Snow Snippets

We have had a few days of thoroughly wintery weather, which we rarely get before Christmas. Two or three inches of snow on Thursday night left us snowbound on Friday. Southern England never copes well with snow, as we get significant snow falls too rarely for it to be worth having the equipment to deal with it - no snow shovels, snow blowers, snow chains or anything of that kind here. Mostly people either sit it out at home or slide around in ill equipped cars. Usually the main roads are quite well gritted and salted, but side roads rarely or never see a gritter (hmm ... according to the local council's website they grit 47% of the road network. I'll leave the remaining 53% to your imagination). Our favoured snowy weather tactic is to park our car on the main entrance road to our estate and avoid driving on our snow and ice covered cul-de-sac at all.

A few snow diary notes ...

• Thursday - came out of a carol concert in a village church to find snow falling and a light covering on the ground. Very atmospheric! Drove home ahead of the snow to find Angel peering out of the window wondering why it still wasn't snowing.
• Friday - snow day for the older girls as most schools closed. Tevye didn't bother trying to drive into the office - we know from experience that if it is bad here, it is usually worse there. The roads cleared a bit so I ventured out to play carols on a village green. It snowed. Good job brass instruments are quite weather proof. Certain band members discovered tubas are useful for snowball target practice.
• Saturday - town roads looked OK so we ferried girls backwards and forwards to the gym. Temperatures down to -5 (C). Star's friend made it over in the afternoon and stayed overnight. I made it into town in the evening for another carol concert.
  
• Sunday - a little more snow overnight and road conditions much worse. Drove Star's friend as far as the edge of her village and left her to walk the rest of the way (village roads looked nasty!), then drove slowly and cautiously on to Mass. Walked in during the first hymn to find there was no organist. Found that I was the last minute substitute (or should that be later than last minute substitute?)
• Monday - still cold and icy, but Tevye made it into work. Temperature dropped to -11 (C) at one point during his journey, but had settled at -7 by the time he got to the office ... to find the boiler had gone out and there was no heating. Fortunately someone more technically minded managed to get it going. He left early and was glad he did - by the time he got home it was snowing again. He went straight out again to take Star to a dance class, and just barely made it home as cars struggled to climb the hill on the main road near our house. I walked down later to collect her. By this time there was traffic chaos, with cars slipping and sliding everywhere and a tailback down the hill. Our neighbour took two and a half hours to drive ten miles home from work. Which leaves as at ...
• Tuesday - a beautiful winter wonderland, and we are going nowhere!