Cold

There is 6 inches of snow outside my front door. Of course my Canadian friend thinks its hilarious that this is even significant to me, to us Brits in general in fact.

She currently wouldn't dream of leaving the house without chains on her tyres. She told me that she had to walk with her kids to school because the school bus couldnt do its normal round as there had been 2 ft of snow over the weekend.

In these parts, 6 inches of snow means the school isn't even OPEN, never mind the bus being able to get through. I remember as a kid practically counting on the extra few days per year holiday we would get because the boiler broke so the place couldnt be heated. I could never see the significance of THAT either. My school was so freaking cold normally irrespective of the boiler.

This pic is of the fountain at our local garden centre, the wierdest thing about it was not so much that I had never seen a frozen fountain, and it really was amazing to look at, and of course,as you can see I was compelled to take a picture for posterity, but that there was absolute silence (until my 3 year old ran round the corner of course) but until he did, there was quiet where there was usually the sound of falling water. It was so peaceful. For an element actually so powerful and lethal, there is something quite calm about ice. Fascinating.