Winter Wonderland

I realise the snow fell in Guernsey eighteen days ago but I did not get myself organised in time to start my blog. Actually I meant to start posting in the first week of January but once again time rushed by and seven weeks later I finally get started. We made this handsome fellow in our front yard. He was taller than our youngest, dressed warmly for the occasion and completed with a particularly fine carrot nose. My son christened him with the most original name of 'Snowy'. Snowy managed to hold onto life for three days until finally on the morning of the fourth day all that remained was a pile of soggy clothes, two beach spades, two rocks and a rather sad looking carrot.

The seat in our garden look as if it may be a suitable place for Snowy to sit survey his wintery domain. Our bird bath froze. Our trampoline had about 20cm of snow built up on the edges. The old hills play set was groaning under the weight of the snow. There were kids everywhere on the streets and our kids, along with the other children in our Clos made a snowman on the traffic island out the front of our house.

The photos below are at Port Soif. It was a truly bizarre sight to see snow covering the beach right down to the water's edge. The last of the snow did not melt off the dunes until four days later.

We were just as excited to see the snow as the children. I have seen snow twice before and my husband once, however neither of us had ever seen it falling. It really was a magical experience. As the snowflakes were swirled around in the wind I could see how it might inspire tales of dancing snow fairies. I'm glad we do not live somewhere it snows all the time as I think to see it so regularly may make it loose its magic.

Snow is not that common in Guernsey and definitely not usually this deep. The whole Island shuts down as they have no way of clearing or salting the roads due to the danger of the salt being in the water catchment area. The radio had been advising people not to drive their cars because of the danger of ice on the road.There was 42cm of snow at the airport. I think we had about 15-20cm in our garden. We had our first snowball fight, in the dark, at 6.10am in the morning while everyone else in our neighbourhood was tucked up in bed. Those CRAZY Australians again!

After his first trip out into the snow our son announced that we had better rush to the shops. When my husband asked him why he said we would all need some tennis rackets for our feet so we could walk in the snow! We went for a walk on the common, sans tennis rackets, and to the beach at 8.00am, when the Sun was just peeping over the horizon. There were already groups of kids 'sledging' on boogy boards and baking trays down the hills.

All the buses and taxis had been cancelled and I told my husband it was not a good idea to ride his bike to work because of the ice on the road, so he's having a 'Snow Day' (a-la Simpsons, however there will be no big sing-song in a circle!). When they announced on the radio that all the schools had been closed and I am surprised that you couldn't hear the screams of excitement coming from our house in Australia.

We had to take our youngest inside as she started shrieking, and I mean shrieking, as she was so cold. We all had five layers on but only had our gumboots, oh sorry wellies, on our feet and even with two pairs of socks the cold still crept in.

We had to run the heating all day today to try and melt the snow off the roof so the weight of it doesn't crush the house, or at least that is what my husband had been told; someone could be having a lend I think!!