A Winter Wonderland

I grew up in Colorado so I am very used to winter weather.  I may not have always liked it, but it was what it was.  Starting in October, snow could come at any time of day or night, even while the sun was trying to shine.  A couple of inches of snow were no big deal, and it wasn't until 6-12 inches of the white stuff fell that we'd even bother bringing the boots out of the closet.  Blizzards came and went, sometimes leaving feet of snow in their wake and giving us kids  a few days off of school, but inevitably with a shovel in our hands instead of a pencil.   Anything that had even the mildest elevation change became a "hill" worth dragging the sled out of the garage and up to the top of (over and over and over).

My kids grew up in Colorado, and they do not share a love of the white stuff that fuels the state's economy.  In fact,  they can be fairly vocal in their hatred of it.  My daughter is of driving age so that's where a lot of her dislike comes from, and my son just hates change, and anything that requires him to cover up his beloved hoodies with a heavy coat.

When they came to visit over the holidays we pretty much promised them that, although they weren't escaping to anywhere tropical, they would most likely be getting a break from the snow.  The trip came and the weather gods were in our favour, so nothing much fell from the sky.  The past few days, though, my husband and I have been watching the forecasts and here and there the little snowflakes were appearing.  Since meteorology seems to be more guessing than science, we didn't worry about it at all.  Besides, the measurements they were showing were in the millimetre range (we didn't even know people tried to measure snow that small) and occasionally a whole centimetre.  We watched the forecasts and looked at the sky, and over and over again there was no snow.  Then last Thursday morning, when my husband opened the curtain in our kitchen, we were finally greeted with British snow, and it was beautiful.

Great big fluffy flakes, drifting down gently and leaving behind not much in the way of accumulations.  Like with a lot of early snow the ground wasn't cold enough for it to stick around very long, but while it was here it kind of looked like home.  We watched along with the rest of the world when last year "The Beast from the East" came through and dumped a couple of inches of snow in some places and feet in others, so we know it's possible, but for now we'll enjoy our first "snowstorm" and wait to see what the rest of the winter brings us.