Snow and Growth

On February 5th when the snow was fresh it was spectacular and beautiful. After a week or so it was just tedious. It was too deep to wheel my trolley with bags of coal and I had to use the marina wheelbarrow. But it also meant I had to delay buying plywood and other bits that I wanted because I could not get them from the car to the boat. Indeed, at one stage it would have been impossible to get the car out of the car park to the main road. One driver moved his Jaguar from its road-side parking spot but could not get enough grip to turn it to face towards the main road – he had to abandon the car in the turning space, 20 metres from where he started

.

Just two days later on the weekend of 7th and 8th of February there was a boat show at Braunston for shared ownership boats. Both days were sunny, but cold. The marquee had a snow carpet throughout both days even though it was heated. The people standing at the stalls must have had cold feet.


And the ducks also ...


It took well over a week for the snow to disappear. In parts of the marina that were sheltered from the sun the ice had grown very thick and lasted even longer than the snow.


At this stage I think the countryside is probably looking its bleakest. Trees have no leaves and the grass and reeds are still brown and squashed from the snow.

At the same time the days are lengthening and new growth is appearing in the middle of last year’s withered remains to remind us of forthcoming spring and summer and the inevitability of the seasons.


The cold weather has demonstrated how effective is my little solid fuel stove. Since I came back to Braunston in January until a few days ago I only lit the stove two or three times – when I let it go out so that I could clean the glass! The lowest outside temperature I noticed was -7.7C at 07:30 one morning but inside was always very comfortable with no sense that the heater was at its limit. Now that the weather is warmer I am using more fire-lighters because it is too warm to leave the stove burning all day.