Tuesday 3 February 2009

I've got a Snow Day!

All the local schools are shut because of the snow and the icy roads so, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'VE GOT A SNOW DAY!!!!
The day dawned cold and crisp, with a clear blue sky and lots of crisp, crunchy snow - glorious!The snow had stopped at around 3am (apparently!) by which time it was so cold that it froze the surface layer. It also meant that, despite the sterling work of the gritter lorries, Himself (sensibly) chose to work from home again (yippee!) and Last-Born's school was shut for the day.


Yesterday evening we'd had to take the netting off the top of the fruit cage - the first time in the 7 years we've lived here, so I ventured outside to check everything - okay, it was just an excuse to go out...!


Back garden, looking to the left, at about 8.30am.


Back garden, looking to the right and still in shade at about 8.30am

I don't think my solar lantern will be much use tonight!

Cornus with icicle.

The front of the house at about 9am - with only animal prints to mark the snow...foxes, cats and the badger.

The front island - pristine and beautiful about 9.00am


The Japanese Garden looking very wintery!

Ceefer cat walks on water!
He ventured onto the frozen surface of the bottom pond.....

went a bit further out...... and fell through the ice! By the time I'd stopped laughing he'd scrambled back onto dry land and gone off in a huff!

I decided that it was time to indulge my inner 8 year and make a snow angel - I was hopeless!
The snow was so frozen that I couldn't make any indentations and the rude comments from Last-Born only serve to make me laugh more....!

The world's worst snow angel maker!

So I got Last-Born and her friends to make them - they were just as bad as me, only louder!
So they built a snowman instead - he's only partly done here, but I was getting chilly...!
then they tried sledging down the front drive....

but 3 on the sledge didn't work - 1 did though!

and they proved to be very acurate with snowballs!

The girls have since been joined by some of the boys from school - so I've come in out of the way.... the boys are an even better shot than the girls are!
They'll come in eventually - when they're cold or hungry or it's too dark to play any more. I'll feed them all hot chocolate and listen to their loud tales of who cheated at snowballs, who got snow down their backs and who did the best sledge ride ......... and I'll smile and be happy and have that warm, fuzzy feeling we parents know so well.
What a wonderful day!

13 comments:

Shirley Landis VanScoyk said...

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time - I am home in front of the fire for about our fifth snow day tis winter. I still love them! With stil about an inch on the ground from the last storm, we are getting about three more inches today. Here's some snow fun - find a big pile pushed up by your gritter lorries (we call them snow plows) stuff a pair of old pants with newspaper, up end the pants in the big pile of snow and put old boots on the legs. It looks like someone upsided by the plow! Sure to make the kids laugh! I'm going out to make snow angels now!!!!

Nutty Gnome said...

Haa haa, what a brilliant idea - must try that!
Hope your snow angels turn out better than ours - but I had SUCH a good day. I'm going to make a fire and have a glass of wine now. Enjoy your snow!!!

Gem said...

Looks like you had a fantastic time! Ceefer (love the name!) looks very sweet, I bet he got a shock when he fell in the water!!!

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Gem and welcome - he wasn't very impressed that's for sure!I've never seen him move so fast as he did to get back to the house.Yes, Ceefer was the girls choice - they spent ages trying to persuade us to get a dog so that we could call him Deefer!

flydragon said...

Whoo hoo, I'm glad to see you enjoying all that snow, while I on the other hand am not:))
Also love your house and surrounding gardens...I mean snow fields:)

O.I.M said...

so glad you are enjoying the snow. i think your snow angel technique is good. the trick of course is getting up without ruining the impression while appearing graceful and light as a feather to those who might be looking on. I have yet to make an elegant snow angel exit. ha ha ha. happy snow day.
irena

Anonymous said...

Hi Nutty Gnome, what a joyous post about your rare snow! So many smiling faces and angelic shapes, just wonderful. Your house is indeed beautiful, as is your garden. :-)
Frances at Fairegarden

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Looks like you had fun! Snow does bring out the kid in us! I'm glad you enjoyed your snow day to the fullest, complete with snow angels and a snowball fight!

Nutty Gnome said...

Flydragon - yes, I'm SO lucky to live in such a beautiful place, especially as we've got about 14 neighbours (our garden runs parallel to a road and all the gardens back onto our length) and we're only about 10 minutes walk from the centre of town! The snow fields have been somewhat decimated by maurading teenagers - but I wouldn't have it any other way!
Irena - I obviously need to do some serious work on graceful, light and elegant - in everything, not just snow angels!!!!
Frances - yesterday was such fun! I hope I'll still be enjoying snow when I'm old ( and still living here!)
Catherine - my inner child is never very far from the surface, but she was out with full abandon yesterday. Excellent fun!

Shady Gardener said...

What a wonderful day you had!! I miss having my own children around... they're all grown up with young families of their own. Boo Hoo. I'm so happy that you had such a wonderful time! (And YOU are a snow angel!) ;-)

Nutty Gnome said...

Aah Shady, thank you for that - that's such a lovely thing to say.

I know what you mean about missing your children ... since First-Born went to university I've felt like a part of me is missing. I presume this is normal, but some days it just hurts - she would have loved sharing the snow day with us! (although she did confess to a snowball fight at 3am in the uni carpark!!!)

spookydragonfly said...

Looks like you're all having so much fun! I have yet to make a snow angel this year. Your home is beautiful!

Nutty Gnome said...

Hi Spookydragonfly - yes we had great fun, but I did ache a bit afterwards!
Yes, the house is gorgeous. We've been here 7 years now and I still get a thrill when I walk up the drive. I love living here - and we have enough projects for both inside and out to keep us going for many years to come! Good job I'm not planning on being anywhere else!