The unmistakable crunch

We don't often get snow in Dorset, but when we do it generally causes chaos.

I live in Christchurch and yesterday we were treated to about 4cm of snow in our village.  Usually I love snow, but on this occasion it was for me a rather unwelcome visitor.

My husband was due in hospital for a medical procedure at 7.15am.  The plan was originally for my mum to pick him and up and take him in.  I had also booked tickets Friday night to take Samuel to watch Superslam Wrestling in Bournemouth, it was a treat as part of his birthday present.

Given the predicted forecast we decided to book a taxi to take Gary to hospital, thus saving my mum driving in any snow or ice, but when we woke at 6am to see the blanket of snow we were also hoping the surgeon carrying out the procedure would make it in to work.  Thankfully the taxi made it to our house to pick Gary up and although they were understaffed at the hospital Gary still managed to have his procedure later in the morning.

The children were over the moon of course, although when I told Samuel that his school was closed he was slightly disappointed that he wouldn't be seeing his friends.  Oliver and Isabella haven't seen much snow in their young lives, but they were excited by the cold white stuff that was falling out of the sky and keen to get dressed and venture outdoors.

It was still snowing when we first went outside.  Oliver and Isabella were intrigued walking on the snow, but didn't like it blowing in their faces.  After a short walk near our house they were ready to go back inside and warm up with mugs of hot chocolate.

The snow wasn't letting up and it continued to fall all morning.  Oliver and Isabella kept running to the window to look outside, each of them shouting "still snowing" every now and again.  I made a decision to take up Samuel's dads offer of taking Samuel to the wrestling instead of me.  From his flat he and Samuel would easily be able to bus there and back, a safer option than me driving from our village when the snow could become ice.  Samuel's dad collected him soon after our phone call while the roads were drivable with care.


I took Oliver and Isabella for another walk just before lunch, and they had fun making footprints in the snow.  However, it was still snowing and the wind made it icy cold in their faces and after about 15 minutes they wanted to go back inside the warm house.

Gary returned from hospital after lunch, by this time the roads were quite slushy.  It doesn't look so pretty when it turns to slush and this is generally when I'm ready for the snow to be washed away.

I'm glad the children have experienced a light dusting of snow, not too much to inconvenience us greatly, but enough to feel the unmistakable crunch under foot.