SNOW!!!!!!!!

We woke this morning (at a very civilised 6.30am…thank you Osh!) to SNOW!! Not a huge amount by Canadian standards but oodles of the stuff by Pompey standards (where it doesn’t snow). Oisin was beside himself with excitement – as was Chloe who has seen 3 winters of the stuff. And after a hearty breakfast I kitted them out in snow gear (long johns, snow pants, fleece, jackets, hats and mittens…..trust me, getting 2 wriggling toddlers into all that is an adventure in itself) and took them out to shovel the sidewalk. An hour later we had comprehensively shovelled the sidewalk (me), unshovelled it (Osh) and built a rather fine snowman (all three of us, picture above). The aftermath of such chilly fun was that Osh and his cousin (a rather fine red-head, just like her aunt) managed, oh, a good 10 minutes of entente cordial on the sofa before the warring factions set to yet again.

This evening I took Osh for a walk after tea to get some fresh air into his lungs. The snow was still on the ground – although the sunshine and the lack of moisture in the air had rendered all the sidewalks and roads bone dry. We walked to the end of the street and then I spotted people skating in the park, so we crossed the street and I took Osh to see what skating looks like. He thought that was great fun. Many of the public parks flood the basketball courts during the winter and convert them into ice-rinks. There are two just minutes from Steph’s house: on one 2 kids were playing hockey, on the other a gaggle of families were skating and falling over in equal measure. Osh (who has no skates) and I (skates usefully at home!) then spent a happy few minutes with him pretending to be a hockey players and skittering all over the place on the ice outside the rinks. It was bitterly cold with a strong wind blowing when we walked home but there is nothing like a blast of icy air followed by a bottle of milk to send a small boy to sleep…and render his mother sleepy too!

Apologies for sideways photos above - too tired to be bothered to fart around trying to get them up the right way!