30th November - more snow

On the BBC last night it said Scotland was not getting any more snow. But this am it had fallen overnight and its snowing heavily now at 9am. I hear on the radio of bizzards at Ancrum down the road and Innerleithen near Peebles.

Monday 29th - More snow

We cleared to this gate yesterday Another 6-10 inches fell last night and it has been snowing today. A neighbor stopped to ask us if we wanted anything, and we asked for milk but they went in a 4x4 to Earlston and no one had milk as the lorries are not getting through.

November 28th - More snow

Got up today and another 6 inches fell making close to 2 feet now. I am cut off and cannot exit my drive as you can see in the photo. Snow tyres don't help in 2ft of snow! Luckily we have food and fuel so will sit it out.

27th November - A lot more snow

Went to Berwick yesterday and there was 3-6 inches of snow all the way and we ran into a small blizzard in Berwick at lunchtime. This am a lot more snow has fallen overnight, another 4-6 inches making 10-12 inches in total since Thursday. There is very little traffic outside as I write this at 9am so the road must be quite bad. More snow forecast today and next week. Temperature below freezing.

25th November - Heavy Snow

Got up this am to heavy snow and a blizzard developed while we were getting breakfast. Now about 4-6 inches and still falling. From what we hear this will last through next week as very cold weather is predicted.

Crab Apple Pepper Jelly

Took about 10lbs of Crab Apples off the tree and boiled them to make jelly. The traditional thing up here is to just make normal jelly but being Caribbeanised we added chopped hot peppers (Bonnet) to make what we hope is a tasty hot jelly but with that Crab Apple taste.

Winter Tyres

It appears that the UK is the only country in Europe that does NOT mandate winter tyres from November until April. Our experience last year convinced us that these are essential for travel in the Borders. We had a power failure in a snow storm in March 2010 and had to go out to get coal or logs to keep warm. Our car had perfectly good normal tyres but as sliding all over the road. Winter tyres marked Mud and snow are essential for travel here as there are many steep hills and the gritters and snow plows are slow to reach outlying areas. Its either sell your car and buy a 4x4 or get snow tyres. The best tyre is Goodyear Ultragrip 7+ according to several tests. One example gave this tyre versus a standard tyre in snow at 25mph trying to stop. When the Ultragrip stopped the other car was still doing 20mph!. Pretty impressive.