Deep & Crisp

What a good thing we got my mum home on Monday! Yesterday, As the afternoon went on, the snow started to fall, then got worse until a good 4" of fresh snow was covering everything. Continuing to fall into the night, it made a very seasonal picture and gave the appearance of daylight even in the dark.
This morning, we set out to see Malcolm's mum and find out if she was in need of anything from the shops. The short walk was wonderful in the fresh snow.

Having completed our visit, we decided not to go any further, but to return home and settle in for the day. The snow in the hedgerows opposite our home was clinging thickly to the twigs and sparkling in the sunshine.

With the temperature struggling above freezing point, some of the snow was beginning to melt and re-freeze on the pyracantha twigs left bare by the Blackbirds.

Back to Normal.

Well, yesterday started with a great rush. Just enjoying our first coffee of the day with a shortbread finger at 8 O'clock, the phone rang. I always hate calls at that time of the day, as they invariably denote disaster, but this time it was good news. Mum had been seen by the Doctor and been given the all-clear to leave hospital.
Having been so 'long winded' with everything else over the last few days, they seemed eager to be rid of mum in double quick time and said she would be ready to pick up at 9 O'clock. If anyone has ever tried to get out of bed and showered, have breakfast, scrape about 3ft of frost off the car and thaw out the engine before driving into a large city during rush hour on a Monday morning to arrive by 9am, you will know how impossible it is.
Still, arriving about 20 minutes after the hour, we managed to get parked in the pick-up section of the car park, but only in a disabled space as all others were in use. I stayed in the car while Malcolm fetched mum from the ward. If course nothing went smoothly and after getting blank looks from nurses and having to get quite forceful with them to allow him in to collect mum, we eventually got her out and into the car.
Getting mum back home to King's Lynn by lunch time, Malcolm and I nipped off to the supermarket to stock her up with some provisions and something for lunch. Malcolm cooked a nice lunch and after tea and bickies in the afternoon and seeing mum was OK, we set out for home again before the temperatures dropped off too far.
So, here we are, back to normality (whatever that is) and looking forward to our holiday to Benidorm next week, swapping this palm tree in our garden....

For these on the Benidorm seafront....

Snap!

The cold snap continues and the news is telling us we have another ten days of it at least.
Yesterday, still waiting for the call from the hospital to say we can take mum home, it once again began to snow. Sleety stuff at first, then a few larger flakes, then a 'downpour' of arctic proportions.

It being New Year and a holiday weekend, there aren't many doctors on duty at the Queen's Medical Centre, so getting one to glance at mum's blood test results and (hopefully) give her the all clear, is like looking for summer flowers in the snow.
Last night, the temperature dropped away again, turning the slush into - as Dickens would call it - misanthropic ice. The snow which fell yesterday, soon turned to slush, but looked, temporarily like pure, white candy-floss.

So, another day not doing much, waiting for the call....... ho! hum!

New!

Malcolm and I saw in the new year with the aid of a small 'nip' of Moira's Damson Gin. Very warming it was too and the perfect accompaniment to the festivities, fireworks and, for the first time this year, dozens of strange lanterns floating through the skies, containing a flame keeping them aloft.
The gin was not the only 'nip' last night as we awoke to a frozen scene this morning. Very nippy indeed.

The frost was thick upon the grass as we sipped our first cup of coffee and bit into a shortbread finger to welcome in 2010. A glorious day to start the year with sun shining and the air as clear as Moira's gin.

Easter.

Yesterday, before we left to collect Malcolm's mum from the northbound side of the Trowell Service Station on the M1, where she was being delivered by the travel company and before we went once more to visit my mum who is still languishing in Hospital, Malcolm and I thought we would take a jaunt around Tesco.
The approach to the supermarket was fraught with danger and frustration as the vehicular queues trying to get into the car-park were enormous. Eventually arriving at an available parking space and having given other drivers several threatening stares dissuading them from 'nicking' our place, we parked up and strode toward the entrance. We managed to grab an abandoned trolley en-route (you can bet there would be none to be had at the door), I took charge of it and prepared for the scrum inside.
On entering the 'marbled halls' of Tesco we were immediately confronted by an enormous display of hot-cross buns on a two-for-one offer, reminding us that Easter is just around the corner. Not a trace of Christmas was to be seen. The decorations were all gone, the New Berry Fruits have been sent back to be re-dated so they can be legally resold next year and the remains of the festive sprouts were mouldering in their nylon nets. Christmas is but a thing of the past and will not show it's festive face until Easter is out of the way and the garden furniture and barbecue charcoal has been sold off at a discounted price following another disappointing summer.
Clinging to the wreckage of Christmas, here are a couple of pictures of our Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). Bought for us by our friend Jayne, it is still glowing with festive cheer on the kitchen table.

Thanks Jayne....

Happy New Year to you all.

Waiting

2009 is on it's 'last legs' and the infant 2010 is about burst onto the scene - I wonder what it will bring!
Just one picture today, which shows it is not just we human animals who appreciate Christmas. These two penguins also seemed to be agog with anticipation at the prospects of opening their pressies on the big day. The boxes apparently contained their food (herrings, do you think?) and I'll bet the wrapping paper didn't stay on them for long!

As I sit here at the computer, we are still waiting for the 'all clear' from the Queen's Medical Centre, to collect mum and take her home. There seems to be no urgency to release mum, one would have thought they would need the beds! Oh well....

Aftermath

With Christmas day but a memory and the prospects of New Year looming large on the horizon, it was good this morning to get a text message from my mother, who is still in the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, to say that it looks as if she might be released to go home today. Having had a visit from one specialist, first thing, she is waiting for another to give her the 'once over' before she is allowed out. So, fingers crossed for later today.
The snow has now all gone and the ice has melted - the last of it disappeared yesterday - so it would be ideal if we could take mum back to Norfolk before the cold returns ready for the weekend.
On the subject of snow, this was the second good fall of snow this year. Remember the early part of the year when we had several inches of the white stuff?

I love it and get quite excited by the sight of the first snowfall of the year - I'm just a big kid at heart. The skeletal trees always look wonderful as they take on a covering.

I wonder how the Palm tree in our back garden likes the cold and snow! It doesn't seem to mind too much.

When the sun comes out and shines on the newly fallen snow, it looks very picturesque and there can be no finer sight for giving you the Christmas feeling.

Here's to the next few days and the prospect of some more snow.