St Andrew's Day

Another day of smiley faces and more snow.
It's fascinating that 12 inches of white precipitation can transform not just the landscape but people's sociability too.

It may just be that all the schools in Edinburgh are closed for the second day and that any one living just outside the capital has an enforced day off and some businesses closed, but there are cheery greetings being exchanged between passers by as they trudge through deep snow or slip and slide about in inches of slush.

Even the usually sophisticated students are out in huge numbers building snow men and other more advanced sculptures. I don't remember ever seeing quite so many white edifices littering the Meadows.

I watched from the warmth of the Dower House last night as a group of students spent hours constructing an archway over a path.
My blip for today I thought, only to discover it this morning lying in two heaps of snow, demolished either by snow vandals or because it wasn't a great engineering design in the first place.

I ventured out for the first time booted with my new Yaktrax. I had only gone about 500 yards when I noticed one foot was slipping more than the other and discovered I had shed the device on my right boot. I recovered it and his Lordship anchored it back on again and thereafter it was fine, although I did have to keep looking down to make sure it was still there.

They certainly make a huge difference on compacted snow with icy tendencies and I thoroughly recommend them.