Snowdrops Are A Sign of Spring

In honor of the heaps of snow that were dropped onto Maryland soil this past weekend, I thought I'd send some hope your way in the form of snowdrops. These small white flowers are the harbinger of spring and begin to pop up everywhere around this time of year, often covering complete hillsides.

On Friday, two friends and I visited the village of Painswick to eat lunch and peruse the grounds of the Painswick Rococo Gardens. It was a Spring sort of day and I even wore my wellies for the occasion. After lunch, we walked through the famous yew tree topiary garden of St. Mary's Church. Each tree is sponsored by what I assume to be an inhabitant of Painswick and/or a church member. According to Wikipedia, "Folklore holds that the churchyard will never have more than 99 yew trees and that should a 100th grow the Devil would pull it out. According to the V&A (the Victoria & Albert Museum for those not in the know), a count of the trees showed there to be 103. The plan of the churchyard included in the church's own public leaflet shows 100." So much for the Devil doing his job! Maybe he, like the V&A and the parish of St. Mary's, can't count either!


My friend, Kara,and I inside a yew hedge


Jane and Kara under the walkway through the church offices

The snowdrops at the Rococo Gardens were very pretty. However, the gardens are probably much more gorgeous when the large array of flowers other than snowdrops have bloomed. We were also disappointed that the tea room was absolutely packed with Old Age Pensioners (OAPs) on a coach trip so we didn't get to savour our cuppa as the ladies do here. I can see penciling a return trip to the Rococo Gardens into my summer diary. These gardens have existed for 250+ years and are a little gem.




As a note, we have had a steady stream of flurries for pretty much all of the day here. Of course it is not accumulating and is nothing like the 30" my wonderful family and friends are experiencing, but flurries can cause a severe case of panic in this part of the world! Wish me luck on the school run.

Concentrate

Now answer me this: HOW am I supposed to concentrate with Hugh Jackman on the screen speaking Australian???

A Mum's Life

Our carpool that usually takes 15-20 minutes lasted one hour today. No snow, no ice, no rain... Luckily I am not extremely prone to road rage because someone might be dead. Although I didn't see any until I was on my way home, I think it was the rubbish trucks stopping traffic ahead of me which then caused the stop-start traffic to build up behind them and it is very difficult to pass on the narrow roads. The real reason is that our rubbish hasn't been picked up for THREE WEEKS (yes, since Christmas) and they were at some houses for a very long time loading the debris. The snow ceased all rubbish collection due to "health and safety" reasons in the binmen's union contract. In their defense, I will admit that the roads were very nasty when the snow was here.
All I can say is hooray for books on tape and Paul Stewart/Chris Riddell for their series The Edge Chronicles, a must read for anyone who is a Lord of the Rings fan on a kid level.
We survived and could have walked to school faster if I didn't have three PE kits, four backpacks, two instruments and one extra-foul child who was the reason we did not get an earlier start accompanied by three other children on my hands.
I am so terribly grateful that my wonderful husband makes a full pot of delicious coffee every morning because it was required this morning. If only I had had some in my car at the time...

Yoga & A Good Future

For years, people around me have gotten into the yoga groove. I, of course, delayed and just plain refused to go. Now that there is a yoga program on Wii Fit and yoga is more mainstream and my neighbour down the street has started to teach a yoga class pretty much directly across the street from Owen's school, I decided that it was time to try it. I really like it and I can do it and it doesn't involve situps even though my abs are a bit sore. I felt like a body filled with jello last night but today, all is good. This old body needed a jumpstart cuppa joe, but what's new about that?

Craig and I spent a relaxing day celebrating at an excellent pub in a nearby village called Painswick yesterday, named oddly enough The Royal Oak. Actually this isn't an oddity at all and I am joking as this name is a very popular name for a pub in England probably second in popularity to The Red Lion. The history of the name stems from "the name given to the English oak tree within which King Charles II of England hid in order to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651" (Wikipedia). Anyhoo, I digress. We were there without the kids since they had school and Craig didn't have work. We celebrated because it has been five years since Craig started in his present employment situation and he is officially vested in the retirement system with approximately 16 years toward retirement because they counted his time in the USMC and school as well. Plus, he earns retirement at a slightly higher rate while over here. Life is good!

Camaraderie

As I was walking home from dropping Owen to school, I was having some deep thoughts and one of those deep thoughts was that I truly hate snow. I especially hate snow in Britain. However comma while walking the kids to and from school today, I noticed that people (at least pedestrians) are in general so much nicer in snowy weather. As you walk down the streets of Britain (and I walk a lot on the streets of Cheltenham), British people tend to go out of their way to completely avoid eye contact, to smile or to simply acknowledge that there is another human being approaching them within a two-feet perimeter because after all, you are a "stranger". When it snows, Britons look at you; they smile at you; they talk to you either to show their happiness with the conditions or to commiserate when your child is balking at walking the last 200 feet into school; they actually move to one side on the sidewalk (aka "pavement") and groups go single-file to allow passage; they refrain from suddenly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk for no apparent reason. These things rarely occur in the unsnowy world. I honestly feel like I am living in another country - perhaps akin to America - where people are friendly and courteous and enjoy smiling and talking to strangers at least where I have lived.
Even drivers are learning to take things easy and allowing other cars to enter the queue, waiting their turn to go up and down inclines, driving slower - it's amazing! They have had at least a week to practice these new skills and it shows.
It is a rare occurrence to see someone shoveling their driveways or sidewalks here and at first I was thinking that was a bad thing and that Britons expect someone else to do it for them (which really IS true), but I have come to realize that it is all okay. It's a different way of life and when everything shuts down for two inches of snow, it's okay. It's a way to slow everything down and create camaraderie among all of us - camaraderie to enjoy nature, to curse nature, to curse the government and their lame management of nature, whatever one decides.
Also, now that it has snowed so much here, my children will now be able to tell their children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces how in the olden days they had to walk four miles round trip uphill each way to school in the snow. How's that for brotherly camaraderie?!
I still hate snow, but I can appreciate what snow brings. I also appreciate that our situation could be much worse. The earthquake in Haiti looks like a true disaster and I am thankful that we just have snow.

Neverending Story

The kids have been out of school since December 19th. They were supposed to go back to school today. They didn't because school was closed. They should have school tomorrow. They don't because school is closed. Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Suh-NOW!

Whoever told me it never snows in England is just plain wrong, wrong, WRONG! Yesterday and last night, we probably have gotten at least six inches of snowbally snow and it is still snowing! Needless to say, Owen is loving it. Unfortunately, school was supposed to (finally) begin tomorrow, but it's not because they have the day off. This means my celebratory pedicure which was scheduled about a month ago is cancelled. BOO! There is now at least nine inches of snow in our back garden, probably deeper in the park behind our house. Craig and I walked to the corner shop and then down to the Bath Rd. to get some supplies. The shelves were pretty much bare, but we got what we needed.

The kids "sledging".