lol. That last pic reminds me of the one and only time in my childhood when we actually got snowed in! My big brother had the brilliant idea of trying to build an igloo! we spent ages digging our way through the snow and trying to compact it into slabs for building. I think we ended up with a circularish wall, with no roof. but my memory is very vague and I may have embellished it :P
We've had a lot of snow today. It's been snowing on and off pretty much all day. I took Pilau for a long walk, as the snow was deep enough for me to have decent grip: hence risking taking my husky-wannabe along Upper Lane, something I would not risk if it was compacted down and slippy!
It was amazing. Alas no photos (see 'what's mildly irritatng you today') as I hadnt charged camera
So, you'll have to make do with a mere description. The entire village was blanketed in several inches of snow. The lanes aren't gritted, so they looked perfect and white. We went the back way along Upper Lane, and through the quiet end of the village, past the stables and the farms and onto the fields. Accross the top field (which was great: I let Pilau have a run off his lead and he was barrelling about the place with great enthusiasm) over the rise and up onto the bluff. The view from there is magnificent! I've posted pics of it in the Summer, but in winter, oh! The valley stretches out in front of you, winding off into the distance, its slopes, a patchwork of farmland and heather and woods, broken up by the dark smudges of dry stone walls. We took the long route home, through winding lanes, the uneven broken lines of the drystone walls at the sides of the lane, picked out in white. there were horses in the paddock, wearing coats and tugging at bundles of hay which were slung from the fence posts. In one of the fields we went past, there wasa small flock of sheep; their coats long and straggly for the winter; they seemed to be successfully locating stalks of grass through the snow. The longer grass stalks were poking through in a few places, shockingly dark agaist the white.
Beautiful, just beautiful. The views, especially over the valley, were breathtaking.
On the way back, and with about 20 minutes of walking still ahead of us, the snow started to get heavier and then before i knew it we were walking through a full on blizzard. Couldn't see more than a few yards ahead. (This time Els, it was a proper White Out :P) Everywhere was white and the wind was driving the snow into a frienzy as it fell. I saw a lone, pale grey dove trying to fly to a tree. It was being buffeted back and forth, but eventually made it to a branch.
When we eventually made it back home, Pilau was almost more snow than beardie. He'd obviously enjoyed it a lot because he'd brought back a large collection of snowballs, which were plastered around his feet and legs, and hanging from his coat; made him look like a Pillsbury doughdog. he wasn't thrilled at having me melt his collection in a bowl of lukewarm water.....though that may have been because he didn;t want his feet in there. Either way, he was very glad when that bit was over! As indeed was I.