Midwinter not far away

Strange to realise that it's December on Monday and still there's no real sign of winter. It's dark, of course - the days are getting noticeably shorter - but it's still way too mild for NE Scotland at this time of year.

We sit here at a latitude of 57° N - two degrees further north than Moscow. Chris and Kelly, by comparison, are just 34° S and Scott and Lucy are 42° N - quite a difference.

I try to keep politics out of these blogs, but today Scotland finally got some additional powers promised by the main Westminster parties on the eve of the referendum. As ever, it was a compromise, but it's significant that all the parties agreed. Does that mean that really none of them are happy with the deal? It's St. Andrews Day on Sunday - did this help expedite matters? Now the hard work starts to recalculate how this affects the existing block grant under the Barnett Formula, which has devised as long ago as 1978.

Enough of that.

Today was spent in my Aberdeen office, mostly clearing out desk drawers and filing cabinets. I've filled a few bin-liners and brought some more stuff home. I'm getting used to doing little else now.

The Banchory Festive Lights get officially switched on at 6 pm tonight, but it's such a dank, dreich day that I don't expect they'll get many folk out to watch - certainly not us. Jo's just returned with her car, which was in for service, but she got a bit of a soaking walking up there to pick it up.