Bleak is Beautiful

Gulberwick at Dawn

8 am

Despite the imminent winter solstice in the Northern Isles, it is light by 7.15 a.m. and quite light by 8 a.m. This morning the storms of last night had left a layer of snow to lighten up the grey sky.  It was bleak but inspiring and we are promised 'a moderate day', a glorious understatement that is frequently used as a welcoming line in Shetland. I managed to cajole my Toyota hire car up to the main road from the village up the ungritted icy road for a long day at work. 

In the evening, I drove my colleague, Brian, to Whiteness for an evening meal with Alistair and his family. It was well after midnight before we left, there had been much alcohol on offer but knowing the road conditions and from previous experience of visiting Alistair I had limited myself to just a beer. I drove us home as the snowfall accumulated. It was touch and go whether we managed to get up the hill from Whiteness to Tingwall and there was no other traffic on the roads in the early hours. 

The road down to Gulberwick was a veritable toboggan run and the car began to slide on the steep snow-covered icy descent, I somehow managed to brake sufficiently delicately to sideslip around the bends on the descent, We had to abandon the car at the start of the final uphill road to the house, it was far too icy. Brian was complimentary about my driving, unlike the family who think I am too slow.  It was undoubtedly more luck than skill that we made it back to the house. Every day and night is a glorious venture into the unknown in Shetland.