Spring and Winter

Yesterday saw at least two seasons in one day.  The morning dawned chilly and bright; it felt like a day for Spring cleaning so I stripped the beds, cleaned the insides of the windows and dusted, polished and hoovered.  The washing blew on the line in the Spring sunshine and I had high hopes of everything coming in dry.  At lunch time I took the dogs up Muddy Lane and to my surprise, it was actually really warm.  Gorgeous, in fact.  I got very warm in my layers of clothing, and slowed my pace a little to enjoy the sound of the birds singing and to notice the tiny bobbles of buds on branches of trees and hedges.  The breeze was a little keen though and snow covered the mountains, but it was a treat to be out there enjoying it all.

I worked up a bit of an appetite with all my activity and knew there was a slab of marzipan in the cupboard; well of course I knew it was there, I bought it.  It was meant for a Simnel cake, but weakness is a wicked mistress and she taunted me with the knowledge until I gave in (it didn't take much) and began nibbling.  In fact I nibbled most of it with a cup of tea.  I am a disgrace.  I forgave myself as I have a nice clean house and two worn out dogs.

  The sun stayed all day but as I was heading out of the house in the afternoon to fetch H2 from school, I noticed the sky over that part of the island was jet black.  MAL sat on the front seat, eyes wide as she stared ahead.  As we drove closer to school, a few spots of rain hit my windscreen but in moments had turned to sleet and then hail.  It hit the car like pebbles being flung sideways.  As the sky darkened the hail gave way to snow.  Yes, real snow!  It swept across the lanes, gathered on the windscreen wipers and blurred the landscape.  Within a few minutes the lane in front of me was white and snow kept falling.  I was really excited by now but also a little worried as the hill I had just come down would be an uphill one on the way back and my car can't cope with hills in slippy conditions.  I arrived at school and the mums were hopping about in anticipation of a day at home tomorrow, making snowmen, sitting by the fire with hot chocolate and wearing fluffy socks and slippers all day.  By the time H2 had come out it had stopped snowing and all but melted.  It took moments.  Noooo!  So disappointing, although I was pleased to be getting home safely without having to abandon my car and walk miles and miles home.  The temperature had dropped somewhat during the brief snow storm, so we were fully expecting more to come, but it didn't.  Instead we awoke this morning to yet another day of gales and heavy rain.  The noise is incredible; the bins in the yard are moving about by themselves and making quite a racket too.  The rain hits the windows and back door constantly and the wind rattles, moans and roars around the house and in the trees.  Thankfully the dogs have realised there is no hope of a walk today and have settled down in their cosy beds; I have watched a bit of the Winter Olympics with my cup of tea, cleaned the bathroom (what a joy) and plan to make some peanut cookies to have with rice pudding for tea.

I have neglected to take any more photos recently, due to either being busy or too cold to take my hands out of my pockets to use my camera.  I will rectify this for my next post.  I will go now and force myself to make cookies.  Have a good day, keep warm and dry and thank you for reading. xxx