One Word - Snow, for Life 19th Feb. to 4th March 2018

There could be only one major topic for the past fortnight - THE WEATHER  !!!

Lovely Early Spring Days

Hard to believe now, but we had a short spell of beautiful blue skies and temperature up to 7C/44F.  I even managed some tidying up in the garden.  But so we don't get too optimistic, the weather forecast is already making dire predictions about icy blasts coming in from Russia. 

All Change - The Icy Blasts Came

Tuesday Feb. 27th  and we woke up  to -2C and snowing - been on and off all day;  one minute bright sunshine, then dark and heavy snowflakes.  We have already heard that the school are off tomorrow  - there will be the usual criticism, but the Council is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.  Police gave a severe weather warning with advice not to travel  unless absolutely necessary.  G. told not to travel to work in Edinburgh and instead went to the Galashiels office  - but came home early and it took 50 minutes to drive the 8 miles.

 

 View from our front door with the trees on the White Hill in the background. 

But worse was to come, notably overnight on Wednesday  28th  when we woke to 8" of snow from what the media are dubbing "The Beast from the East".   Very grateful that G. and N. called at the Co-op for us, and walked round with some essentials - but no deliveries of milk or newspapers had got through. The worst snow we have had since 2001, when we lived in Hawick and the town was cut off. I could not get to work for 3 days - not that I was bothered, as I had just been made redundant!

Little change by today Sunday - a slight thawing, but  some more light snow showers   - schools have been closed all week.  We have  had, no post deliveries since Tuesday  - not even the usual junk mail and shopping catalogues and no bus services from Earlston to Galashiels and Melrose but the Edinburgh buses are getting through.   Fortunately I have been well stocked up with food, with an ASDA grocery delivery just before the worst of the weather,  and G. has kept us going with essentials


Not All Doom and Gloom 
Nh loves snow clearing and at the end of a stint had fun playing at Snow Angels in the back garden. 

I was keen for some fresh air and exercise, especially having been comfort eating - too many chocolate  biscuits with cups of tea.   So I set off along the road to Redpath  - surprised  to see the gritter hadn't been along it,  as the road had hard packed snow.  i took it steadily and got to the view of the Black Hill. In its own way, an enjoyable walk.

Blogging

• On a good news note, I had plenty of time for blogging, and posted or drafted:
   
• Journal Jottings updates. 
   
• Latest post in the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" series where the theme was "Heirlooms".  I chose to feature the legacy left by my talented mother.
  
  
  

• For the second week's  theme of Wills, I wrote a profile of my great great great grandfather Henry Danson ((1806-1839).]
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• "On the Job" was the theme of a prompt from a fellow blogger who asked us to list the paid jobs we have had over the years - a fun, nostalgic post to pull together and  to choose the photographs. - my title "From Fish Girl to Family Historian" - with student jobs, history, tourism and librarianship serving me well.
  
   My first tourism job at Hawick Tourist Information Centre  -
  long before the days of computers. 
  
  Auld Earlston Group 

  My  latest blog post was a profile of John Simpson (1856- 1919) of  the local mill Simpson and Fairbairn.   He was typical of so many self-made Vistorians - he began work in a tweed mill at the age of 15 and became  a leading entrepreneur in the Borders woollen industry.  
   
   Simpson & Fairbairns at Rhymer's Mill, Earlston, early 1900's
  It became the largest employer in the village 
  but  economics forced its closure in 1969.

Entertainment
Apart from  the usual quizzes,  a dead loss for me on TV, so  we have been enjoying the new  Gilbert & Sullivan  DVDs that we bought online to replace the videos we could no longer play on our new machine.   Brought back many happy memories of my time years ago  singing in them with the Savoy Opera Group in Edinburgh. 

I am one of the bridesmaids in "Ruddigore".  

The photograph was taken at the dress rehearsal, but the scenery team needed to work all hours  to finish the painting of the cottage for opening night! 

In the chorus of "Yeoman of the Guard".

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Journal Jottings   
Recording my everyday life for future family historians  

Developed from the "Genea-Pourri" prompt  on Randy Seaver’s blog Genea-Musings

I decided to change his title for my own version of this weekly online diary.