Rufus and the snow

Where is Rufus?

Here he is!

Can you blame him?

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then?
Poor thing.

He'll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.

At least the humans made it as far as the pub!

Snow Penguin

We have a snow penguin in our back garden, made by my younger son and his girlfriend. At least they used pennies not pound coins on it, so we won't have to ring the police if it gets stolen, like this woman did.

Are we nearly there yet?

Imbolc Dawn, fabrics, 10x12 in by Jude Spacks

This has been one of the longest winters I've ever known. The heavy snow had me almost housebound and there have been too many days when the weather is simply grey and I begin to wonder if we will ever see the sun again.

But the days are getting longer and I was delighted to discover that today is officially Imbolc - the pagan festival that celebrates the beginning of spring.

Imbolc Dawn by Jude Spacks, detail

So, Happy Imbolc to everyone! Here's to more sun coming our way!

(Of course, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere it isn't Imbolc at all, but I send you my best wishes anyway.)

Snow

This was the UK yesterday. Picture courtesy of NASA.

I live under the swirl of clouds on the bottom right of the country.

Snow scenes

Here are two of the scenes I promised. If you look back at A Walk into Town you'll see that they were taken from the same place as two of the earlier pictures so you can see the difference the snow makes.


If you want to see more pictures of the snow I've uploaded them to Picasa.

My husband and I walked into town and it was so pretty. Everyone talks to everyone else when it's snowy like this. We got bread and milk in M&S - Waitrose hadn't had a delivery. We also got a chicken to roast so we aren't reduced to eating what's in the back of the cupboard yet. Then we had coffee in Starbucks and talked to a friendly young deaf couple.

I cleared a path on our drive later: it's very steep and I didn't want the snow to freeze where it was trodden down. I enjoyed that but I'm wiped out now. It's been a good day.

Snowed in

We had a foot of snow in the night and we are snowed in. The roads are impassable and there are no trains or buses running. Most of the London Underground has also shut down.

So it's an impromptu holiday! I plan to make a snowman and have a snowball fight with my husband.

I'm just wondering what we are going to eat. I have got chicken pasta sorted for tonight and we have a drawer full of frozen sausages and some eggs. I think I may have to get creative with what's in the store cupboard. Poor family!

Pictures to follow.