Friday, January 08, 2010

Snow day (and a stunning picture)

Current work: French duo book 2 (deadline moved to Monday, phew)
Listening to: not, as kids still curled up in bed
Reading: Lucy Dillon, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts (enjoying, but very upset at the thought of a Springer being taken to a rescue kennel – they are such lovely dogs and they need a family. I admit, they are aptly named, and although mine is very quiet for a springie he can get quite bouncy. We had an unwary house guest last week who decided to get himself a drink at 5.30am and was almost knocked flat by a spaniel zooming past him, up the stairs. Result: one happy spaniel taking a flying leap from the doorway onto our bed, and then a second leap onto my head: not my favourite type of alarm call!)

Am relieved to say it’s another snow day for school today: even as I’m typing, the white stuff is coming down. The roads are vile and I asked DH to ring me this morning to let me know he got to work safely. Some people are complaining that the schools shut too readily. The way I see it, a lot of office workers can work from home at a pinch, and I’d much rather have my kids home safely than risk driving in bad conditions and having an accident. Better to leave the roads clear and the ambulance service free to go to non-preventable medical emergencies.

Apparently, this is the worst winter for 30 years, and last night there was a low in Scotland of minus 21.6C (that's minus 6.2F) – considering that the Met Office says “the UK average temperature for December to February for the period 1971–2000 is 3.7 °C”, that’s pretty extreme. (Apparently, it was only a degree above the temperature at the South Pole at the same time. Wow.)

There’s an amazing pic of snowy UK taken by the NASA satellite on the BBC right now – do go and have a look! (We’re in the middle of the swirly bit on the right-hand side. That swirly stuff is, um, falling snow.)

Have a nice weekend, and stay safe in the freeze.

Oh, and before I forget, I’m over at Kate Walker’s blog celebrating her 25 years in publishing. Do go over and help celebrate!

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