Winter Draws On

We hear that the south of England has been suffering wintry weather. Ha!

We returned home from our little sojourn in the Dordogne (the subject of our previous posting) feeling reasonably relaxed but relishing neither the return to the daily grind nor the colder weather which were to come.

Mrs A headed off to work on a decidedly chilly Monday morning and Mr A got stuck into the Monday chores, making a mental note that during the afternoon he ought to cut some more wood in case the weather really did become cold. That ambition, sadly, was frustrated when it began to rain after lunch. Cutting wood, which ought to be kept dry, with an electric chainsaw, which MUST be kept dry, is not sensible in such conditions. By the time Mrs A returned home towards 7pm, the rain had turned into sleet.

‘Wouldn’t it be great’ said Mrs A, ‘if we were snowed in tomorrow. I could spend my birthday here instead of at work.’

Imagine our delight when we awoke on Tuesday to a snowy wonderland. About 10cm (4 inches in old money) had fallen over night and it was still snowing. Our drive was clearly impassable, partly because of the depth of the snow and partly because the weight of the snow in the trees was causing branches to bend over, effectively preventing us getting the car out. And, it was still snowing heavily. Delighted, we set about relaxing and deciding what we’d do with our day.

We sat snugly inside, relaxing in front of the fire, while it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. The 10cm grew to 15cm (a sight which caused the cat to announce that she would report us to the authorities if we put her out. Off we trudged to the barn to dig out her long abandoned litter-tray). During the afternoon, we heard a loud crack and turned to look out of the widow just in time to see a huge branch fall from one of our beautiful old apple trees.

Still it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. Another loud crack and down came another branch. Mr A was forced to go outside and beat the telephone wire with a long pole to shake off the huge collar of snow wrapped around it. And still it snowed, and snowed and snowed.

Reports began to flood in on the radio of havoc being caused by the snow. Major roads were closed and huge numbers of people were without electricity and telephone. (Yesterday we bumped into an English couple we know from the next village. They had travelled to Limoges on Tuesday to collect a visitor from the airport. The journey usually takes an hour each way. It took them 3 hours to get there and 8 hours to get home. And the visitor’s flight was cancelled due to the state of the runway!) And still it snowed.

We awoke yesterday to snow lying between 25cm and 30cm deep. Friends who have lived here for decades and who always say that we don’t get the hard winters of the past have told us that they’ve never experienced so much snow in 24 hours. Mercifully, we still have electricity and the ‘phone, although our ‘phone line has become detached from one of its supports and is being held up only by the trees it has become entangled in. Apart from a short walk, we spent all of yesterday clearing our drive of as much snow as we could and of overhanging branches which were bent, or broken, to the ground. We also had to clear a neighbouring road which our damaged and bending trees were blocking. We’ll have plenty of free wood for the future but our supply of cut wood is dwindling.

Mrs A struggled into work this morning. She says the town is a scene of chaos as none of the car parks is cleared so people are parking all over the place. Lorries are stuck on one of the big slopes on the way into town, blocking the road completely. It looks as if I might not see her again until the thaw, predicted for sometime next month!

OK, I’d better post this now before the telephone line gives up the ghost. Wintry weather in southern England: don’t make us laugh!