To those who have kindly asked where I am, I am pleased to report that I am not stuck, neck deep in a drift of snow.
In fact, the deepest I have been this week is probably half an inch in Newcastle on Monday morning. Here on my wee stretch of the coast, we have so far been denied the white stuff that has enveloped much of the country.
I felt slightly cheated. I set my alarm half an hour earlier on Monday morning and swaddled myself in myriad layers for work, topped off with my great aunt's long, very thick (and very real looking) fake fur coat. "You want to hope the sun doesn't come out," said the man in the garage as I paid for fuel. "That looks as warm as a duvet!"
The snow began to whirl and hurl itself at the windscreen as I drove south towards Newcastle. The fields along the A1 were swathed in white. But by afternoon, the road was totally clear and I arrived home to find our familiar mud brown scenery had not received its own sprinkle of snowy fairy dust.
I felt slightly resentful at missing the joy of purified winter fields, the all-pervading mud glossed over and sparkling back at a china blue sky; I was jealous of those who enjoyed a guilty snow holiday from work and I missed out on the opportunity to take dozens of pictures of the Grey Mare looking like a Christmas card horse.
Having not experienced the worst snow for 18 years as the London-centric TV news never seemed to tire of telling us, I began to find the weather slightly tedious. As the week wore on, I started to consider it slightly ridiculous that the country ground to a halt because of a few inches of the white stuff.
But then I heard about a teenage girl killed while sledging with friends and walkers who died in the Cumbrian snow. Now I don't feel cheated; I just feel grateful.
10 comments:
Yes, but you can't help saying "Soft southerners" can you?
That was precisely the reaction of my step sister, who has lived in London for many a long year!
It's hardly snowed at all here either but it snowed a bit in London for a change and freaked them all out. There was a newsreader standing in Kent saying "I'ts Blizzard conditions here", well no it wasn't, it was just snowing a bit by the look of it. Blizzard conditions is when your car is buried up to the roof.
PS- icy conditions and cold proabably caused the death of the walkers rather than snow. It looks beautiful up on the fells but its treacherous.
We had about 6 inches in Carlisle but sadly I didn't have time to take any photos before work in the morning and by the evening it was still there but trampled on and not scenic at all.
The roads became death traps as the cars compacted the snow down to ice. Sadly I didn't get a snow holiday as I only live 10 mins walk from work. I nearly fell over crossing the raods a couple of times and even witnessed a minor accident when a car was turning into a junction and skidded and hit a wall, fortunately at very slow speed.
Snow all gone now but very frosty this morning.
if it's worth anything, we have NO Snow either!
I only have a couple of inches here M&M, oh, hang on, I see we are meant to be talking about snow :-( damn
Yes...poor Francesca. The finance manager at my workplace is/was her next door neighbour. I am sure that her family and friends wish that the snow had never come. There are many ways to die but careering into a snowy fence at 50mph on a makeshift sledge isn't a way to go. Apparently on Sikipedia they have been creating jokes around this tragedy... Truly sick! By the way, nice to have you back in the blogosphere.
We had a massive amount of snow here but then we set off for a week's holiday in Penrith (you can guess where)...where there was hardly any snow. I'm not bothered but I felt that the children missed out a bit.
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