LEAVING OXFORD

It's snowing, how pretty!

Oh look it's piling up on the rooves!

We had watched the snow fall all morning, light at first, but occasionally a flurry of big, fast falling fluffy flakes. It was oh so pretty! Until, we watched it pile up on the rooves and garden furniture and trees around us. It still looked beautiful, but would it prevent us leaving for London tomorrow? By early afternoon the cars on the street were up to their hubcaps with the stuff and windscreens and roofs were completely covered with close to 30cm of snow. We had intended one more foray into Oxford City, Michael was raring to go, I was hesitant! The snow looked deep and cold, we might get wet shoes, what if the buses weren’t running, even if they were, they might stop and strand us in town and we would have to wade through ankle deep snow to get home!!  We may not be able to get out tomorrow!

And it's getting deeper pretty quickly, it's still beautiful.

Michael took a walk down to the Cowley Rd shops, I stayed indoors and ‘monitored the situation’, taking photos through the windows as the snow built up. What happens to the birds, I wondered, there’s no leaves to shelter them, don’t they freeze? Apparently not as there they were on bare branches or flying by.

This fellow is bigger than he looks.

We thought he looked like a robin in shape, but much bigger. H e moved some snow off the branch before settling down.

Michael got back with the news that the buses were still running and walking in the snow wasn’t that bad. I decided to stay indoors anyway and catch up with my blog and email and such! I also kept an eye on the train and coach sites. Many of these services to London were disrupted or cancelled because of the weather. It was so cosy in our room!! We polished off most of what was left in our little fridge for lunch and tea and took ourselves off to bed, hoping that the coaches and trains would be running by morning.

Looking over the fence into the yard next door, the garden furniture was covered in snow. You can see how deep it is.

By morning the snow was still deep but it hadn’t snowed overnight. The neighbours were outside digging their cars out of the snow, kids playing in the shin deep snow. Life goes on and so must we! We ate a hearty full English breakfast to tide us over and took ourselves and our luggage down stairs, Michael went off to phone a taxi, cars and buses were running and so were the trains and some coaches. Not apparently so for the taxis, one lot said no straight out the other said maybe this afternoon. We would just have to catch a bus! Well it seemed a good idea at the time!

The neighbours digging their car out from under the snow...

and clearing the driveway so they can get out.

These heavy tapestry-like woven drapes grace St Stephen's dining room windows, I'm going to miss them and the view they frame.

Michael had just polished off bacon, tomato, a sausage, an egg and toast, the full English Breakfast. Our last meal at St Stephen's, it was to stand us in good stead for the day that followed.

view from the front step of St Stephen's House to Cowley Road.

 We left St Stephen’s house for the last time, going warily down the front steps which had become treacherous with ice on the top couple of steps. We manoeuvred ourselves and our luggage safely down and onto the snow below, deciding it would be less cumbersome to drag our cases on the road in the snow compacted by cars. It was. We struggled along to Cowley Road and along to the bus stop, a walk of about 100m in all. It was hard going, I can tell you, there is nothing beautiful about snow once it has been trodden on and driven over and mushed up by foot and wheels of all sizes. The pristine white beauty turns into shades of white through grey to almost black on the main roads, it is really repulsive!

No longer pristine, this is what snow looks like at the side of the road. From the left, the brownish snow has taken foot traffic, the whitest snow is the curb, the blackish slush is the road!!! Not so pretty now, and hell to drag suitcases on!!!!

We waited with some locals at the bus stop while bus after bus passed us by, about eight in all, each displaying the Not In Service sign. The people around us all opted to walk into Oxford; we waited ‘til one more Not In Service bus passed us by, what to do? Go back to our digs and see if we could stay another night or drag our luggage into town? We decided to go forward. As we struggled, and I do mean struggled, it was really hard work. Where the snow was compacted enough to give us a ‘smooth’ run with the luggage the ground was more slippery. Where the snow was not compacted it slowed our progress by banking up against the cases making them really heavy to drag despite the wheels! We were almost at Magdalen Bridge and had passed the last bus stop on Cowley Road about 30 or 40 metres back, when a bus, with passengers, sailed past. Bugger! Within the next five minutes as many as 5 In Service buses cruised on by! Bugger, bugger, bugger!! We struggled on determined not to go back, with our luck, we decided, if we went back the buses would stop! It was about 600m to the next bus stop, over the bridge and along the High Street. That was the longest 6oom we had ever walked, it was really hard work and frustrating as bus after bus passed by.    

At last we had reached a bus stop on the High Street and I whipped my camera out while waiting for the bus.

I looked up at the gargoyles I had photographed a few days ago, even they looked miserable draped as they were in centimetres of snow, I was too pre-occupied with the walk to get my camera out!! We only had a short wait for a bus, I asked the driver if he was going to the station, “Aye, lass, when the next driver turns up.” He said as he gathered his belongings and prepared to leave. The next driver must have been held up, so this one turned off the motor and went to “dig him out’ we were left stranded for 5 or 10 minutes until the next driver came scuttling along and onto the bus. Again we asked did the bus stop at the station. Affirmative!  We were on our way. The bus stopped across the road from the station and we expected it to pull around into the bus bay at the station as our bus did the other day.  Not so with this bus it drove right on by, carrying us away from our destination, Bugger! We got off at the next stop and noted the hotels and YHA on the way back to the station, just in case we needed accommodation for the night!

We got tickets to London for the next train, leaving in 20 minutes! Hallelujah!!! It was 1.30pm and cold, we didn’t have time for lunch and were glad we’d eaten such a good breakfast. The trip in was uneventful, the scenery amazing everything looked so white! And from the train it looked pristine, we couldn’t see the slush caused by traffic in the snow!!