Can you Believe it?

It's mid March and the Loch is still frozen!

View to the east....
Most people think it's wonderful to have a white Christmas, I'm a "Bar Humbug" kind of a person and think of all the extra work for people with animals to tend to. Weather wise Christmas turned out to be not too bad, even with the snow.

January was a different matter, "Brrrrr" we knew it was cold!
In January the temperatures here in the Scottish Borders fell to below -20C in isolated areas!

When the snow came even the farmyard had to be ploughed just to be able to open the barn doors and allow the feed delivery lorries access, (well, once the ploughs had cleared the single track roads). The temperatures dropped night after night, the ice was treacherous and of course the water pipes were frozen..... One cow needs three or four buckets of water a day, carried from the stream, (as long as that's not frozen too), a horse needs the same!! Now we have arms as long as monkey's!!!!
The sheep on the hills are hardy and hang around waiting for the quad bike or tractor with feed! Someone eventually comes!!!

This morning for a short time it was -6C, but now there is beautiful sunshine....

View to the west....


So, I wonder how thick the ice was in January for the Loch still to be frozen in March???









Did you know?.... Honey bees cannot survive a temperature below -20C, one of our neighbours has lost all of his bees, the hives are going to be very quiet........