Snowed In

We were actually organised this morning and ready to leave the house just after nine. The plan for today was to drive to Haworth, where the Brontë family lived and the Parsonage that was their home is now a Brontë Museum. The grass outside looked frosty, but we were soon to learn that it was more likely snow as within the next few minutes it started snowing ever so softly.

The snow was falling ever so softly.

There was a light covering of snow on the front garden.

 Hmmm we were both a little unsure about driving in the snow, but we had to go to Pudsey to pick up Michaels dry cleaning and we were perilously low on milk and bread and I wanted to buy a recharge voucher for my notebook. We decided to chance the drive to the shops and then come back home and have a day indoors. We really didn’t want to go as far as Haworth in such inclement weather.

The roads weren't too bad when we started out.

Michael handled the drive really well, he didn’t tailgate anyone and we learned that British drivers are mostly very considerate in such poor weather.  Drivers would stop in village streets to let pedestrians cross and get themselves out of the snow. The most travelled roads seemed to be safer and less slippery than the little side streets that were still white with virgin snow. We picked up the dry cleaning then headed back through Farsley and on to Calverly. We had to go onto a major road and follow it up away from where we wanted to go to a roundabout so we could turn and get back on track, the traffic moved very gingerly down the hill and drivers left a good gap between them and the car in front. Everyone was patient as we were all in the same predicament.  It kept snowing for most of the day and while we managed the drive really well and got everything done that we had set out to do, getting back up the lane to our parking spot in our tiny back yard proved a little more hairy than I would have liked!

The traffic travelled very slowly on the main roads.

The snow is very pretty!

My footprints in the slippery carpark where we stopped for groceries.

We couldn’t get a grip on the paved snow covered surface of the steep driveway  and the wheels just spun in the snow. Michael let the car roll back into the road, actually he couldn’t stop it rolling back as the breaks were not stopping us, the wheels seemed to have a mind of their own. We drove to the other end of the property where there is another dirt road entrance, this was more successful as far as moving forward but the car tended to slide around a bit and Michael did a great job of steering through and getting traction with the front wheel drive. He had to back the car in to our yard, as at the best of times there is not much room to manoeuvre and coming in from this angle it was not possible to get enough swing to go in forwards!

Heading up the lane to home, the wheels started to spin.

You can see the tyre marks to where we got before we started to slide back down the lane!!!!

We had to go around to the other lane and after sliding a bit we made it around the building on the left to our small back yard.

By the time we got home the front garden was completely under snow.

During the early afternoon the snow got heavier and we were glad to be indoors, by early evening it had stopped altogether.  After dinner tonight we broke out the cards I’d bought in Paris and played Rummy for a couple of hours before I posted some more blogs, I am nearly up to date! If the weather is clearer tomorrow we will probably head for Haworth if not we will stay indoors and enjoy our surroundings again or maybe walk to one of the local pubs, which is not far away, just to the end of our street and round the corner about 30 metres down the road, I think we could manage that even in light snow and we could do with a pub lunch and a bit of exercise to warm us up on a cold day!

Looking across the front of Calverley old Hall.

This little fence divides us from the neighbours, the trees looked so traditional in their snow cloaks.

Trees look so pretty with a snow coat.

The corner of our fence looking along the lane, further down to the left is where we slid in the car, along to the right is the opening to our back yard.