This posts title comes courtesy of Steve. I thought it was rather clever.
The BBC and local news stations had been predicting heavy snow falls but to date we had yet to see them. Imagine our surprise when this time they got it right.
I had been waking up throughout the night to check for snow but to no avail. I was already up, dressed and ready to leave for work when Steve mentioned checking the Earthcam websites to see if there was one for Kew Gardens. He has been wanting to visit Kew or the Eden Project if they were ever likely to be covered in snow. I found a live webcam for Kew and what should I see but lashings of snow!
I quickly called into work for an impromptu annual leave day which I was granted much to my delight. Changed into our winter gears – thermals, microgrid, Goretex jacket and ski pants and we were off heading to London. Now this was rather impulsive and most people would say a bit on the crazy side. Everyone else was trying very hard to avoid driving or going anywhere near London but here we were heading straight into the city. In fact apparently 6 million people didn’t go into work today across the UK!
To be honest, this meant driving down was easy. The roads were generally pretty quiet. Yee hah! We got a park right outside the main gates (free parking too!) and made our way in. We have annual tickets to Kew so didn’t even have to pay to get in. Love it.
The gardens were spectacular. I love it here in summer but in winter it is a totally different place. Also, Heathrow airport had grounded all flights it was so peaceful today especially with that certain type of “heavy” quiet that accompanies snow. Normally there are flights going over every 90 seconds. Today was bliss.
We took the burner and coffee in with us and hunkered down for a hot drink halfway through our walk. It snowed pretty much on and off all day while we were there.
We stayed until just after 2pm but had to finally leave in order to ensure we avoided driving back through the snow in the dark. Believe me, leaving was hard to do. What a magic day.
