English favourite: the weather!!!

Oh yes, the weather! It is always the number one topic in England, but I have never heard it talked about as much as in the last two days. We had snow! Okay, for most of the world that is probably not news to bring the day to a standstill, but here it is! Seriously... Of course, you are talking about a country that normally does not get snow, more than a sprinkling anyway, here in the South. There are no snowplows and other gadgets to get rid of the stuff, and hardly anybody has such things as winter tyres or snow chains. Ergo -- thousands of schools were closed, public transport was disrupted, flights grounded, appointments cancelled. I should have been seeing my chiropractor and also I should have had minor surgery today, just a little cyst cut away, but both of those were cancelled... Nicole is marooned on the island because her flight was cancelled, too; Sean's colleague didn't turn up because he couldn't get the car out of their cul-de-sac, and one of my friends burned up the motor of her windscreen wipers trying to use them to clear the approximately 10" of snow off the windscreen instead of using a brush! People here seriously don't know how to handle snow - I thought it rather funny (although I admit I was quite pleased not having to go out myself...). It is definitely beautiful, though - I've never seen that much snow here, and it is amazing how quiet it can be here, with the snow muffling the sounds of the few cars on the A-road, and the motorway just outside town down to a more or less permanent crawl. I hope we'll have some more days like this!

Pavement in front of our house and view to the station -
last night when it was all pristine

The road coming down the railway bridge in front of our house -
if they miss that bend they go straight into our driveway
(hitting whatever is parked there - bit worrying!)

Our house front and the cars - my "Smartie" and Sean's "new" van
which we brought down from Nottingham in early January:
it's an ex-post-service van and it's huuuuuge!

Today in the garden...

View out our back door...

Wall planter - just to give an idea of the amount of snow...