Hopwood (Buddy’s favourite nursery)

As mentioned in the last blog entry, my middle daughter, Lauren, got engaged to Lewis in Cologne on Saturday.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for them their flight home on Sunday was cancelled and they have to stay out there until Tuesday.

Cheeky ring shot selfie of the happy couple

This was what we awoke to on Sunday morning and it then carried on snowing all day:

There wasn’t really much to do other than go for walks, which, of course, Buddy loved.

Tearing up and down the towpath.

We visited the garden centre in Hopwood which we expected to be closed.  When we arrived it looked like we were right as clearly no cars had been into the car park. Luckily, the owner lives opposite and saw us walking in so came over to open the main door for us.  We’ve only been here once before – about a month ago when we first stayed in Hopwood.  On that occasion, the owner gave Buddy a treat and the Buddy remembered so paid special attention and was on his best behaviour until he was offered another.

The pub car park – they didn’t have to bother locking the gate as no one could get in or out anyway

Our car was in a layby on a lane down by the pub, so we went to check it out and make sure Karen could get to work on Monday.  Although we cleared a lot of snow off the car and around it, the lane was pack ice and we couldn’t get the car onto it.

As it was, quite a lot more snow came down on Sunday night and we were back to square one as far as digging out the car was concerned.  By Monday morning over a foot of snow had fallen, which is a lot for this part of the UK and Karen was clearly going to be working from home.

The festive office on Monday

During the morning the farmer who looks after the pigs in the field next to the layby came along in his front loader tractor.  He cleared the snow and ice along the lane and after another half hour or so of digging and clearing we freed the car.   As it wasn’t due to snow any more we knew it would be alright for Karen to get to work on Tuesday.

Misty and frosty on Tuesday morning

The clear ice is where a boat had come down to the water point on Monday morning when the ice wasn't too thick but then refroze.  We are a lot warmer on this boat compared with our last as we have insulation now; it takes a lot longer for the snow to melt off the boat with good insulation.