Snow.

The snow is still with us.

I woke reasonably early having been disturbed by the constant humming of the the central heating. We keep it on over night to maintain a lower but constant temperature and then turn it up to 18C during the day. However when I looked at the thermostat in the kitchen it read 14C. A quick check revealed that although it didn't feel particularly cold none of the radiators were warm. It would happen on a Sunday too. However having informed Peter of the bad news the moment he woke up it didn't take him long to top up the water in the condenser and get it going again. Hooray, we had heat! I'm planning to finish writing up the 'house handbook' during the week between Christmas and New Year and I'll make sure I include full instructions for doing such simple fixes because if I had been on my own I wouldn't have known what to do. (The handbook is to guide either of us if we get forgetful or just me if Peter isn't here or able. Grim thoughts but how silly not to do it.) 

The sunrise cast a lovely pink glow over the snowy hills and it was much the same at sunset. No rain so the snow remains and the forcast is for low temperatures to continue for a while. Somebody on a local travel page put out a plea for town dwellers not to try to drive out to see the snow as only the main roads have been gritted. He said he wasn't going to change out of his onesie just to dig people out of the snow.

We have a large window over the kitchen sink with hanging plants and opaque film over most of it to obscure the view of house walls and next door's parking space but there is the tiniest view of the hills which today were gleaming white with the snow.

I had two jobs today, first was to decorate the shortbread biscuits with icing and the other was to box up the chocolates going out as presents. Some boxes I'd been saving came in very handy for this. The smaller ones especially as they didn't have any printing on at all while the bigger box needed its lid covered with wrapping paper. Although Peter is of the opinion that a present is just as good if it is handed over in the bag from the shop I have the opposite view and like to make the packaging as beautiful as possible. Though I did let my standards slip in the days when I was wrapping numerous tiny presents to go in the boys' Christmas stockings. Even so every chocolate bar, pencil or small toy was a miniature present that (I hope) gave pleasure in the unwrapping. And a peaceful respite for two weary parents on Christmas morning.

The loose chocolates went in a cellophane bag but yes there are quite a few left over. I wonder who will eat those?