Snow!

The north wind doth blow and we do have snow! I was working late last night, or early this morning to be precise, and looked outside to see a light dusting of snow. Thinking it was a shame it wouldn’t be there to look pretty in the morning, went to bed.

So this morning there’s a full scale blizzard going on.

The clouds are down, which makes it look misty and the snow is blowing horizontally. It’s plastered  to the front door so I know opening it will be a mistake, filling the porch with snow. Just to add to the fun, the electricity supply is playing up. It keeps cutting out but even when it’s on I think the voltage is low. The kettle took ages to boil and the central heating pump is off but the laptop charger is working.

Lucky for us, we have a woodburner so we won’t freeze. The funny thing is we’ve not had it going for a while and only yesterday were debating whether to stack the woodpile in the hearth or not. I wish I had now as it would have saved me a chilly dash to the shed.

What really makes all this surreal though is that just a few days ago I was walking around in T shirt and shorts enjoying 22 degrees and now it’s less than 2.

Of course my first thoughts (after a cuppa) were my poor seedlings. I’ve got them in the Vitopod but the vents were open so it would have trouble maintaining temperature in this. Up at the greenhouse I realised that without electricity, the Vitopod would be very hard pressed to hold temperature. Still nothing to be done but keep my fingers crossed.

It was a little like a war zone outside – electric cables lying on the road and my neighbour didn’t dare leave his house as the 11,000 volt line was lying over his drive and he didn’t know if it was live. Further up the track my neighbour was trying to convince Bombay Telecom that his line, which was lying in a field, was actually faulty.

It’s amazing how dependent on electricity we are. No power means the gas central heating doesn’t work as the pump depends on electricity. The laptop ran for a couple of hours but no internet as the router was down. The fridge and freezers were down, of course and apart from the gas hob, so was the cooker.

About seven thirty we noticed a bunch of guys up the poles in the field so asked them and they said we’d have power in 10 minutes. Phew! It’s a bit odd though, we’re in Wales but the electric infrastructure is handled by Scottish Power and the guys doing the work were Irish. International or what?

My Greenhouse in the Snow – taken from the spare bedroom / office at 8.30 am