Tuesday February 22, 2005

When the East wind doth blow we shall have snow

The above picture is of our garden on tuesday morning. Not much snow has fallen so far but we are promised heavier downfalls today and later in the week. The kids will have to wait before they have enough of the stuff to have snowball fights...

Meanwhile now the promised snow has finally arrived and Britain is plunged into the usual chaos I was reminded of a weekend many years ago when we stayed in this pub , The New Inn, Coln St-Aldwyns in the Cotswolds for my birthday in January.

We did a nice walk during the day across to Bourton on the water . In the evening as I sipped my pint of beer and studied what to eat for dinner the white stuff started started to fall. By the time we had finished eating there were several inches of snow. It transformed the landscape. Rumours of closed roads spread around the pub and any remaining rooms were quickly taken. We of course had already planned to stay overnight.

The following day as I took our case out to the car and removed as much of the snow as I could, I looked up the hill behind the pub. Loads of children were on the hill sledging and generally having loads of fun. As I went back to the pub I met someone who had also stayed overnight. He was putting his case in the car. He said "this is going to be a fun journey, this is one day when I would rather not own a Porsche". I knew what he meant. Keeping the Porsche on the road with that amount of horsepower was going to be a challenge.

As I said Britain and extreme weather conditions. Instant chaos.