PHOTO RAMBLINGS: January 2022

Certain years go down in recollections as particularity bad winters. 1947 was legendary in the UK coming amidst postwar austerity. I remember my mother saying how worried she had been at keeping my baby brother warm, in a house where the only heating was a coal fire in the living room. Onto 1963 another bad year, when my father, returning from a business trip to London, was stuck overnight on a train in the Border hills - and no means in those day, pre mobile phones, to let us know why he had not come home that evening.

Here I feature family photographs mainly from 2001, 2011 and 2018, all taken in the Scottish Borders where I live - along with some occasional snowy quotes.

BEAUTY IN SNOW

A country road out of Earlston - this same view was the lead view in my recent Autumn post.

The Leader Water at Earlston

Trees on the A68 - the main road from Edinburgh through Earlston

The snow capped Black Hill at Earlston

On a winter's walk on the hills around Lauder

A lonesome sheep on the Border hills.

FUN IN SNOW

"Jan-u-ary brings the snow; Makes our feet and fingers glow" (Sara Coleridge)

Granddaughter exploring this new world of snow for the first time, 2010

"When it snows, you have two choices - shovel or make snow angels" (Unknown)

Somebody' s idea of fun! Playing at snow angels, 2018.

FRUSTRATION IN SNOW

2011 was a blip in all the talk of global warming, when we had some of the worst snow for years, and Hawick where we then lived was cut off for three days. I could not get to work, with no buses running outside the town. I

We lived at the top of a hill, and no way was I venturing downhill to the shops. People, were were being resourceful going down to the supermarket with backpacks and toboggans to bring goods home.

Our house on the right

"Winter, winter, cold and ice! A mug of hot chocolate would be nice"

(Nicolette Lennert)

The joys of having a dog in winter weather - though not too sure about the owners

The postman in Earlston trudging along in the snow

.I have now reached the stage of rather favouring winter hibernation! to escape snows, unlike this heron - a familiar site on the River Slitrig in Hawick.

Snow when it first falls can be a wonderful magical experience transforming the landscape. But when it changes to an icy, slippery danger, I prefer not to venture outside, and when it ends up as grey, messy, slush on pavements, it is a depressing, wet task trying to negotiate pavements and cross roads.

So let's end on a positive note with more of my favourite snow pictures.

"Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone" (Christina Rossetti)