I set off early to walk to work thinking we'd had a few inches of snow in the night. As I went up the drive sinking to the tops of my wellies I realised it was nearer to a foot of snow. I bravely soldiered on despite the snow that was falling and obscuring my glasses. When I got up to the cars there were 3ft drifts across the drive so I went through the field instead.
Even there the snow was a good foot deep in places and once I got to the road there was up to 2ft of snow. Luckily a tractor had been through and I was able to walk in its tracks. When I got to Ashleford Corner some people in a landrover stopped and told me that they had been down to the main road and it was snowed over as well. At that point I decided to call it a day and go home. When I phoned my headteacher she was most surprised as there was not a drop of snow in Barnstaple but she knows that I have tried my best to get into work and today it was just not possible. I e-mailed her some pictures to show just how bad it was. I was fed up because this afternoon is my planning time and my laptop is safely at school so I can't plan at home instead and I had a big display to put up. I'll try and get in over the weekend to pick up my laptop.
Later, once the heavy snow stopped, Romas and I went back out onto Ron's field for more snow boarding and tobogganing fun. It may seem strange to get so excited by snow but this is only the second time in 15 years that we've had a significant amount of snow. Usually it's just a light covering which is gone the next day.
There was about a foot of fresh snow on Ron's field which wasn't as good for tobogganing but we had lots of fun and Romas was able to build himself some ramps while I careened down the hill on my little orange sledge usually ending up in a big heap of snow laughing wildly. ( Romas did manage to find some deeper drifts as well.)
Later the skies cleared and the sun came out so I could not resist the opportunity to go for a long photo walk.
Paul had obviously managed to get his quad bike up the hill. It was a lot easier walking in the tracks rather than the deep snow which threatened to come over the tops of my wellies.
But even Paul couldn't make it through these 3ft snow drifts. I'm quite amazed that I managed to get through them this morning.
This is from the road , looking down our drive, you can just see my tracks through the field on the right.
I decided to walk down to Bowden Corner, remember this scene from last week?
I walked along Bowden Lane using the tractor ruts in the track to Rookbear Lane. It's not my usual walking route but I wanted some different views over the countryside.
All the fields between here and Barnstaple were covered with snow and in the distance Dartmoor was also covered with snow. By mid-morning the tv was reporting many road closures including the M25 (J30-31) and the Link road was said to be impassable. Overnight 200 people had to be rescued from the main Plymouth to Exeter road when 1ft of snow fell in an hour.
As I made my way home the sunset cast a pink glow over the snowy landscape.
And so ends another snowy day.
