Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Having sat and watched as the north of the country became blanketed in snow I was very pleased when it came my way. And boy, did it come.

As usual, the transport network ground to a halt and I found myself stranded at London Bridge station for an hour and a half with hundreds of other very cold and very unhappy people trying to get home. As I watched yet another crammed train that I hadn’t been able to get on pull away from the station and the snow continued to fall I started to wonder if I would ever get home that night. Rob wasn’t having much more luck than me; he had managed to get on a train but was now stuck on it outside a station that it couldn’t get into. Things were not looking good.

I eventually managed to get on a train which took me, not to my usual station, but to one not too far away from home, although far enough to make it difficult to get home. I couldn’t get a taxi and so had to walk into a town centre where, at Rob’s suggestion, I managed to get onto a bus and get to his parents house, 3 hours after leaving my office. It felt so good to be welcomed into their warm home with a hot drink, food and lots of love. My journey had taken 3 times as long as usual and it was still snowing heavily outside. Rob’s journey was even worse and he had to walk for miles to get back to his parents. We were all very relieved when he finally made it home, well past 9pm.

Rob’s parents asked us to stay the night and as his mum made up a bed, found us clothes to wear and fussed over us in the lovely way that only mums can, it felt very cosy and, now that we were all safe indoors, really rather exciting. The words I’d written in the ‘Snow Flurries’ chapter of my cookbook came back to me: ‘if I ever were to find myself in the highly unlikely situation of being snowed in here in the south east of London…’.

That was Tuesday and the snow stayed with us until Saturday. In fact, it’s still on the ground in places, all iced up. It was so lovely being snug inside as it fluttered down. It brought out a Christmassy mood and one of our neighbours invited everyone over for mulled wine and mince pies, which was really wonderful.

Someone else enjoyed the snow too – very much. Our loveable labrador, Ben, was very happy bounding around the local park, as you can see.

‘Come on, this is fun!’.

‘What’s that I can smell? There’s something down there…’

‘I know it’s here somewhere’.

‘Nope, can’t find it but look, I’ve found a playmate!’.

‘But the best playmate is my dad’.

‘Happy at my master’s side’.

‘I love snow days!’

I know that many of you still have snow and there’s still time to join in the fun of the Snow Day Bake Off, which has gone down a storm! It’s going to be a great round-up in a week’s time.

Keep safe and warm x