"Holy cow"

The first words out of my mouth when I opened the curtains at 6.35 this morning after receiving the phone call I had so wanted to receive "Morning Sarah - School's closed".

Got up, phoned all the people I have to phone and then put my boots on, and a coat, over my fluffy white pyjamas, and stood outside in the 5 inch deep snow with a cup of tea. It was SO quiet - genuinely like someone had put a blanket over everything to dampen any noise. And it was still snowing :-)

I woke James up at 7.10, asked him to get dressed, but told him that it was unlikely that he would be at school today "Why's that?" he asked me. "Look out the window" I said. "Holy cow" said James. Which made me smile. "And it's still snowing Mum".

Lots more ringing around trying to ascertain whether I would have to dig my car out to get James to school, but 8.15 saw the decision that all schools in our area were closed. By this point Corin had also discovered that he had a snow day too.

Bacon, mugs of tea, toast...then I took an interesting walk to Asda - snow seeping over the top of my boots as I was walking. Picked up some basics, which I am glad I did as it looks like it will be shut tomorrow. Also got a nice sausage sandwich whilst I was in the shopping centre. Naughty, but bloomin' delicious.

Corin and I have spent a huge amount of time outside. James has ventured out a little, but cold and wet don't suit him, so he didn't persist for long! Corin and one of our neighbours dug and cleared all the snow from the parking area outside a number of houses at the top of the close, cleared the path from the frontdoor of one of our elderly, infirm neighbours and then Corin set about the business of building a snowman. Hence the pictures.

His work was interrupted, by "real" work in the early afternoon - an emergency callout. So the snowman was completed at tea time.

I have taken a number of shots of the day, of James, Corin, a small but quite evil looking snow sculpture of a penguin that I have done, but I am not going to link to them right now, as Corin hasn't blipped yet, and I know he is going to blip his wonderful snowman. When he's done his, I will link back.
Edit - Corin has blipped - a snowman's bum, so you can now go to here and have a look at the snow sculptures, snowy trees and James trying to move a snow mountain!


Oh, and we discovered that a neighbour has built an igloo today, the size of his backgarden, making bricks by compacting snow in a washing up bowl, cutting to size and then stacking - when Corin went to see it around 7.30 ish tonight, our neighbour was just about to start constructing the roof dome. I was too cold by this time, but I think I might be blipping it tomorrow if he's managed to get the roof on. It takes a lot to impress Corin - but he was "really bloody impressed".

Another day at home tomorrow - no travelling at all, particularly as another 3 or 4 inches fell during the day so it was really quite deep, and tonight its going to freeze. Wondering what Thursday will bring?!