Snowed in

Anyone with a three year old will tell you that it is particularly difficult to get through a day if they don't have some fresh air. Over the past few days that has been a difficult thing to achieve. Lots of snow in the city meant getting about was hard work, but even before that getting out of the house was a task itself. Putting small children into big coats, whilst they are inside is not popular, they get hot and very bothered. Then the little one has to be put into a sleeping bag type arrangement in the pushchair, which keeps her even more warm when outside, but which obviously is not very welcome in the beginning. Then I have to get dressed for the outside, hat, coat, scarf, gloves, all these have to be discovered in their hiding places, boots and socks too. By now I just have a couple of once adorable little girls yelling themselves pink.
Once outside the footpaths are narrow, somewhere between one and three snow shovel's wide, depending on the density of the traffic. But none of the paths are wide enough to comfortably accommodate a large buggy as well as all the hurrying pedestrians. Where the paths aren't cleared it feels quite treacherous, slippery under foot, so that when the big one chose to walk, she slipped a couple of times, a damp and bruised bottom was about the most that came of it, and I think the excitement of the snow more than made up for the discomfort.

Dropping leaves on top of snowfall

Out the back of our flat block is a decent area with a slide, and a nice willow tree, which is currently shedding it's leaves on to the snow. Here we went to build a snow man, though as the snow was powdery he didn't really get beyond a snow mound. We tromped around, making great holes in the snow, leaving foot prints everywhere, until I twisted my knee swinging the big one out of snow. The rest of the day was spent inside as I was afraid to go out and risk my knee on the ice. Happily, the next day the city authorities seemed to catch up with the weather and had begun to arrange for foot paths to be properly cleared.