Snowbound

I'm sure it will be news to no one that I opened my curtains this morning to find this:

Just another early bracing blizzard 

(Quite literally, in fact. I took these pictures only moments after having rolled out of bed, tugged back the curtains and recoiled from the blinding whiteness.)

You just know that car will be discovered a few millennia from now by wide-eyed tribesmen, in the centre of a glacier 

It turns out a new Ice Age has arrived, and soon we will be up to our eyebrows in wise-cracking sloths. 

A good portion of this morning was taken up with sitting, tea in hand, watching the snow with dawning apprehension. We can open the door, but that shouldn't be something you have to check!

Both W and The Godmother had to cancel their entire busy Saturday, and my half-formed notions of getting a bit of shopping done and later maybe baking went out of the window. 

As you can tell from the garden, I'm basically in Narnia right now 

Deprived of the outside world (yes, we probably could have gone outside, and yes, the trains etc are apparently coping much better this time around, but let's not spoil the illusion), we got down to some serious decorating:

When you can't go out to get a Christmas tree, you have to improvise. This is a money tree, and I think it's doing sterling work as a stand-in!

That is to say, I got down to some serious decorating. W. was suffering from the combination of a cold and cricket on TV, and The Godmother supervised and generally got other things done.

I'm particularly proud of the mantlepiece decoration, which I improvised (mostly from pine cones):

Good Housekeeping's due to snap me up any day now!

Note the lovely painting, which we also hung today. Quite a lot of 'right a bit... left a bit...' but we got there in the end.

I can't take credit for The Godmother's lovely candelabra and stunning candles, but I'd like to!

The prettiest fire hazard of the week!

In other news, I had to change the lightbulb in my bedroom (which caused a small but exciting power cut when it blew) and made myself pancakes for supper. It's been one of those days! I do think I needed a day like this, though. I've (weirdly) quite enjoyed going back to classroom learning (well, some of it), and my new hectic lifestyle is at least not boring (well, some of it), but I do need a break every now and then! I think having to go in for an exam last Saturday and whizzing through my Christmas shopping on Sunday might have had something to do with how tired I've been this week...

Speaking of which, I'm going to go to bed! (I really need to post in the daytime more, so  can say something more exciting!)

P.S.: Happy birthday to my wonderful aunt!