Freezing.

Woke this morning to see an even heavier frost than the last few days. The garden and the world beyond were all white. We had to be up and out early as Peter was having a routine colonoscopy at the hospital. "It's only frost." said Peter as we set off, "You'll be okay."  The driveway in our garden wasn't too bad but when we turned to go up the hill the road was solid white. My car crawled up making barely any progress and at the same time the freezing fog was making the windscreen freeze over. We were nearly at the top just before the bend, when I veered slightly on to the grass and the car refused top go any further. I tried a hill start only to find myself sliding backwards at increasing speed. Going down a hill out of control has been a long held terror of mine, worse than my fear of heights (before I overcame that) so at that point I had gone into panic mode. I turned the wheel slightly and we came to a halt sideways across the road. Soon after our neighbour appeared on his quad bike. He had taken Jack up to the road to catch the school bus and had salt to spread on the road. I walked down to the house to get a rope and some water to clear the windscreen while Peter phoned the hospital to explain the delay. When I got back our neighbour had decided it wasn't a good idea to use the quad bike to help the car go up the hill but the salt seemed to be melting the ice. Peter took over the driving and got the car back up and around the bend, phew! We arrived at the hospital only half an hour late and found that all the routine appointments had been delayed anyway due to an emergency from the A&E. I left Peter there with his dressing gown and sandwich (hospital cut backs mean you only get a couple of biscuits and a cup of tea even though you've had to starve for 24 hours (36 in Peter's case) and went over to Tesco's to do some shopping. I tried on some clothes that were on sale but only bought a pair of black leggings. I also stocked up on some of the heavy basics in case the road conditions get bad again. Then on to Lidl's and into town where it was cold due to the fog that had filled the whole of the river valley. I got lucky when I went into M&S as there were some promotion stands and I enjoyed a smoked salmon and cream cheese mini bagel, a tiny tot of Black Forest Gateaux  liqueur, half a chocolate covered yule log and half a chocolate biscuit. In my defence I have to say that I also turned down a sausage roll and a tot of port. Driving out of town the fog was so bad that as I drove over the new bridge not only was the river obscured but I couldn't see either end of the bridge. I collected Peter from the hospital where he gave me the good news that all they found and removed was a tiny bump which is pretty normal in the over 65's.  

Driving home we suddenly found ourselves in bright sunshine once we passed Shirwell though looking through the gateways everything lower down was white. 

We took a chance and I drove down to the house. The steep hill road was still mostly frost but passable and our garden which gets very little sun was all white. Once I'd unpacked the shopping I took my car back up the hill as I've got a hospital dental appointment tomorrow morning and I don't like taking chances.

Peter has followed instructions and stayed in bed for the rest of the day, mostly sleeping while I have been trying not to fall asleep downstairs. All that excitement was too much for poor old me!