love getting cards so I settle down to a bowl of squash and butter bean soup that I made earlier and the last of the mulled wine.

LIFE ON THE INSIDE

As the outside temperature has not risen above freezing I set myself some inside tasks for today: make the Christmas pudding, tidy my desk and finish the curtains for my room.

I have so enjoyed having a room (a) with no curtains and (b) where 3/4 of my view is sky! This what I see from the prone position on my bed:

These winter days (only 3 more weeks till the shortest day) it starts to get light about 8 am and, being an early riser, I enjoy sitting up in bed with a cup of tea watching it get light. I don't put on the reading light or room light. M-m-m ... I wonder if some people might overcome their Seasonal Affective Disorder if they simply removed the barriers to the daylight entering their rooms?

And it's going to be a nice day .... It is like being in a tent, looking out at the sky. My room is high enough up and set back from the street (a very quiet street) so that I am not bothered by any passers by. C.R. was in the other day and said he couldn't sleep in a room without any curtains. Not me!

However this is what it looks like when the next wave of snow arrives ... to pile on top of what is already there. Even still, for a north facing aspect, my room is light and bright simply from the all that white stuff outside!

LET'S HEAR IT FOR RED!

- Red berries -
(John's holly bush in the garden.)

- Red cheeks -
(An Alastair-Elf in the Garden)

- The red newsagent's stand -
(outside the gent's toilet, West Nile Street, Glasgow, today.)

Mailbox at Kessington shops opposite the Vet School

WINTER'S WHITE CLOAK

Louise came to visit this weekend. Arriving by train from Inverness she made her own way here for an overnight visit. Then we headed out, on foot, Saturday morning, via the New Kilpatrick Coffee Morning, to go to town so that she could catch her train home again.

I felt I'd been away for the weekend once I returned home mid-afternoon. Walking back from Milngavie train station to our house I took these photos with my iPhone. I just caught the last of the afternoon light with all the kids out sledging.

This morning, Sunday, there was more snow on the ground. Out with the boots, the shovel by day and in by the fire by night. Heaven! Using the ordinary digi camera I took these shots of the whiteness.

Pots at the back door.

At mid-day it was still coming down ....