More Seasonal Fun

Boxing Day continued the 'relaxed christmas' theme - mainly spent watching the goldfinches, chaffinches and bluetits on the birdfeeder, (although there is also a magnificant cock-pheasant which comes to help himself to the fallen seed)

Some of us then decided to be energetic and went for a steep and snowy walk down (and back up) the valley near the house.

Other members of the party chose to stay home on the basis that all the white stuff out there was a Sign, indicating that it might be Cold out there...

They might even have been right.

Sadly, the village pub has recvently closed, and we were unable to locate another within walking distance, so were unable to finish our walk with the traditional pint in a nice, warm pub, but were forced to return to the house and drink our own beer instead.

A different selection of people chose to go shopping on Monday. I don;t think they bought anything, but I am not sure - I was not part of the shopping contingent.I was part of a contingent of one, which decided that staying in bed for ages and then having a bath of truy epic length was a much better option...

Then on Tuesday, we met up with my Aunt & Uncle  (who live about 12 miles away) and my cousin A, her husband and two boys, which was lovely - A and M live down in Kent so we don't see them very often. We all went for a slighty damp walk to the Valley of the Rocks, where we  saw some of the feral goats, avoided losing any of the children over the cliffs, and  got some rather lovely atmospheric views before the rain really came down.

And as some of you may have seen on facebook, we hae also spent several evenings looking at slides from when my eldest sister & I were small - leading to much hilarity..

As you can see, I was so photogenic.... (and a good driver!)

Winter Is Here

It has mosty been a fairly dull week - cold, and uneventful, and I have mainly just been going to work, and trying to remember to go to bed early, being knackered.

Friday, however, was a little more interesting -in the evening was our work Christmas meal, and earlier, we were having snow forecast. It did snow a little - just a sprinkling, enough to make eveything look pretty, but not enough to stop me going out.

I'd left myself a lttle extra time to drive to work, in case of snow or ice, which meant I had time to stop to take a picture or two as the sun came up, as I drove across the hills.

By the time I got home it was much colder, and my enthusiasm for the work Christmas party was rapidly waning - I alwayss end up fretting about what to wear, and the possibility of being over- or under-dressed, and knowing how foolish this is doesn't seem to make much difference. However, once there, I quite enjoyed myself - although I was glad to get home.

I didn't sleep well, and woke up very early; after giving up on the prospect of getting back to sleep I got out of bed and looked out of the window to find that it had snowed, quite heavily (for England) overnight, so I  got up to go out and play in the snow. It was early enough that the sun wasn't yet up, and no-one else had been out, and there is something irresistable about pristine, unmarked snow...

I went down by the stream behind the houses opposite - as you can see, the sun was just coming up and gave everything a pinkish glow.

Livng in a town, as I do, you rarely get to her silence (yes, I know. But you know what I mean) it was lovely to be out with no sound but the creak of the snow as I walked, and birdsong, and the trickle of water from the stream.

As I am quite practically minded, even when admiring the beauties of nature, I took the opporunity to walk down to the paper shop and buy some milk, as I guessed (correctly, as it turned out) that my milkman would probably not be making any deliveries.

On the way, I found myself reminded that even the most prosaic of things, such as a streetlight, can turn out to be unexpectedly beautiful, in the right conditions.                                                                                         

It seemed as though most households were still asleep as I walked past - those few where there were lights on all seemed to be people who had got up early in order to watch the Ashes si as I walked by, in the snow, I could see glimpses of  bright sunshine, and cricketers, as though a little piece of summer was spilling out into the winter landscape, to remind us that all things will pass...

A little later in the morning, as I was making coffee and looking out into the street from the shelter of my nice warm kitchen, I saw the little girl who lives across the road come out of her house. she had, I suppose, just woken up & seen the snow, as she came bouncing out in her pyjamas and wellinigton boots, bouncing around like an excited puppy. (She didn't stay out for long - so I didn't need to get too worried about her lack of proper winter clothing)

I spent most of the rest of the day catchinng up with housework, and then dressing my Christmas tree and wrapping presents, which, together with the snow, put me in a properly festive mood.

Now, if everyone could keep their fingers crossed for the snow to go (and for  no more to fall) by next weekend, so that we can all mae it down to the parent's house for Christmas.... (Once we're all their, it can snow as much as it likes, just not before, please. 'Kay?)

In Which Further Blizzards Fail to Materialise

At the risk of tempting fate, and calling down further snow upon us, it seems that the additional snow forecast for this afternoon has held off - it was quite overcast so didn't appear to be anything like as cold as it was yesterday or on Friday.

Indeed, by mid afternoon it looked as though the street outside was clearer than it has been since it first snowed, on Wednesday, with patches where the ashphalt is visible again, and a lot of people seem to have gone out so there were fewer parked cars. I decided to see whether I could safely drive out to the main(er) road, on the bass that if I could, I could park overnight and then, even if it freezes again overnight I would be close enough to the treated roads to get out and be able to get to work.

My plan worked, and as the road was completely clear when I got to the end of the street, I decided to go a little further, and drove over to Bradford-on-Avon, where I went for a short wander along by the canal.

The canal (The Kennet & Avon) was frozen, although there were places, by the lock, under bridges, and where a small stream drains into it where it was not frozen - there were also places where the ice had been broken and refrozen - it looked at thought the ice was between 1" and 2" thick, and from the foot-prints in the slush on top of the ice it was clear that it was strong enough to bear the weight of the swans and other waterbirds., although various holes seems to show that it was not strong enough to bear the weight of various lumps of stone being heaved into it!

A little further down the canal one comes to the Tithe Barn, which was built in the early 1300s and used to belong to Shaftesbury Abbey, until Henry VIII pur a stop to all that, of course! It's a beautiful (and enormous) building, and it is one of those places where it tends suddenly to hit me how rich in history we are here: The barn dates from the 14th C, with the church having owned the farm & land since 1001, and the barn continued to be used, certainly into the 1950s...

I enjoyed my walk, and, in accordance with the original plan, subsequently left my car down the street, in the hope that I may be able to drive tomorrow morning..

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Yesterday, the BBC started warning us that it was going to snow heavily. Initially, they said it would snow yesterday, which concened me as I was due to be in court, and had carefully taken the file with me (on the basis that even if I couldn't get into the office, I could walk to the station and get a train, to get to court, if need be)

However, no snow yesterday morning, and although it snowed a little as I came out of court, it didn't settle, and I was able to get back to the office, work until the normal time and get home without incident.

The forecast had been for snow in the afternoon and evening, so when I found myself on the way to bed at 11 p.m. with no sign of any snow, I concluded that the BBC had erred, and that I would, after all, have to get up and go to work as usual.

When the alarm went off I peered out of the window, assuming I would simply have the usual job of scraping ice of the car windscreen. However, it immediately became obvious that I wouldn't be going anywhere I couldn't get to on foot - we had between 3" and 4" of snow - more, I think, than we got last February - or at least more in one go.

It's probably a sign of advancing age that rather than leap out of bed and run out to play in the snow, I instead thought 'Hurrah!' and turned over to snuggle under the duvet for another hour! (although to be fair, not even the local children were out there in the blue morning light at 6 a.m)

As I made breakfast, I saw that the snowballers were out - including one (teenage boy, who else?) wearing jeans & T-shirt with no coat or gloves (I was wearing 3 layers and I was inside!) and another (pre-teen girl) in shortie pyjamas, dressing gown & Ugg boots!

Later in the morning their parents came out, and helped them to build a magnificant 8' tall snowman,

which will no doubt be with us for some time to come...

I went out a little later, in order to buy milk and chocolate HobNobs - it was unusally quiet - you tend not to notice the low hum of traffic in the background until it isn't there. There were a few people who had decided to venture out in their cars despite the snow - just enough of them to compact the snow from 4" of soft, fluffy snow (The kind that makes a creaking crunch when you step on it) into a solid block of ice.

I watched one car skate gracelessly into the kerb, wheels pointing 45 degrees from the direction of travel and spinning ineffectually. I think the driver had expected that (a) braking would cause him to slow down and (b) turning the wheel would allow him to turn right.

A second driver, behind him, decided that the sensible response to this was to accelerate and swing past him... I was very glad that I had not tried to move my car at all.

Even the more main roads were very slushy and icy, and as far as I could tell were clear(ish) as a result of traffic, not because they had been gritted.

I went for a little walk into the park and through the nature reserve on my way back from the minimarket, admiring the beautiful pictures the snow had painted on the trees and plants.

It started to thaw just a little this afternoon, but only enough to create a few icicles and, no doubt, ensure that the snow freezes and becomes even more slippery. We are predicted to have temperatures well below freezing overnight, so I am not at all sanguine about the prospect of reaching the office tomorrow, either. I did clear and salt the pavement immediately outside my house, but anticipate that the road will be too icy for it to be safe to drive, at least first thing.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, Tybalt has made it clear to me that he does not appreciate snow, that he disapproves of my poor management in allowing it to be snowy outside the back door, the front door and the window, all at the same time. I am not entirely satified that providing him with an indoor litter tray and and a new fleece to snuggle into has done enough to placate him...

I am not even going to think about the gas bill. I'd rather stay warm and worry about it later.

In which it snows, and yet life continues.

As anyone who has been watching the BBC will be aware, it snowed today, and as a result, life as we know it ground to a halt. In London, the buses were cancelled, trains didn’t go, even the Tube had problems (which seems odd – I mean, most of it is underground, how snowed in can it be?)

Not being a Londoner, I went to work as usual. There was a little snow, but not enough to really notice. It did start snowing by midmorning, and was snowy enough to cover the pavements – by the time I left work at 5 p.m. we had had between 1.5 and 2 inches.

After having listened to the news, I would not have been surprised to have found myself struggling through avalanches and attacked by glaciers and polar bears, like some latterday Shakleton, but in fact, there was very little excitement.

Driving home was slightly interesting but only due to other drivers - How hard can it be to work out that reduced visibility due to driving snow, together with ice on the road might just mean that it would be a good idea to drive a little more slowly, and leave a little more space to take account of the effect of ice on stopping distances?

From the news coverage one would think we were all going to be trapped by blizzards and reduced to eating our relatives to stay alive. And I'm pretty sure we're not. At least not until tomorrow, maybe even Wednesday.

To be fair, it does seem that London and the South East did have more – about 10 inches in London, but even so, I’m not wholly convinced that this really justifies it being the lead on the news…

Still, it was pretty. There was very little wind so the snow settled not only on the road and rooftops, but also on every branch and leaf. Lovely.