It's been a reasonably snowy winter here this year, much to the delight of the boys. The older boys still remember the really big snows of winters 2009/10 and 2010/11 and have been longing for another snowfall like that since then. The last few winters have been more typical of all our usual winters, with a few big snowfalls in January and February, but with nothing bad enough to bring everything to a standstill as happened in 09/10 and 10/11.
This winter seemed to be going to typical way, with a decent but still average snowfall in the middle of January.
Every year in the week of James' birthday it snows. It may not be on the actual day of his birthday, but at some point during the week of his birthday you can be almost certain that it will snow.
This winter seemed to be going to typical way, with a decent but still average snowfall in the middle of January.
Every year in the week of James' birthday it snows. It may not be on the actual day of his birthday, but at some point during the week of his birthday you can be almost certain that it will snow.
This year a couple of days before James' 18th the snow came down nice and thick.
Because the trains in to school were unreliable with the weather the boys had the day off school, even though the schools weren't closed - although James and Calum were already off on study leave. And since everyone needs a break from their studies every once in a while, we all went out sledging after lunch on that first day of the snow.
Everyone had so much fun!
Fraser (4) was squealing with delight every time he went down the hill, as you can see from the clips further down.
Back at the house we built ourselves a snowman in the garden, before going inside to warm up again.
Here is the compilation of sledging clips. Like I said, listen out for Fraser's delighted but maybe also a little bit scared squeals!
The January snow stuck around for a few days, with more falling over a couple of days, but then it all melted away the following week.
Towards the end of February the forecast was for a severe spell of snow hitting the east of the country, but I have to admit that I had my doubts about whether it would actually be as bad as they were predicting. After all every Spring they forecast that this year will be the year of the 'Barbecue Summer' and every Autumn they say that it will be a cold and snowy one, and each time it turns out to just be pretty average either way, and just like the summer or winter before!
The forecast was for the heavy snow to start on the afternoon of Tuesday 27th February, and as I left to pick the boys up from school the sky was clear with beautiful sunshine. By the time I got off the train 30 minutes later the snow had started and Fraser had turned into a snowman by the time we reached school!
The snow in the city hadn't been quite as heavy as it was out where we live, and when we got off the train home again, 2 hours after I had left in the sunshine, there were already a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Now that we were all safely home from school I was happy for the snow to keep on falling! Which it did, all afternoon and all night.
Just before bedtime we heard that all schools in the city would be closed the following day, Wednesday, and so everyone was delighted!
The snow still didn't stop, and in just a couple of hours the milk bottles at the front door went from this...
.....to this.
The amber weather warning soon changed to a red one, for the first time ever here for snow, and the council very quickly announced that schools would also be closed on the Thursday.
On the Wednesday afternoon the boys really fancied going out for a walk while the snow was still falling heavily. So we did.
I wrapped Fraser up doubly warm with a blanket since he would be sitting still on the sledge - he was finding it tricky to walk in the snow as parts of it were so deep. He was like a little Eskimo prince being pulled around by everybody.
And by the time we reached the park, just 5 minutes away, he looked more like he had been on an Antarctic Expedition!
Fraser wasn't the only one who looked like a Polar explorer!
On Wednesday night we measured the depth of the snow in the garden, and it was about 11 inches deep.
Thursday saw the snow continue to fall, and some impressive looking icicles were forming on the house.
The heavy wind had made snow drifts all around the back garden.
And up against the back door too.
Once again everybody wrapped up and headed out to play.
Our ruler disappeared in the snow when we tried to measure the depth of it and so we measure how far down we had to dig to find it. This time the snow was 17 inches deep.
The car was obviously still not going anywhere!
But the boys had fun.
They decided to work together to build an igloo, although we realised that we were never going to work out how to do the roof properly and so it was going to be more of a snow fort than an igloo.
Our other problem was that the only tub we could find for making bricks was a Carte D'Or ice cream tub, which meant that our bricks were pretty small!
The cold Easterly wind meant that it felt even colder outside than was forecast, and so we couldn't stay out for very long before coming back in to warm up.
We ate a lot of soup on these snow bound days!
Meanwhile the whole of the central belt of Scotland had ground to a halt. Mr Housefulofboys had been working from home since Tuesday and all travel networks were advising people not to travel anywhere.
The forecast had said that there would be less snow falling on Thursday than there had been on the Wednesday. That wasn't the case with us, as you can see in this clip I took after lunch on Thursday.
On Friday the schools were closed again. The snow didn't fall quite as heavily throughout Friday as it had done the previous few days, but there was no sign of it thawing at any point soon.
The younger boys still enjoyed playing outside for short spells, until they got too cold.
By this stage of the week we had run out of bread. The older boys had trudged through the snow with dad to the local shop on Thursday evening, only to find it looking like something from the Eastern Block during the Communist Era. There was no bread, milk, eggs, meat, fruit or veg at all. Thankfully our freezer was well stocked with enough to keep us going, except for bread, and so on Friday I made some Soda Bread to have with yet another lunch of soup.
By Saturday our street was just about passable by car, and once we had dug it out we decided to venture out to Sainsbury's to stock up on supplies. We had heard from others in our street that all of the big supermarkets were struggling with fresh food supplies as none of the supply lorries had been able to get in and out of the depots all week.
Once we made it out of our street the main roads were now clear, which is more than can be said for the Sainsbury's car park!
It was obviously the first day all week that many people had ventured out to the shops and the only time I have seen Sainsbury's quite so busy is on Christmas Eve!
The rumours about the fresh supplies proved to be true, and this was what the bread aisle looked like - no comments about the state of the Scottish diet and the fact that the only two loaves left were wholemeal ones please!
On the Sunday, after the morning service, Fraser and his little cousin made a snowman the same size as them. I think they must have had some help from their brothers.
By Monday schools were all open again, the trains were running again, and things began moving again across the country.
The following morning we woke up to another morning of heavy snow and covered roads.
Thankfully the snow stopped by lunchtime and from then on the thaw set it. Albeit a slow one.
Now three weeks later there are still mounds of snow around that haven't melted away, although it has mostly all gone. We had yet another heavy snowfall on Saturday night/Sunday morning there, but nowhere near as bad.
The boys are now well over the excitement of any new snow falls. It was fun while it was here, but the novelty of it has worn off now and like me they are very much looking forward to Spring making it's long awaited appearance
