Well- a while since the last update so here is a bumper addition........


Elodie had spent six months travelling around the world and ended up being diverted to Edinburgh as the plane was unable to land at Inverness due to the weather conditions. The flight was still listed as 'on time' on the website and so we had set out in dire conditions to go and pick her up but after about an hour and a half (with me having baled out to remove some weight from the car!!) we still didn't manage to get out of our road and for the first time we were experiencing high winds with blizzard conditions. Resourceful as ever, Elodie gathered up a few other stranded passengers, booked them all into a hotel for the night and then got them all onto a coach in the morning, even persuading the driver to drop her off at Tomatin (4 miles down the road). It was lovely to see her and hear some of her 'travellers tales'.

Tom, (the son of David the farmer who had cleared our drive) kindly came and towed Elodies car up the drive after it had been dug out and she has now left and driven it back down to Sutton.

Tim and Ruth arrived safely on 9th Jan- bizzarely after the best journey they have had as the roads were pretty much empty. We all piled up the drive to meet them and carry children and luggage down as the drive was still very icy. It was a very clear night and Bethan was entranced by the stars. Tim & Ruth had got the children ready for bed at Perth and amazingly, despite the obvious excitement at being here they went straight to sleep. We have had a great week with them and had Christmas day all over again on Tuesday - we must have the longest surviving Christmas tree around I think!!

Bethan has been taught how to throw snowalls at Grandad and built a snowman who looks as if he wants to come inside, Toby has cut two teeth and learnt to sit this week and Bethan has added the words 'wet, drip, tray, bowl and towel' to her vocabulary - yes, the house is still leaking!

We now have five rooms plus the hall and stairs that have been affected in some way and at one point the water was running through the ceiling on the landing so fast that we were having to empty the buckets roughly every hour throughout the night. The builders are coming tomorrow to take down the dining room ceiling and the one over the stairs as they think they will fall down otherwise and they want to not only try to contain the mess but also try to preserve the (possibly) georgian coving and ceiling rose. All the work is going to have to be done in liason with the conservation department as this is a grade B listed building. There is little else that they can do until there has been a complete thaw and it is likely that there is more snow to come up here yet. In due course all the plasterboard will have to be stripped from the walls and ceilings affected and the walls allowed to dry out. This could take several weeks as they are 18"-2ft thick stone. Fortunately Sarah and Joes floor hasn't been affected neither have the kitchen, living room and guest room so we have still been able to eat and relax (in between emptying buckets). The silver lining is that we will be able to redecorate courtesy of the insurance company....

The surveyor who came yesterday told us not to go into the conservatory as he was concerned that the snow and ice might crash through the roof (could be the perfect murder - with an icicle in the conservatory!)- well overnight the snow slid off the garage roof and today the snow from the back of the house slid off and crashed to the ground taking the cast iron guttering with it - fortunately there wasn't anyone underneath at the time!! Those of you who remember our Christmas animals will be either sad or relieved depending on your point of view, to learn that the reindeer was decapitated and the penguin crushed!

Amazing to think that we thought the icicles were impressive three weeks ago - some of these reached almost to ground level!!

Just a thought for those of you who are regular followers of the blog - why not sign up as a 'follower' - you will be notified of any additions and won't need to keep checking to see if we have added to it?