Christmas Bessings To You All...

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens

The Sock Mob

I am so heartened by the care and kindness shown by this group of young people from The Sock Mob - freely giving their time to the needs of the homeless in London. There are other groups who do good work (and I am full of admiration for The Salvation Army in particular) however, these young people are inspirational.

We were in central London on Monday and Tuesday this week for hospital appointments... On Monday at Whitechapel, which has long been an area of deprivation - although most people will be more familiar with its connections to Jack the Ripper & the Elephant Man.

On Tues we were a mile or so further down the Whitechapel Road - driving into The City. A place of amazing buildings - money! - and like many other areas of London - a place for Rough Sleepers.

Poverty and homelessness are still major issues and I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough at any time - let alone during this terrible current weather.

There, but for the grace of God...

Frozen!

Our back garden

Pictures in the... Lava Lamp!

I'm used to seeing 'pictures' in the fire flames - but now I can see them in the Lava Lamp!

OH s-NO-w!

I think I was a bit casual about the snow the other day! Our road now has snow and ice higher than the path and cars have been skidding and getting stuck with their wheels turning. I wanted to take one of the road to show - but I kept picking up the number plates so the one above simply shows the front hedge.

The trains have stopped running on our line (normally just 25 minutes to Charing Cross) and - joy! - the planes aren't flying at the London City Airport.

Just to add to the problem I think we are due to get mist and fog over the next couple of days!

The photo above shows just outside the back door looking down part of the garden - the path has been cleared several times but keeps getting covered again.

Usually a heavy snowfall takes us to our woods where I end up taking hundreds of photos - but it is far too cold to venture out and Matthew wouldn't be able to walk in the snow anyway. He is very sad about not getting out to take photos himself.

Even going down the garden would be difficult. He has ice grips for his shoes but his walking stick would be dangerous on the snow and ice and (more importantly) strokes and heart attacks are linked to very cold weather)

On a lighter note there is a great slideshow HERE which sums up the state of the country - and PLEASE, PLEASE remember to feed the birds, they are really having a hard time too.

Update 3rd December J has just disturbed a Partridge in our back alley. Last year a fox buried a Pheasant in our front garden. Fantastic to know that we still have gamebirds around here despite the never ending building developments.

...just a little bit... not too much of it...

Even London and the South East has received snow today - along with Arctic winds - although nothing on the scale of Wales, Scotland and Northern England. Instead of showing our piffling amount on the ground I thought I would show one of our Lilac trees, which still has most of its leaves on - most odd to see it snow covered.

We currently have about 5" depth - certainly not much when compared to other places. However, even around here there has been gridlock and abandoned cars.

On the lunchtime news it showed that my old school in Dartford had been shut - for what seemed like a rather small amount of snow! I - and my best friend - well recall the terrible winter of 1963 when we walked there through amazing depths of snow. I only walked from the next town, whereas my friend walked from a rural village miles away. That snow lasted 3 months!!!!