Snow-clad splendour

Last night was supposed to be the coldest night in the UK. Some parts of UK were expected to be as cold as -20 degrees – almost as cold as the South Pole. They are calling it the ‘white-out’ of Britain. Pics of UK from the sky looks all white. Snow does make everything look much prettier.

Never having experienced snow before, I was all excited about it during the move to London, only to know that it hardly snows in London. True to the word, it hardly snowed all the time we were there. A maximum of one or two days of snow which disappeared soon enough too. Snow remained that romantic, exciting event (thanks to the movies, I guess) which never really happened to me.

It all changed when we moved here to Leeds. Snow was proper heavy snow here. Last year we had some decent amount of snow. This year, however, I think, all my craving for snow, has been satisfied. It has snowed like never before.  It snowed 2 days before we left for our vacation and it was fascinating to watch. Huge, giant snowflakes coming down and covering everything. I spent ages looking out at the snow, instead of packing. Thankfully it stopped the day we were travelling or we  might have never gone on holiday.

We came back to gloriously sunny Britain after 10 days and a small part of me was disappointed by the fact that the snow seemed to have gone for good. But not for long, we drove into heavy snow on the way, which thankfully lasted only around 20 minutes. To make up for the snow we missed during the Christmas week,  last one week, it has snowed and snowed and snowed. I had the fortune/misfortune of getting to trek 3 miles in snow – which was rather fun, quite unexpectedly. Making snowmen in the garden and having fun snow fights 🙂 Of course, not everybody is happy with the snow. Daughter is heart-broken that her school is closed due to snow. Even making snowmen, does not entirely compensate for not being able to go to school. Cars lie abandoned all over the place. We came across a car abandoned right in the middle of a small roundabout. Scraping the snow off the car everyday is one painful thing as we have recently learnt.

As they say, difficult times bring out the best or worst in people. We hear of heroic stories about people going out of their way to help others in difficulty, we also hear of clever thieves who used the opportunity to take off with cars which the owners had left unattended with the engines running for defrosting. Guess it takes all kinds!

Leaving you with a few pics from around here – all cold and frosty!

The streets and the sidewalks all merged into one.

It almost looks like a black and white pic, doesn’t it?

The solitary bench all piled up with snow.

And it gets whiter as the snow fall increases.

On the way back from school – all disappointed at having to go home earlier than usual.

Making snowmen in the garden, kind of, made up for no school.

So how has the weather been at your end? Hope you all are having a less white winter.