More snow

The snow just keeps on coming. We have had quite thick snow outside for 3 weeks now. I’ve never known anything like it. More is forecast so we’re just trying to get on with things.
That isn’t so easy however when the council has run out of grit. None of the main roads are now being gritted and we live down in a valley in the middle of the Pennines. Since we are relying on benefits at the moment we are entitled to a £25 cold weather payment when the average temperature is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days. Today has seen a 3rd payment of £25 be triggered. That means that for 3 consecutive weeks the temperature here has been an average of below freezing. That is a long time to be cold!

Our car broke down the day after Boxing Day anyway so we’re reliant on public transport and good old Shank’s pony. Yesterday I thought I’d stick an Asda home delivery order in to come later on this evening. I ordered all the heavy stuff on there so we wouldn’t have to lug it back from the shop ourselves.
This morning, 12 hours before our shopping was due to be delivered we got a phone call from Asda to tell us that because of the untreated roads all deliveries for our little town and the next one along have been cancelled. Next available slot is Friday. We need the stuff before that so we cancelled and tomorrow will walk down to our little supermarket and get a taxi home… if there are taxis running in the snow that is.

Katie was supposed to have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow but we have had to cancel. We were all set to get the train and then taxi to get us there but the snow has made us rethink. Public transport is being cancelled all over the place. The appointment has been cancelled and we will get a chance to rebook soon. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long!

My sister has had no hot water or heating since her boiler broke down on Christmas day. She rents the house and it needs a new boiler. It was supposed to have been fitted yesterday but because of the snow it couldn’t be done. It was rescheduled for today but yes, you guessed it, couldn’t be done because of the snow. BT have managed to get out to install her new phone line though, it is being done at the moment. She should have internet by this evening lol.

Schools all over the country are closed. Robyns remains open thank goodness. They pride themselves on keeping open in all weathers. If we chose not to send Robyn in that wouldn’t be a problem. They stay open for the kids that want to go/have no choice. Some working parents are very glad of the school’s policy, I’m not sure all the children are lol. Robyn loves school though, she would rather be there with her friends than stuck at home.

When will things get back to normal?! It is rather good fun to play in though!

And still the snow falls…

The snow started on Thursday evening. It is now Tuesday morning and it is still snowing! Ok, so it hasn’t been constant but it has snowed at least a little bit every day. Sunday was the heaviest day but today is looking likely to match it. The sky is absolutely full of snow. It is coming down thick and fast and the snow that had already fallen hasn’t had a chance to melt.

Christmas is 3 days away! It all feels very festive, like we are living in a picture from a Christmas card. When I was a child I remember having to sing “In the bleak midwinter” over and over again in hymn practice at school. The last line in the last verse is tricky to sing… Yet what I can I give him: Give my heart. This is the line we had to sing and sing and sing until we got it right. Funny how something like that never leaves your memory. Whenever I sing it now as an adult I smile and think about Mrs May. I wonder where she is and I wonder whether she is still forcing children to get it right. I guess she is retired now though lol.

The first verse in that carol is this:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

That is what is is like here at the moment. I never really thought about the 3rd line before this week. Now I understand. Snow falling on top of snow, on top of snow makes the earth as hard as iron, it is true! When the wind blows it does moan. I can’t say I envy poor Mary giving birth in a stable at any time of year, let alone if the weather was like this!

I’m off for a hot chocolate and to crank the heating up!

Snow Sunday

We have snow! Quite alot of snow!

We took the girls to the park earlier with the sledge. When we set off the snow was still coming down but quite gently. As we walked along I was smiling, thinking how lovely it was. Oh how things can change! When we got to the park it suddenly started coming down thicker and faster. Then the wind started! We were in the middle of the park in a snow blizzard lol.

Luckily our park has lovely shelters. We went and sat in one for a few minutes and waited for the blizzard to die down. Then we carried on walking. We threw snowballs and sledged down a big hill. I took some photographs (no surprise there!). Then Katie fell out of the sledge head first! She cried, Robyn whinged that her feet were cold and so we started to walk home again.

It looks beautiful out there. If the snow is still there tomorrow we will build a snowman in the street. I can’t stop humming “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas!”. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!

 

Snow Memories

We’ve had a fair bit of snow up here in Yorkshire and its just not shifting. I don’t mind the snow, I get excited when I see it falling as I know the girls will like it and also Anthony. It reminds me of when I was a child and how much fun we used to have.

When we lived in Lincoln we lived next to a big common. I remember waking up to a big snowfall once and school closed. I would have been 11 or 12 years old. We all went onto the common and a big group of friends (including adults from my dads college) built a HUGE igloo. It was big enough to fit us all inside and grown adults could stand up at the highest part of it. It took us hours to build that igloo. We were all so so proud of it and were sad to go home and leave it behind.

The next day school was open again and we walked past the igloo on the way in. Everybody at school was talking about it… “Did you see that igloo on the common?! It’s wicked!!”. As a kid it wasnt very often that I got the chance to take credit for something that was being talked about so much so I loved the glory. For a change I was someone people were talking to rather than ignoring.

On the way home from school we got to the common and saw that the igloo had been smashed. There was a massive heap of snow on the ground where it once stood. We were so sad.

On Monday, while hundreds of schools around the country closed Robyn went to school as normal. The pupils were all rewarded with a snow morning in the park. The whole school went to the park complete with sledges. They had a whale of a time!!

When the snow comes now I take the girls out to play in it. I want them to have happy memories of “Snow days” like I have. Its an important part of childhood.

This picture was taken in December when we had snow. We took Robyn to school in the sledge. Now that’s the way to travel in snow!!

This one was taken on Monday in the park