Conflicting Snowballs

As most of you have probably been made aware, large areas of Britain have been hit with an unusal amount of snow.  In certain areas of Canada, most people would find what the Brits are calling the Big Freeze kind of amusing.  I do, and yet I don't.  I live here and I realize that England just isn't equipped for this kind of weather i.e. cars don't have winter tyres, salt/grit isn't readily available and you rarely see a plow; but at the same time I can't help but be thrilled with the small amount of snow that has fallen periodically over the last week, and continues to stick around. 

As an East Coast Canadian, I love the cold crisp air and winter-like scenery.  It's just enough really. I don't miss having to go out in the mornings and dig my car out from under two feet of snow, then get myself shovelled out of the drive before beginning a treacherous journey into the city.  I can't help but shake my head at the amount of schools that have closed and people who aren't turning up for work because of the icy roads;  I do realize that most are frightened and not used to these conditions, and I do get that this is not the norm to here and try to remember this as my SUV slips a bit on the side streets and I just laugh it off;  after all, this is small potatoes for me.  I do however wish we did have winter or all-season tyres because the tyres on our SUV are practically useless even with the 4x4 turned on.

Now... what I'm particulary enjoying is watching the children out enjoying this white novelty.  Molly sure as heck is enjoying it - we've all be having fun with the massive snowballs out on the field.

 

It is a bit of a mixed bag of fun though, watching the kids enjoying themselves;  While on one hand its great looking at them all playing in the snow, constructing massive snow balls and having snowball fights,  when they do something stupid like roll one of the big ones directly into the middle of our street (even though I did chuckle when Andy rang to warn me, the more adult and sensible side of me realized what a risk this could be); and driving home this afternoon I was often distracted watching the kids walking home from school firing snowballs back and forth across the road.  Although I love seeing the joy on their faces whilst they enjoy this rare occurence, I cringe at the thought of one hitting a car and cracking something.  Visibility was bad enough without having to worry about stray snowballs (I do realize that snowballs aren't likely to cause much damage, however there is a small possibilty of something going wrong). 

In the meantime, so long as this winter-wonderland lasts I'm going to make the best of it (cause thankfully it won't go on until April) and tomorrow Molly and I are going outside to make a snowman that will certainly rival that of the one next door.