Jack was late with the Monday Book, so he needed to make it on time with his Wednesday guest post – –

People imagine that, coming from Scotland, I should be used to snowy winters. But I come from the lowlands and spent most of my life near the Forth estuary, so snow was a relative rarity. I do remember the winter of 1947, when I was five years old, being unusually wintry with channels dug down the middle of our street so we could get to the corner shop for essentials. There was another bad one in the mid-1970s when I lived outside the town and even the main roads were blocked.

I expected, on moving here to the Southern area of the US that I’d never see snow again – how wrong I was!

When we lived in Big Stone Gap we experienced a good few snowy winters, including one when our four wheel drive truck was needed to deliver supplies and food to neighbors and friends.

Now that we’ve moved a couple of hours further north I expected to be in a colder area, but the last three weeks have been exceptional and there’s no sign of a let-up. It isn’t just about being further north because we’re still in SW Virginia, but it may have something to do with the topography and the polar vortex shifting south this year.

Whatever the reason, the combination of Covid quarantine and deep snow has confined me to the house. Not only has the temperature been consistently below freezing, but we’ve had a series of snow storms and some windy days. So even when it didn’t actually snow the wind created drifting of the stuff already there!

You might expect that all of this plus the shorter daylight hours would drive me to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but it hasn’t. There’s plenty to do: I work on my radio shows and write blog posts and magazine articles, plus enjoy online music sessions.

I have even plotted our garden. We inherited a sizeable plot with some perennials, but we also inherited black walnut trees, so we have to be careful what we plant where. Last year Wendy planned it and I wound up doing most of the hoeing for some reason. This year I am management and she is labor; vengeance is mine!