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It's Snowing in London!

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Cornwall has a traditional image of getting terrible blizzards, but all we've had this winter was a light sprinkling of snow, one day last week, that looked like icing sugar on the brown fruit cake of the surrounding fields; it was gone after a couple of hours of sunshine.

Mind you, it is as cold as a grave-diggers arse!
 
It's snowing in West Cork, too. Just drove back from Cork city to home, normally takes 1.5 hours, took over 2, driving at 15 miles an hour in the hairiest places. I had to go and hear Roddy Doyle read.... despite severe weather warnings! I love his books, but turns out he's a great guy, too. He's set up several centres in Ireland to teach children how to be creative in the writing world without the constraints of school...
 
This photo has been doing the rounds today, showing the snow hitting London....

Snow storm.jpg

Which is nice.

My own corner of the Capital escaped the worst of it yesterday although woke up to some more this morning but tomorrow seems to be looking interesting. Still I am not in work, plenty of hot drinks and the central heating system chugging away so all is well. Might have to battle the heights of Crystal Palace at some stage by way of family chores but I am sure I will survive. ;)
 
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AgentPete said:
I do realise that for many Litopians this will be pretty small beer... but today in central London people were in the street snapping the snow!
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It is snowing in our little town in France too! It almost never snows here. The local teens are out in force, throwing snow balls at the few brave cars and pedestrians that have ventured out (and that haven't ended up in ditches yet). My daughter moved into an uninsulated caravan two days ago and her gas bottles have frozen, so no heat, no tea. It is -10°c. She came down the hill to us to warm up, and now can't get back up there. Her dog, however, (1/4 husky) is in heaven. He likes nothing more than getting hit in the chops by snowballs :) (we might have to send him out to play with the local lads).
 
AgentPete said:
I thought I was the only Londoner to actually like it :)
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Mixed feelings. I like it but I also like it gone quickly. I think what I like most is that special silence that happens when it is really snowing. I am sure that there must be dozens of clever words for it in a variety of languages but nothing I have come across in English yet.
 
This modern world has robbed our children of something special. My kids school have decided to close today. To be fair, a sensible decision given that where we live is rather hilly and the pavements are treacherous.

So it should be a day of larks, high jinx and general mucking about. Hurling snowballs at buses along with meeting up in the local park to take turns on whatever piece of scrap metal you can use as a makeshift sled. That is how it worked for me and I am sure generations of other British kids.

But not now. Now, they have 'Snow School'. On-line lessons, throughout the day. Makes me sad although I am enjoying some amusement from telling my son that he still needs to wear his uniform as the school will be checking up on him via web-cam!
 
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine said:
Science of the hush of snow
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When I was a child, back in the 1960s, I used to know when it had snowed overnight by two things—the quietness, as if a cloak of silence had coated the earth—and the brightness of the yellow bedroom curtains, lit up by light reflected from snow.

Winters were fearsome in those days. Who remembers the winter of 1962-1963? The snowdrifts were so deep, that when we went for a walk, my mother encased my Wellington Boots in carrier bags fastened with rubber bands around my thighs, to prevent snow getting into them. As a keen young naturalist, I was mortified to see tall piles of dead frozen birds on the open green space near to my house. I looked up at the sky, to see a wood pigeon flying erratically overhead: to my utter amazement, it died in flight, dropping to the ground and bouncing!
 
It's finally snowed in my part of Cornwall. This afternoon, I cycled into town to do my weekly shop and visit to the library, braving the snow equivalent of drizzle, which felt like riding into cold needles—I was glad of my beard.

Coming home, the snow was in the white chicken feather state, so I made it to my front door looking like an albino yeti! There's now 5" on the ground, and I'm staying put until the thaw.
 
Snow followed by freezing rain! So now there’s a thick layer of ice on top of the snow - on the windows of my cottage, on my car!!!! - on everything - and everywhere else is sheet ice! Might go out for a slide I to village shop later!!!
 
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