Snow Day, Number 2

Yesterday was the first day in the 20 years of living here that hubby and T had a 'Snow Day'! T's college along with most of the schools in Wiltshire where closed. The roads where really rather dangerous for driving and as we already have one car off the road and still waiting for an insurance claim to be dealt with (the accident occurred 31st October last year) we couldn't afford to go down by another car!



So we played Snowman and Snowcat building with my good friend Annie and her husband Richard



This is Annie making a Snow Angel



and here is one T made earlier!


Snowball fights



Today we woke up and there was even more snow! You can see in the earlier pic around the snowcat and snow man how we had kicked up the snow well you can see how much more has fallen here!



The road has been used mainly by tractors, but is treacherous as it had frozen underneath.




Tonight they forecast -5 to -10 shock!!!



I have become very sleepy, I'm not sure if its a hibernation thing, but I could sleep for England at the mo!!

UK Snow

Everyone moans about snow in the UK! How the country grinds to a halt! The airports can't run fully, the roads aren't gritted, the schools are shut etc etc.



It really really annoys me. When I was a youngster, we used to regularly, well more often than we do now, get snow in winter. People just got on with it. Schools where never shut, playgrounds had icy slides the children had made. Health and Safety was not heard of. Mums where at home in case of any accidents and life was brill!



Now the counties run out of salt for gritting the roads, and that's after a couple of days of snow. I came home from Swindon on a sheet of glass, last night, as no one had gritted. I passed a young girl of about T's age who had pulled in and probably had no idea how to drive in such treacherous conditions. Well we don't need to teach them how too as these conditions so rarely happen!



Buses don't run because its too dangerous, but what they really worry about is someone suing them for Health & Safety reasons because something is wet, icy or just to darn slippy!



Sadly a young girl was killed sledging yesterday, no doubt some silly law will come in to stop children sledging! We have to take some risks otherwise where is the fun in life.



Other countries cope! Yes they do but then they have snow falls most winters and so have all the equipment. I would go out and buy chains for tyres, special boots for walking, I would pay for my girls to learn to skid too, if I knew this was going to be a regular occurrence.



So stop moaning UK, take your time, walk slowly, drive slowly and enjoy this very rare occurrence!

Rant over!!!

The whole, yes the WHOLE of my house is going to be cleaned! All my carpets cleaned, curtains, duvets, pillows, walls, ceilings, suites, lamps, you name it, it will be cleaned, because of smoke damage! If the carpet in the lounge and in fact the walls and ceiling don't clean up well enough I will get a new carpet and be redecorated!!

Now I didn't think it was quite that bad but it is! Excellent says I, thinking I won't need to clean the house before my party........ WRONG

This is the culprit



my chimney needs to be reboarded



and it can't be done in time, hrmph. So instead I will get it all spring cleaned afterwards!!

Whats Been Going On!

Where has the time gone too since I last blogged?? We have been chicken and kitten sitting. Each morning and evening we would go round and play with the kittens for at least an hour, more often longer.
Ripple the stripy kitten was first at everything, barging, pushing, didn't like Ruffle getting any attention!!





Ruffle on the other hand is very withdrawn and quiet, we had to work hard to get her to play.



Yes that is Ruffle disappearing under the units!



Whilst are neighbours where away we had some exceptionally low temperatures and snow! This is looking down my patio!



A couple of mornings it was so cold I had to take the whole of the water container from the chickens run inside to defrost in hot water as it was solid! On the morning of the snow they didn't even want to come out of the run lol!



On the first day of the snow Ripple came out with me but made certain she stepped on the non snowy bits, it was funny to watch





When ever I am out in the garden I was either chatting to the chickens or to Ripple so guess who came to join us



this is not his first meeting with Ripple, she is very forward and demanded a kiss lol!



I have been very pleased with myself over Christmas and New Year, I only gained 4lbs. So with an amazing amount of motivation I have set myself a target to get into the next stones by the 11th February! To help this along we have been walking! On Monday we went round the village but I forgot to take my camera. So today I remembered.

This is just down the road from me





but further round I found these





aren't they soooooo cute. I hope you can feed donkeys carrots because when I go on Friday I may have a few in my pocket!!!!