A Decent Shape

I've discovered people I've never really met before: natural simple people.  People who've made a decent shape out of their lives.  And I'm coming to think they get their values straighter than people like us ever will have.  Oh, I know we can talk more ingeniously, and we can out-argue them every time; and we can read books written by people like ourselves and make-believe that what we think of life, and what our writers think of life, is all life is.

Quotation from  The Search by C.P. Snow

We were warned!

A couple of weekends ago, our second blast of wintry weather was forecast. Here came the first of many snow flurries during the day.

The locals didn't think much to getting their feet wet, I watched as one of the local cats delicately picked its way across our driveway.

And this pigeon was forced to just sit it out.

Ah, but though from behind glass in the warm, it did look pretty.

 

It began to melt properly on day three, making it all look messy and tired again. Down the valley some sad looking large lumps of snow remained where children had built once proud looking snowmen.

All over town the early red rhododendrons dropped their petals. Now a couple of weeks on, they have all fully recovered and bushes are covered once more in blooms.

Snow Days

As we left for our Sunday brunch at the seaside it began to snow.

Angry looking storm clouds at sea, proved what the forecasters had predicted--there was a southerly storm brewing.

The white on the sand dunes is snow - proving snow to low levels was correct!

Deteriorating conditions on the way home.

And a poor view from the supermarket carpark, as we stocked up on frozen food - a good day to shop for frozen food no chance of it melting on the remaining way home.

Couldn't see across the valley as the snow and hail fell.

So we spent the afternoon indoors.

In front of the fire.

Day two dawned and all the snow had turned to ice - so we stayed home again. It's been sunny, but the white stuff is not melting very quickly. The steep icy hills make Dunedin particularly treacherous, the gritters grit but unlike the UK there's no salt in the grit so the roads remain icy.

Cold Snap

A large storm the size of Australia was headed our way across the Tasman we were told on Friday. Snow was expected down to low levels and Southland farmers were advised to get their new-born lambs under cover. Hopefully they did, because further South they copped it. Here we got off with only a slight dusting on the hilltops.

You know it's spring when ... you get pretty pink cherry blossoms hidden from view by flakes of snow!

In the North Island they had very high winds and heaps of rain, trees came down bringing power lines with them. So, lucky Dunedin had a few snow flakes adn it was a bit chilly, but very pretty!

Big Snow

Dunedin just about shut down today ...

the northern motorway was closed until about 2pm

on the radio national news this morning we heard there'd been lots of crashes and cars sliding off the road in the hill suburbs.

This proved a good excuse to snuggle under the eiderdown for a wee while longer, and then snuggle up in front of the fire - all day!