Snow. Great white drifts of it. Harummph. Britain as a whole doesn't do snow. So, when it fell last week, everything ground to a halt. Fair play to the weather forecasters, by Wednesday they said it would be here overnight on Thursday and into Friday. So, on Wednesday evening, I went out and did a shop to stock up, to ensure we didn't run out of basics. I expected that on Thursday the supermarkets would be mad. I was also feeling quite frustrated, since on the weekend was the local greyhound charity dog show, and middle nephew was coming over for it. Moreover, I had made Boola a fancy dress costume to complement nephew and was looking forward to seeing them in the ring together. Sure enough, the snow fell on Thursday night and into Friday, and we were soon engulfed in it. Andrew managed to get home from Birmingham and miraculouosly was able to meet James on the platform at Bristol to travel back together. They got a taxi out to the house, and a journey that takes normally no more than 20 minutes took about an hour. Eventually, cold tired and hungry the weary travellers returned and we were all able to sit down and eat.

By Saturday it was apparent we would not be going to the dog show. We called Paula. the organiser (another Paula, not our close friend), and she couldn't even get out of her drive. Looking at the conditions, it would have been foolish and even dangerous to have tried to get there. However, two lovely costumes were waiting, so James and Boola got dressed up and we did a photoshoot out on the grassy area near the houses. James loved his elf costume so much he is now planning to wear it for Christmas visits to relatives, and was also very happy with Boola's appearance. On the bright side, Paula is organising another show at the venue in February, so James has already decided he will come back for that. Pics attached of Boola and James in costume and the snow locally. Of course, this will mean making another costume for Boola, but that could be fun.

James and Andrew then struggled through the snow round to our local shops for a paper and some other perishables, then returned home and took the dogs out to play in it for a bit. Then we had a quiet afternoon before having supper and watching "How to Tame Your Dragon" which was quite funny in places, and I was very struck by the resemblance between Toothless, the main dragon character and Andy our greyhound. Sunday morning, another quick outing in the snow for the dogs before an early lunch and back on to the train for Andrew and James. It was lovely to see James and he was able to email some nice pics of his costume to various friends and relations, and I've offered to get him some prints framed. These have been ordered and I received an email today from Photobox to say they've been dispatched, so I might be able to give them to James when we see his family over Christmas.

Seeing anyone else looks unlikely at the moment. Yesterday it snowed steadily all day and it is now thick outside. At the moment, the main worry is that we are due to collect our turkey on Thursday from Penarth and this will be difficult along with shopping for last minute fresh stuff for Christmas. I was very impressed though that the postman got through today, and we received an enormous backlog of cards - he hadn't been for a couple of days and there were masses. So, for the moment, I am hunkered down in the house with the dogs. Luckily, virtually our Christmas shopping had been done, and cards and parcels had all been posted in good time, so we are quite lucky in that respect. The weather has affected the delivery of many parcels and of course these days people also have home deliveries of groceries too. I will post more as this week unfolds.