Ice and Snow

The weather forecast yesterday was completely accurate. It had said that there was a 60% chance of heavy snow in this area overnight and that is (more or less) exactly what happened. We had a really heavy fall of snow last night. It seems that most of Bedfordshire , Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire were covered in a thick blanket of snow. Carol was waiting for a telephone call early this morning to say that the Academy wouldn't be opening today, due to the weather. We had a look of the homepage of the Academy on the internet and it had a notice saying that it WOULD be open, surprisingly. There was snow on the very last day of last term, and the place opened, being the only school to do so in Milton Keynes. We got up, and were ready to go out of the door on our way to school, when the telephone rang and the message was that the place wasn't opening after all. If it had come a few minutes later we would have been in the car and going out of Crownhill.Mind you, considering the state of the road surface, I don't think we would have gone far, as I can't imagine that you'd be able to drive very fast, unless you wanted to slip and slide into any other vehicles that were around.

I went to Wingrave on Monday afternoon to do a shift and when I left it was frosty. Infact, it was well below freezing here for most of the day. There was a very light frosting on the car when I left. As I drove towards Wingrave and went through the village of Wing, the weather changed. As I drove down the roads towards Wingrave it was foggy and really a good deal frostier than when I left Milton Keynes. As I got to the car park at Macintyre there was a brief sprinkling of snow. At the end of the shift I got back to the car to leave the car was covered in a light frost which had to be cleaned off the car windscreen before I could drive away.

We've been indoors all day.  Daniel was supposed to go back to St Albans at some point  during the day. But, considering the weather, it was probably just as well he didn't go. I've absolutely no idea how the trains were running, if any were actually running, so perhaps he wouldn't have gone. We have had a further fairly heavy fall of snow, and the garden is completely covered. Poppy keeps going outside and seems to enjoy it. Her paw-prints from earlier in the day have disappeared due to the snowfall.

We had a real need to get to Budgens for supplies, as we need food for this evening's meal, so we got kitted out, complete with gloves and scarves and put the dogs on their leads and ventured forth into the wintery scene which greeted us outside. Alfie loved it, yapping noisily, and we began our trudge towards Grange Farm and Budgens. The road surface on which we walked was covered with packed, slippery snow, but we continued our walk. It was a bit like walking on icing sugar, although, to be honest, I have never actually walked on icing sugar, but you get what I mean!

On arriving outside we saw a lorry arrive with a delivery to Budgen's store, but it could not reach the front of the store, up what, during normal conditions, would have been a slight incline, but, due to the icy weather was somewhat impossible. The staff from the store had to take trolleys out to the road where the lorry was parked and unload using the trolleys, which wouldn't have been an easy job, and must have taken quite a few loads to empty the lorry.

We managed to buy what we wanted and then carried our shopping home through the snow and ice. The dogs collected chunks of ice on their coats, particularly Alfie, who arrived home with little bits of ice and snow on his back legs, which he didn't seem to like very much. You can hardly blame him. He then spent some time picking it off and leaving wet puddles all over the house, especially the back of the sofa where we sat watching television. His paw, which he cut somehow or other the other day when we went for a walk, doesn't seem to be bothering him that much now, although he has sat and licked it, so it might still hurt him, and he does sometimes hold that paw up, but I can't see anything wrong with it, so I presume it has healed.