Snow news is good news
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 November 2008 22:04:17
You'll notice from the photos in my previous entry that the weather was rather warmer and more pleasant than we'd anticipated, apart from one slightly rainy day (more of which on my next blog). We'd gone with loads of warm clothes in the knowledge that snow was forecast, and the radio was regaling us with tales of blocked roads in the Midlands of all places (my home county, no less). So my brother decided that he would take the Smudgelet to see real snow. Bear in mind that we live in the Isle of Wight which rarely sees any weather worthy of the name white and where a few dandruff-like snowflakes can bring the whole county to a standstill. So off we went.
We had heard rumours that Glen Shee and Glen Coe were pretty snowy, so we reckoned it shouldn't take us too long to find somewhere to build a snowman. Hmm... little had we realised just how perverse Scottish weather can be. With tantalising glimpses of white in the distance, it was impossible to give up on our quest, but as we crested each hill, the snow just seemed to get further and further away and the countryside couldn't have looked less snowy. Even the sky was bright and sunny.
In the end we drove.. wait for it... 150 miles! By the time we finally turned a corner and found ourselves in a snowy ski resort it was after 2pm and we still hadn't stopped for lunch! So there was just time to get togged up in warm clothing, hats and gloves and welly boots, and indulge in 20 minutes max of running in the crisp pristine snow (always my favourite thing when I'm the first to venture into it) and having a bit of a snowball fight. The Smudgelet made the fatal mistake of throwing a very powdery snowball at his uncle. The snowball just disintegrated as it left his hand and showered him more than his uncle with a tiny smattering of snow, so dry that you hardly noticed how cold it was. But the aftermath was significant - I think the Smudgelet did actually discover how cold it was.....
:D
I was safe. Well, I was holding Uncle J's camera, wasn't I?