Snow Day! In England!

It all started a few days ago (on Wednesday) when the first measurable snow stuck to the ground.  And when I say measurable, that’s with a very tiny ruler.  The next thing I knew, schools were letting out early and the base was sending everyone home early.  Oh well, who am to complain. 

This is Thursday morning, the day after our first “storm” and the kids were heading to school, trudging through a thick blanket of 2 cm of snow. 

Friday brought more flurries and again we were sent home early from work.  Sadly, we had to cancel our long-awaited road trip to Bath, so that will be another day.  We had more snow on Sunday, then all that night and when we woke up Monday morning the earth was covered with a thick blanket of 5 cm of snow (!!!!!).  This time the British Schools were cancelled straight away.  No way to get anywhere now.

At first I thought it was funny, too, how an entire country shuts down from such a small amount of snow, and then I go driving.  For the few snowplows they have, the British do a fine job of clearing the roads, but of course that’s only the main arteries.  Anywhere else, you’re on your own.  And no one has winter tires.  What’s the point when this is likely to be the most snow they get in a year. 

This is our backyard, as see from the conservatory window.  Lyana was trying out the new camera Santa got for her. 

Then I stole the camera and went outside to see if I could get a few good shots of the serene landscape, aka our backyard, before the snow melted.

I tried a few different settings, but I’m pretty novice at it still.

And then I found the sports/action setting and got the kids involved.  As you will see, we had a blast capturing some fun shots.

I call this one “Katya falling in the snow”. 

This one is titled, “Katya running in the snow, just before she falls in the snow”.

“Snow Mark”

We’ve busted out the snow shovels, but not for the drive (it’s gravel anyway).  No one else does it anyway, so why should we, right?  We used the shovel for moving snow around in the yard.  One big pile of snow coming up!  Later in the afternoon, we turned the garden steps in the back into a mini sledging hill (Sledge is Brit for sled).

Here’s some more of my fancy photographing.  Who knew how much fun a trampoline in the snow could be.

“Alex the rocket”

“Sitting on Air”

“I am like a bird”

“Coming in for a landing”

“How she does it”

The kiddos especially got a kick out of the action shots.  I’m already looking forward to the next time I get to borrow Lyana’s camera.  

No cheesy caption here.  Mark and Katya were all smiles, no posing required.

A rare authentic smile for the camera.  Usually we don’t get this sort of thing because either Alex can’t make a “serious smile” (you parents of 7-year-olds know exactly what I mean) or the stinking camera is too slow.  This new camera is super duper fast.  No missing the smiles now.

Boy, this camera is like magic.  Here’s evidence of my kids actually cooperating!!  And no one got hurt during it!!

Oh, here’s Katya sledging down the the garden steps.  Except for the bumps, and the turn in the middle, and the risk of going off the track and careening underneath the bushes (Mark did that), it was perfect.

It was a good day. 

Rob