More Snow.

It began snowing heavily yesterday evening and when I looked out of the window at 5.00 this morning the world was covered with a blanket of snow. A few hours later and the snow had conveniently melted away from paths and the pavement. I thought it was a shame that neither of the families with young children came out to make snowmen on the grass. At Dingles I used to be as eager as the boys to get out the toboggan and slide down the steep field behind the house. Talking of Dingles - we've just found out how bad conditions were there after the first bout of snowy weather. Up at the top of the drive the snow reached the top bars of the field gates and the stables had to close for 2 weeks because road conditions were so bad. In 25 years of living there this only happened to us a couple of times.

Here it carried on snowing lightly and by midday the heavy flakes were back only to peter out again by the evening. We're currently under an amber weather warning until the small hours of the morning. Seeing snowflakes drifting past the window had me thinking of warming winter food so I made a hearty soup of onions, tomatoes, white cabbage and lentils with small chunks of salami and smoked sausage for flavour as well as garlic and smoked paprika. I also threw in the remaining roast potatoes (cut up) from yesterday. By the time all that had gone in it was more of a stew than a soup and tasted delicious with a sprinkling of grated cheese on top. There's enough for us to have it  tomorrow as well.

The rest of the afternoon was spent scraping paint in the hall and singing along to my MP3 player to learn the words of some of the songs for the concert. All the hall skirting boards are now done, apart from under the stairs which I'm happily ignoring for the time being. 

I had to laugh when I saw a snowy photo a member of the choir had posted of their cat behind which were some upright decking posts with rope, 2 strands this time, strung between them. 

Our bedroom is currently filled with the scent of this lily. I took it out of last week's bouquet as all parts of lilies including the pollen are toxic to cats and our bedroom is the one room they are not allowed in.