Yester-day we awoke to another snowy land-scape. Perhaps 4" had fallen by 8 in the morning but it continued to snow until we had a total of about 5". At around 9, the weight of the snow must have caused problems on power lines because our electricity went off just as we were starting to prepare breakfast. The lack of power affects our central heating and so, after about half an hour, it began to feel cold in the house. We turned on the gas fireplace, heated our tea water on the gas cooktop, and had bread instead of toast with peanut butter. The electricity was off for about an hour and a half so we are thankful we had the gas fire installed.
Don went out and shoveled our drive and walkway but once it stopped snowing, the snow began to melt as the temperature had gone up. Trish and I were going to go to Pilates but she phoned to beg off because of the weather. It's a good thing too as I heard later in the day on Radio Scotland that the road between here and Fowlis Wester, the village where the Pilates class is given, was difficult to negotiate in several places because of the snow.
I had errands to run and so put on my Wellies and rain gear. I walked to the village to mail my two poems to the professional writer in Perth who will critique them for our writers' group at next Monday's meeting. Then I dropped chorus concert tickets off at two homes and a book for book group off at another. Everything looked so lovely covered in snow. I took a circuitous route that included walking across a snowy barley field which, in summer, will be bright green and then golden. This brought me into The Poggle Wood at the top of Strowan Road. (If I remember correctly, a poggle is a ghost or spirit as it's an old local word and not at all related to the Star Wars use of the terms Greater Poggle and Lesser Poggle.)
In the afternoon it rained off and on. I went into the studio and finished cutting out setting blocks and triangles for the newest quilt I've been working on. (Photo above.) I'm calling it "Hot Log Cabins for a Driech Day." You may recall our mentioning in the past that "driech" is a Scots word that refers to a dark and miserable rainy day, usually cold as well but not necessarily. It's pronounced "Dreech" with a slow drawing out of the "ch". I made the quilt blocks with the batik fabrics I've been getting from Shara following directions in one of my two new quilting books. The background is a batik fabric I brought with me from the States in 2003. It was perfect for this quilt because not only do the colours coordinate well, but the little dots look like raindrops rolling down a windowpane.
When we got up this morning, it was blustery and rainy and almost all the snow had melted. We haven't had any pouring-down rain but just a fairly steady soft and very light rain. The sun has tried to shine off and on, with the result that we've seen a rainbow appearing now and then. Don played 18 holes of golf at Comrie this morning. He said he was the only person on the course. Too bad because he did very well--his best 18 ever--so he should have had an audience.
I met "the girls" for coffee at The Royal. It was nice to get back to our old spot. We enjoyed trying The Carrick Coffee Shop and The Granary Tearoom for a change while The Royal's kitchens were being redone, but there you get single cups of coffee and have to order and pay for another cup after you've drunk the first. When we go to The Royal Hotel, we get our own corner of the bar-lounge next to the fire. Our coffee comes on a tray in a big pot with extra hot water (in case we find the coffee too strong), a jug of warm milk, a jug of cold milk, and demerara sugar. We can linger over it for as long as we like and usually have the whole room to ourselves.
It's hard to believe this is the end of February. There'll be a Highland Line tomorrow.
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