Snow

I am so bored with snow now. It started snowing 2 months ago, and none of it has gone yet as the temperatures have been constantly sub-zero ever since (except for a couple of days last week when they reached the dizzy heights of 1C). There's so much that they've run out of places to put it when they clear the paths and roads, and dirty snow is piled up everywhere you look. Every now and then some of it gets scooped up into tipper trucks and taken away to who knows where (maybe they're selling it to the Canadians), but they're fighting a losing battle. Happily, what was forecasted for this week hasn't arrived apart from a few flurries this morning, but they're promising more next week.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate everything about the snow; when it first arrived it made things seem so much brighter after the dim and dark November we had; when you go out into the countryside the trees and fields look so pretty; and it's great fun taking the kids sledging at a weekend. Living in this apartment means that it's always warm indoors, and going out in the cold is a great excuse for hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows when you get back home.

I'm fed up with getting cold toes every time I go anywhere despite my fluffy socks. It takes at least 20 minutes just to get out of the door by the time everyone has put on their snowsuits or salopettes, jumpers, coats, hats, earmuffs, scarves, gloves and boots; and then the reverse process when we get in takes just as long plus you have to find space for all the wet things on the radiators. It will be nice not to have to have soggy newspaper in the hall for people to leave their wet boots on, and not get snow pushed down the back of my trousers by 4 year olds who think it's hysterically amusing every single time.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to being able to see something that's not white out of the window. I miss green.