Snowed in Winter Weekend

Hail on Friday......

briefly

filling up the birdbaths.

Spot the robin taking shelter.

A smattering of icing sugar snow settles on branches on Saturday.... but it turns blizzard like in the evening and I have a slow drive back from the cinema in Sidmouth with snow flake bullets firing out of the darkness into my windscreen from all directions.

  I wake to this soft falling blanket on Sunday morning... 

 it snows continuously till 3am.

All day from the warmth of my kitchen I watch the constant white fluttering flakes fall and build up  on top of the patio pots like thick milk bottle caps ....and daub the branches of the shrubs and trees with heavy blobs and layers of pristine sugar snow. 

Definitely not a good idea to go out....except to fill up the bird feeders and sprinkle seed in thawed out patches of ground under an umbrella of branches.

 The beautiful white wonderland gives me a sort of stolen holiday feeling and permission to day dream.... and read ....and stay in bed longer than usual and indulge in a late toast and marmalade breakfast.

 And I feel very lucky I'm not trying to get home from an airport or stuck on the icy slopes of Haldon Hill in a mess of traffic.

Today

I wake to the sound of engines revving and car wheels spinning on crunchy ice in the street outside.

But by this afternoon the sun's rays have kickstarted the thaw

and the birds are back nibbling at the feeders. I feel safe enough to walk into town and stock up on bird seed and fat balls for them and library books for me.