The end of 2009 and the start of the new year 2010 has brought a new record. Some say that this is the worst snow that we have had in 100 years. On the positive issues (stir), people walk to the shops if the pavements are not too icy. As a result they enjoy the physical exercise. People talk as they walk. Cheery, positive and helpful while they travel on foot to the shops, church or community centre.

Picture the scene - A car is snow-stuck. So it is all hands to the pump.  Rescuers are friends, neighbours, strangers, people with darkened glasses and passers by that all come together. They dig, push the vehicle, lay carpets and blankets under the wheels, provide spades and move snow.  All to help a driver in distress. Our national spirit of comradeship and help for those in need is revived.

There is also a plus for the Scottish tourist industry for example the resort known as CairnGorm Mountain. They have had their best Christmas season in fourteen years. During the four days starting from Boxing Day there had been more than eight thousand skiers and snow boarders using its runs. This includes eight hundred on New Year's Eve. A whopping 15,000 skiers have used the resort since the start of December 2009 and this well beats their two-thousand visitors in 2008.  We have also heard that some skiers in Aviemore have been snowed in as the roads to the South are blocked.

In Inverness, it was certainly all hands to the deck just before Christmas at Hilton Primary School. There, a butcher meat van was delivering supplies to Hilton Primary in the early hours of the morning.  That certainly is dedication to duty. A big thank you goes out to the van driver and school staff! The landscape, the view outside your windows front and back looks delightful. Very white and amazingly bright as seen in the photo of Stirling Castle.   Hopefully in spring or summer we can provide our readers with pictures of Scotland at its best.

On the minus side, that is the stops, there are - the abandoned cars, lorries, skids, roads closed/blocked and many accidents. Well, how about this for a super snow excuse. It is a real show stopper. Would you believe that the fleet of Council gritters in Perth, Scotland was grounded this week. Why.... because it was so cold - as explained by a council spokesperson "We experienced some technical problems on Tuesday with fuelling due to extreme weather. "Therefore Perth and Kinross Council left the roads untreated in temperatures of -10 centigrade. Perth and Kinross, it appears, seem to have failed its Council Tax payers.

Fife Council are hot on Perth and Kinross Council's tail.  Fife having failed to restock grit bins in the county. The real bad news is that they have only kept open roads that have bus routes. As a result pedestrians and motorists at best have been stranded in their homes on the side roads or at the worst snowed out!

It has also been rumoured that staff using emergency vehicles such as ambulances have had long walks to their patients as roads not on bus routes have been impassable. Therefore, is Fife's policy of only gritting bus routes acceptable? I think we should write a new anthem to help them decide. It is to the tune, The first Noel, the words, "No Grit, No Grit, and the snow did come down, All cars and people are now stuck in town".

To be fair some politicians have been looking at the issue and a transport spokesman said: "The public need an update from the government and an assurance that help will be given to local authorities to keep Scotland moving. "There will be concerns that councils need assistance to ensure there will be enough salt and grit."

(Article by Charles Litster)