Amber

There has been a well-announced Met Office Amber Alert for snow and ice for much of today. There have been warnings of dangerous travelling conditions and possible travel disruptions, so it seemed a good day to spend indoors.

Actually, I took a bus into Falkirk to do some shopping in the morning - it's our annual Gift Service at church tomorrow and I needed to buy a couple of things for that - but was home around midday.

However I gave the football a miss in the afternoon - a wise choice since it ended as a 0-0 home draw against Greenock Morton - and managed instead to put together Orders of Service for the church services I'm leading on 30th December and 6th January at Cumbernauld Old Parish Church.

Any thoughts I had about going out in the evening to get a photo for my Blip journal were quickly quashed by the realisation that it was snowing outside. So I dashed out for a few minutes to snap my neighbours' colourful display of Christmas lights. I think the appropriate phrase is "any port in a storm" or in my parlance Blip-tick.