Shepherds Beware!

We lucky people in the centre of Edinburgh seem to have escaped the worst furies of storm Desmond. Although the wind roared through the trees outside the Dower House all night and the rain fell for 24 hours, the old Borough Loch over the wall has only managed to reinstate a few large puddles. This is one reflecting another red sunrise which may yet prove a warning to the shepherds in our midst.

However for the moment, the sun is out, the wind has died down, it is relatively mild and there is not one umbrella on display.
The walk to the temple of toast along wet paths sparkling in the sunshine was a delight. I feel heart sorry for all those families in Cumbria and the Borders who have water 4 feet deep in their houses. It will be a particularly bleak Christmas tide for them.

There is a strange quietness in Edinburgh away from the centre. The closure of the Forth Road bridge has indeed cut the City off from everyone north of the Forth.
We have had to cancel a long awaited pre Christmas lunch with family in Perth this coming week. The trains north and south are vastly overcrowded and unreliable, coping as they are with transferring the workforce from Fife into Edinburgh and back home.
I know that businesses on both sides of the Forth will feel the pinch with the loss of this essential artery of travel.

Christmas will not be a happy time for so many people here at home and abroad with natural and man made disasters.