And it snows, at last.  We were beginning to feel totally out in the cold.  The rest of the country was enjoying chaos and disruption and we were trotting along as usual.  But, woke this morning and we have at least 6 inches, locals say the most they have had in 30 years! Its gorgeous walking along our beach (near Bournemouth), the beach is covered in snow, the waves lapping up and the Isle of Wight, normally so visible, now hiding behind a thick snow cloud.  Had to stop myself being a ‘topper’ when chatting with the neighbours, didn’t start going on about how much snow we used to have when I was a kid growing up in Yorkshire.

I remember, the cold mornings stood at the bus stop, waiting for the bus that would eventually come. How quick do all services stop these days?  Inside my wellies, my mam would have wrapped my feet in plastic bags and shoved newspaper in for insulation.  You would be sliding down the road, rustling like a bag of crisps and then ‘Tracey’ would walk past in her moon boots.  Cor remember moon boots?  And if you were really adventurous or a hairdresser or something, you would get those moon boots covered in long hair!  We had so much snow once, possibly 1976 or 77 that my brother actually made an igloo – a real one and we played in it all day.

So I decided to take the kids to the only hill in the village.  We don’t have any sledges as it never snows here, so took along bin bags.  They didn’t work; evidentially they are no good for powder just work on ice?  We did have fun, the hill was busy, the whole village out enjoying the unexpected dump.  Only a few people had sledges, but pure genius, most had thought to bring their surf boards.  Fabulous.  You can fit loads of bums on a surf board before taking off down the slope.

Oh I do like to live beside the seaside.

By Sam on December 3, 2010