
.

Following the coldest days in years, today we are heading for a record high with torrents of rain.
Not nearly as photogenic.
.
Returning from Greenwich on Boxing Day, we enjoyed a different view of the intense frost that had so delighted us.

.

But first we took the car to Schuylerville to get it washed and over there the trees were not frosted, which made us all the more pleased to have witnessed such a limited treat!
.
How often in life do we benefit from being in the right place at the right time? I wish I had kept a record!

.

Who’s to say what you miss by turning left instead of right, or how differently life might have turned out, but for one small decision?
.
That is the way life is and there is no point in dwelling on what may have been.

.

Back the other side of Greenwich again, the Sun was breaking through and the mist was dissipating.
.
A different view altogether.


.

Snow like this always brings to mind my mother’s Christmas cake that was decorated with a tiny fir tree.
.
My mother was very talented and very creative. She loved not just to cook, but to make her food look attractive.

.

When I was little, before we left England, I had a birthday party and instead of a single cake, Mum made individual cakes that she iced, blue for the boys and pink for the girls, with each child’s name on it.
.
We also each had a little jelly in a decorative mold with piped cream on top.
Mum loved doing things like that.

.

She also made most of my clothes as well our curtains and the coverings for arm chairs and sofas which were quite complicated.
Her embroidery was exquisite.
And she knitted not a few jumpers.
.
Her sisters were creative too. I still have a jumper that my aunt Win made for me over 50 years ago, a work of art!

.

I was on the wrong side of the car coming back into Cambridge!

.
Sparkles, like fairy dust, filled the air.

.

COLD, as it’s supposed to be!

.


.

It seems pines shed frost more quickly.
Those are the dark trees in these pictures.
.
We live in times of ups and downs. Only days after the deep freeze, the snow has gone as if hoovered up. Usually this amount takes days to melt.
After tomorrow, if predictions are correct, we’ll plunge again, though there are no snowflakes in the current forecast.

We are being braced for extra-cold weather and gale force winds from the north. By the end of the week we might well have snow this far south. I sincerely hope they are wrong about that.
I will wish you and Grant a very happy new year, one with less cat dramas and heartaches.
Thanks for being a good friend to me during 2024.
Best wishes, Pete. xx
Thank you Pete. Best wishes to you and Julie too and also for no snow!
Thank you, Carolyn, for your philosophical musings, which are real pearls of wisdom!
Joanna