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Saturday 11 February 2012

Snow Fun Anymore

Yet another photo of the garden in the snow, so lovely that all the weeds are covered up


We have been having a bit of snow here recently.  The Daily Mail on-line (top internet resource of celebs and Grandma Whacker) keeps quoting a town in Buckinghamshire near here as the coldest place in Britain - minus 18 degrees last night, says the Daily Mail excitedly, even colder than Moscow. No other news sites award this town the lowest temp, so I guess someone at the Mail has an auntie living out there with a thermometer in her freezer garden....

Mr Blighty is a very happy man.  He is overcome with a powerful sense of vindication.  Back in August last year he talked through at length the pros and cons of having winter tyres fitted to the car.  This was following Drivegate, when for 3 years in a row it snowed heavily and we couldn't get our car up the drive...and we were down to our last 22 tins of soup and 52 packets of biscuits so things were getting pretty desperate. I did suggest we ate Boy 2 but he wasn't keen, the youth of today have no sense of self-sacrifice or duty.

In August I must admit I did not engage fully in the discussion as it was hot and I was trying to remember whether I had put suntan lotion on  Boys 1 and 2 before their cricket matches..

But Mr B forged onwards, got the tyres fitted in October and then sat back and had the rip taken out of him as we experienced the mildest of winters. But now snow is here, and we are able effortlessly to drive out onto the road without shovelling snow...I was enjoying a smugfest just the other day as I drove the boys to school, overtaking my neighbour who was trudging on foot throught the snow, Russian peasant style...(I am not uncaring though, I did stop and tell her how good my tyres were and how warm it was in the car...).   Smugfest of course brought to abrupt end by arrival back at home after school drop to discover Boy 1's games bag still sitting on the back seat...

Mr B has succeeded where even Napoleon failed - For wont of a horseshoe - fascinating piece about how Napoleon's horses in the Russian campaign did not have winter horseshoes, I am always interested in descriptions of disastrous military campaigns, particularly since many similar debacles during my years attempting to arrive at and then withdraw from toddler singsong playgroups with my own ill-disciplined troops and logistical shortcomings ("If only the Blighty Army had had strait jackets instead of flimsy infant car seats, the Holland Park Mother and Toddler Campaign would have ended very differently..")


So we have snow.  Which to me means happy games in the snow, and some gentle sledging.

Like this.
Snow angel - parentally-approved snow-based activity (Elf and Safety Directive Winter Games 2006874/11)
Yah, Klosters is really fun





Er, steady on, this is not sledging, this looks a bit risky..

Boys 1 and 2 had different ideas.  They managed to find a sheer drop to go down.




Tremendous fun: early on in descent, boy and sledge would part company, boy would shoot down slope ahead of sledge, sledge would then join boy at bottom, clonking him on head...excellent..
Soon, possibly because their heads were getting sore, the boys dispensed with the sledges and just hurled themselves down the slopes..


And imagine my delight when I found there was barbed wire at the top which they were crawling under to get to the edge of the precipice...


Anyone know if you can fit winter tyres to kids?  Or straitjackets to mothers?*


*Think we know the answer to that last question...doctor, doctor, can I come out now?? 

22 comments:

  1. I believe you must have the Boyest Of All Boys. I bet they adore you.

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    1. Hi LPC, thanks for you nice comment. They are a strange mixture - one minute all ruftie tuftie, next minute all "I need my aromatherapy warming cushion." That I suppose, is men all over.

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  2. I love this! Is this not so boys? All too familiar I'm afraid. Flinging themselves off the cliff if they need to.

    Snow sounds so fun. We haven't officially had any here since February 1975 and I was in 6th grade. That's a day no one will forget. We hardly have any this year in Lake Tahoe, where we go to ski here. We are all worried about global warming, but looking at the U.K. snow, that may not be true!

    Another fun post!! Have a great weekend!

    Kim:)

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    1. Hi Kim, it's strange but before we moved to Bucks 4 years ago they had not had snow for years; we have had snow now every year here, the boys have a very distorted view of what winter is like in this country - normally just rainy and grey, not snowy. Mr B says it is global warming for complicated reasons I can't remember..

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  3. I love your brave boys! They'll be collecting their Shuttlecock ties at the Cresta Run before too long. At least the barbed wire was at the top, not the bottom! Glad you got some use out of your winter tyres, but that's enough snow now! xxx

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  4. I so agree with your that's enough snow sentiment, I really feel we have done snow now and my goodness, Tescos the other day just before the latest snow was due - you would have thought the 4 Horsemen were coming....

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    1. I couldn't even get into the CAR PARK of Princes Risborough M&S last week! I gave up - I'm only eating Creme Eggs & mugs of tea these days. xxx

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    2. Sounds like a balanced diet to me! Mrs E we should meet up - we live close!! not sure how to get in touch without publishing to whole world!!

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    3. I would LOVE that! Email me - mrsexeter@gmail.co.uk xxx

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    4. der, sorry, that is mrsexeter@gmail.com
      !

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  5. This is what it used to be like here in Canada! However, we are having a gigantic snowfall here today and it is snot funny.
    x

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  6. Feeling so far removed from all these snow shenanigans while we battle tropical conditions down here Blighty. I look at your photos and feel like I'm on a different planet.
    Lovely to see the boyz are behaving like boyz and climbing barbed wire fences to get up to mischief. Makes the whole excursion more thrilling for them don't you agree?
    This snow tyre business...I'm assuming the tyres need to be replaced with the normal/boring variety come springtime?
    xx

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    1. Annie, barbed wire really adds that little frisson...
      Re snow tyres, Mr B will take you through his 45 slide powerpoint presentation..you are right, tyres need swapping in spring, that car gets more pedicures than I do.

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  7. That first picture is gorgeous but I can understand how living in snow would get tiring. If it helps, it's cold in Melbourne at the moment, barely reaching 20 degrees which makes for a rather mild summer.

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    1. hi there Miss Directions, your weather sounds very nice, being English I am Obsessed by the Weather

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  8. Loving these snaps!!! Love seeing the Blighty back yard swathed in snow and so proud of Mr B insisting on special snow tyres! I wish I could just pop over and visit xxxxxx

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    1. FF, come back soon, we need to hit up Blenheim Palace and get up to speed on the whole Jamie situation xx

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  9. Dear Mrs Blighty, I am glad you have snow tyres - they make a lovely sound on snow and ice as they stop exactly when brakes are applied. I would expect nothing less of Mr B - clearly Napoleon's Winter Campaign would have had quite a different result had Mr B been put in charge of logistics/provisioning! Boys look very happy in the snow - probably as well they weren't consumed during previous Drivegates! love Lindaxxx

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    1. Old Napoleon would have still been safely tied up in planning meetings if Mr B were involved...not tonight but can we pencil in next March Josephine?

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  10. Snow Tyres - make sure Mr Blighty has informed his insurance company. Tartarus was most disturbed to discover that by taking this ADDITIONAL safety step, his premium went up. Cue move to alternative insurance company who would NOT raise the premium.

    The snowy garden looks lovely. And neatly gets you out of any potential 'winter garden tidy up' situation too :-D

    Ali x

    PS Mums should never see sons on sledges. It's the LAW :-)

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  11. Ali, you are clearly the woman of Mr B's dreams - to raise this very important point re insurance, this is the sort of issue Mr B thrives on...he adores tussling with whether a certain change in circs requires notification to the insurance company and finds my cavalier "well they don't need to know that" attitude most wanting.. xxx

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