Snowtastic

We recently has some extreme snow. Extreme in the sense that I can’t remember experiencing so much of it nor the length of the prolonged heavy snow showers. Local and national news (for it hogged the headlines for days and affected many parts of the UK but in particular, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Scotland and anywhere on the East Coast) reported that this was the worst snowfall for over 20 years in Derbyshire.

It was fab.

I got to work from home for 4 days in a row. The trains were severely affected and for 2 days there were no trains running through Chesterfield, and unfortunately I rely on the trains to get to and from work.
At its deepest the snow came up to Maisie’s waist. On a couple of days I struggled to find fresh milk in the Chesterfield shops I could get to (and were actually open for business). Also, for a day or two bread got a bit scarce.

It ruined many of the gutterings on our road. The weight of a foot and half of snow weighing down on flimsy gutterings was too much for several roofs (or is it rooves? or is that just for ‘hoofs’ and ‘hooves’? I dunno).
The snow did pose logistical problems though, like how to get 2 children to nursery without the use of a buggy and since the road was difficult for even an adult to get down. Also, the cars on the road were snowed in for days.

On the Saturday morning (the snow had been around since Tuesday) a group of hardy neighbours got out on the road with shovels and picks to loosen and move the ice and snow which was holding our road hostage. We started as a 3 and by then end we had reached the end of the road (3 hours later) we were 10 strong. We managed to carve our one tyre track only though.

Incredulously, one ungrateful and grumpy man who lives about half way down the street passed our merry band of workers on returning from a shopping trip with his (presumably long-suffering and meek) wife. Rather than congratulating us all on spending all that time and effort clearing the road for all residents, started shouting at us sarcastically and angrily saying that we had done a great of blocking everyone’s cars in and how (“the hell”) would people get out.

Unbelievable! And rude! One of the more volatile members of our group started walking towards him with shovel in hand shouting back. I was happy for him to speak on our behalf. The language rapidly went downhill. The peacemaker of the road quickly stepped in and calmed the situation.

8 days and some milder temperatures later, there are still small piles of stubborn, icy slush lingering around, refusing to melt completely.

There is a second wave of snow to come starting tomorrow night according to the weather reports. Surely it can’t be as severe as last time. Or can it? :)