Before it snowed...

What a good job I took this photo earlier of our nearest pub, where the thatch has been beautifully adorned along the top with a contrasting colour/pattern.  And also, I suppose, what a good job they finished it before the snow started!

  The OH had suggested popping out for a drink after dinner so that he could chat to the landlord about the thatchers - not that we have a thatched roof, you understand, he just likes to know about these things - but since looking out of the window, he has decided that by the time he has wrapped up sufficiently and located his wellies, it will be closing time.  He'll just have to wander round tomorrow when at least it should be light enough to see the drifts!

Heading for a Full House

I’m not a poker player so I wouldn’t have taken any bets on when my kids arrived home for Christmas, but Celeste is already back, so if I had succumbed, I would have lost.  Some of her friends went up to London for the student fee protests, but however strongly Celeste feels about it, she decided not to join them and to head home instead.  Just as well, from what she tells me, because they were just about to break away from the march and head into a coffee shop when they were ‘kettled’.

“It was awful, Mum,” Celeste told me, as shocked as if she had been there herself.  “I mean, all they wanted was a coffee.”

“I don’t think that’s why they were kettled, dear,” I told her.

Anyway, it led to lots of tweeting and texting and facebooking and other –ing uses of IT and two of the girls dropped in here for Friday night, on their way home, Emma to Cornwall and Louise to Cumbria. 

“I can’t stay,” Louise told me.  “Mum says that the snow hasn’t melted yet and there’s more forecast.  If I don’t get back soon, I’ll be stuck here and that would be awful.”

Looking at my face, she realised that could have been misinterpreted, but I forgave her.

George isn’t back yet, but at least with a leg in plaster, a protest march isn’t that easy and it certainly isn’t his thing.  He’s got some sort of holiday job that he can do from home, or wherever his laptop is provided he has internet, so he’s heading down next week, getting a lift from a friend who is a)driving and b)equipped with snow-tyres, as he’s heading over to Switzerland for some Christmas skiing. 

Here in our village, snow-tyres aren’t normally necessary but because we don’t get gritted,  even our high street being such a minor road, today’s tiny snowfall has already caused problems.  I was out this morning after dropping Celeste off at a temp job in our local outlet mall, and as soon as I left the main road, I started skidding.  Buses have already started to think twice about coming this way, though the post-woman is still managing to make it.  This is just as well, since although the first batch of Christmas cards have been written and posted, the second batch is still sitting on the kitchen table, written, addressed and in some cases stamped; yes, I know I’ve missed the deadline for the States and Europe, but better late than never is my motto.

Celeste, meanwhile, is keeping me busy, what with trying to fit in the Christmas shopping and preparing the house for Christmas with her routine, or lack of it.  Fortunately, she tells me that blogs shouldn’t be written too often, and preferably mid-week, so that should take some of the pressure off me!