the view from here

It's a cold, white world. For us the snow arrived last Tuesday; yesterday it was showing signs of melting, and our road was traversible once more. It has since snowed over night and we awoke to sounds of chaos outside: skidding tyres, vigorous shovelling, jump starting. Since then the road is slightly improved but we certainly won't be taking the car out. Someone had to abandon their car earlier in front of our drive, leaving an apologetic note, but we wouldn't have wanted to try it ourselves anyway. We have been going as much on foot as we can.

That has been interesting in itself; tentative cautious stepping through compacted, frozen snow - trying to find the snow that still has some crunch, and therefore some grip. Andy tells me it's not too bad today - the previous snow had begun to go slushy and is still not as solid underneath this new layer - less likelihood of losing your footing.

Last week, when they heralded the 'coldest night in Britain since 1981', was about the time our boiler broke down. It was a frozen condensate pipe of course (since lagged, after the boiler repair man went out with his hairdryer. He picks them up at jumble sales and charity shops, apparently.) We were without heating overnight and a good proportion of the next day, but coped by keeping ourselves contained to as smaller space as possible (it was Andy's day off, so we endured the cold together). We braved the road to borrow some heaters stored in the loft at church. The car got stuck at the top of the road and we needed three people to push us out of it. Next day, when walking to the shop, we returned the favour to someone else in the same predicament.

This picture was one taken by satellite last week (I don't claim credit; I don't currently possess a satellite of my own - NASA, however, do.)

I've not been able to get out to anywhere particularly picturesque; most of the photos I've snapped are close ups in the garden or of birds on feeders, as you can see.
To really get out and take some true 'landscapes', I need a 4 x 4. Oh, and a full driver's license.