This Morning we woke up to Snow.
This snowfall took me by surprise. Two weeks ago we also had snow but that had been clearly forecast in advance. This morning's snow followed a week in which Storm Christoph had brought floods to many parts of Northern England and here in our area of North Wales. On Wednesday night a bridge over a river Nearby was swept away in flood water. People in the nearby town of Ruthin had their houses or businesses flooded. We are lucky up here on the hill and we recognise it. For us rain and snow are an inconvenience rather than a disaster. We are preparing to move house and the difference between what can be achieved on a dry day, however cold, and a wet or snowy one, is pronounced. So today I am having a day off, focusing on knitting and reading and cooking, appreciating how every much worse it could be, and trying to find ways to enjoy the day.
If I am honest with myself this is getting harder. The news in relation to coronavirus continues to be grim. New cases have fallen but only slightly, with hospital admissions remaining very high and deaths in excess of a thousand a day. Lockdown is in place across the UK. The vaccine is now being rolled out and may release us all if we can only keep numbers down sufficiently while the numbers who are vaccinated increase. It feels a bit like that stage in a long walk or run when you are tired and cold, it is raining and you are still a long way from home. The only thing to do is to put your head down and keep trudging forward.
