It has been a very cold week here on British shores. On Wednesday afternoon, there was about five minutes of what looked a little like snow. But this evening more of flakes descended and coated the pavements with a few millimetres of crunchy snow.
On Friday there was frost all day long. During the daytime, the lacquer of frost made everything outside look pretty. On the way home in the dark, the pavement was glittering as I walked along.
It is so cold…and oh so dark. Honestly, although there are pretty scenes at times, I am not enjoying it. But it is just one of those things. Roll on spring! I cannot wait until I can wander around in shorts and sandals again.
I was grieved to hear about a terrible tragedy of children who had been playing near an icy lake. Heart-breaking for those parents.
The snow-mobiles our friends took us on in the middle of the night in Northern Sweden – WOW! At midnight he told us we were going to go and empty the bins. He told us to all get dressed in our ski wear. We all traipsed outside and stood in the middle of the snow waiting for Jan who had disappeared when suddenly a mighty roar erupted and bright lights. Jan’s friends appeared on their snow mobiles and gave us two hours of the most fun I have ever had in the snow. The mountain was empty of tourists at night, so they rode all over. I was screaming with excitement while clinging to the driver with all my might.
I mentioned in a post recently our adventure with the herd of reindeer:
But there was one moment I will never ever forget. One of the highlights of our week was the day our friend totally surprised us by arranging for us to go sledging with husky dogs – that was an incredible experience. I keep meaning to write a post about it because there were a couple of very funny things that happened that day. I must remember to start a post so that is in my drafts folder.
The moment that stands out in my mind as spectacular, was when the sun started to rise at around 10am. It is hard to explain how dazzlingly and breath-takingly beautiful the scenery became. Can you use your imagination to picture the snowy landscape starting to sparkle with gold and glitter, and then every colour of the rainbow? I have never seen anything so magnificent in all my life.
I was sitting on the sledge with the sister of our friend who organized our trip. She did not speak English and I did not speak Swedish. But the incredible coincidence that at the same moment we both started to sing in our own language the same song. It is a beautiful song that my mum used to sing to me, about how the skies full of stars and the sun and moon bring glory to the one that made them and reveal His incredible mind. It came into my head, and I sang the words in English because the melody is so lovely. She knew the same melody, but she was singing the words in Swedish. We both started to cry, because although we could not speak with one another, we had the most extraordinary glimpse into each other’s heart at that moment. We hugged each other tightly.
Here in England…and in Wales for most of this week, it has been unseasonably mild. Yay!!! We have been outdoors…in the mild air. That is very helpful when there are so many of us.
I have no idea why I took two coats up north with me. I took a navy raincoat and a huge navy thick winter coat. I didn’t really need either, for it did not rain, neither was it cold! Oh well – I am not complaining. I think I preferred the mild weather whilst I have been standing around waiting for trains and traipsing through the woods with family.
The family who are scattered across Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire are also a lot of fun. But in a different way. It always feels like a cross between a Butlin’s entertainment evening and a fund-raising telephone night. That’s mainly due to my brother-in-law’s uncle. He is always the entertainments manager. Lots of shop-bought food and shop bought gateaux and trifle, lots of dancing and singing (usually in the form of karaoke), lots of games and pouring over old photograph albums reminiscing about how every one used to look and parties from the past.
A slightly different feel to the atmosphere, but still lots of family fun and games and laughter. In this mild weather…for some strange but adorable reason it was Calypso and Caribbean music that we ended up dancing to. All of us in a great conga procession weaving around the flower beds at midnight.
Bee, the creator of 
Caramel 