Snow Better Place to Be

We drove back to Fife yesterday on roads that were on the whole very good, with only a few snowy patches. The glen road was gritted but not yet completely mashed to slush. The Fife roads were noticeably less clear; and the BBC News website today says that Fife has been running out of rock salt. We used our chains as far as the main road, and had to pull over three times for unchained 4x4s.

We stopped at the Tomdoun to wish Mike a good new year. and in ten minutes saw more people than we had for a week. He had more bursts than us: eighteen; but I suppose if you work it out on a bursts to bedrooms ratio we were worse off. Still, it is interesting that even in a fully occupied and heated building the pipes go.

On the bend in the road between the isolated cottage and where the corrugated iron estate houses used to be just after Pattack we saw about two dozen birds on the road. I think they were blackgame and Roy thinks they were merely grouse. Anyway, there were lots of them, all running madly about.

There was deep snow everywhere all the way. On the road to Spean Bridge we had an amazing view of the Loch Arkaig hills deep in snow and pink in the sunlight. And then when the sun was going down as we were leaving the House of Bruar all the hills behind Blair Atholl were apricot-coloured. Most of the trees were no longer snow-covered; but there were stretches where they were still very picturesque. Invergarry seems to be a snow-pocket, in particular.