February 8, 2009

As I type this, I'm listening to the sounds of car tires driving over very crunchy melted-snow-turned-slush-now-frozen on the street outside. A strange sound for February in the UK. I'm sure you've all heard of the snowstorm we had this week, and I've been kept from blogging by my daily photography expeditions to photograph places in the snow. I've been very busy since it's snowed several mornings this week, except yesterday when the sun was out on the snow and it was just gorgeous. :)

We really had no idea that we'd get this much snow. They weren't predicting it (they can't predict the weather from day to day here) but they did think there might be a little snow. Well 24 hours later London had 12 inches, Cambridge had 5, and here in Swavesey we had a modest 2in. Everyone had the day off because no one knows how to "drive in the snow" (can I just say that the roads were clear 100% by 10am) but really everyone seemed so very happy to be playing in the snow that I can't complain. We took lots of photos in Cambridge with the snow coming down like crazy- it looked like a snow globe. I went into London that afternoon, but sadly the snow was all melted by then. It was interesting though because the trains were very slow, there were no buses, and there were hardly any people out. Good for photography, and for testing one's patience. :) That was Monday, followed by a peaceful Tuesday and Wednesday.

Amazingly we woke up Thursday morning to a little snowstorm- again! So I hastily got dressed and ran out to photograph at Wimpole, and G took 2 hours off in the morning to come along. It was beautiful- again, we had the entire place (all 300 acres) to ourselves, until we were heading back to the car when we came across a couple people. Everyone we passed smiled and joyfully said "Good Morning!" We had some "Isn't it a lovely day?" and "It's just lovely isn't it?" as well. Honestly it was refreshing to be so happily greeted- people here don't often say hello even if they pass 2 feet from you. But those of us who love the snow were all out together enjoying it together, in a way.

Incredibly, Friday morning (by this point I was getting up earlier to check out the window to see if there was snow) you guessed it- it was snowing AGAIN! So I packed up again, and this time G stayed home to get work done. I was running out of local places to catch in the snow, so I decided to go down to Swavesey parish church and photograph in the churchyard. By this point I had to use a random plastic bag as a rainjacket for my camera, because there was so much snow that it was soaking the camera, and my gloves and scarf which I was using to keep the camera dry. I was the only one out, and by this point the roads were a little slippery, but nothing serious. The slush had frozen solid overnight (it got down to 28F, incredible for her) and gave good traction. :) Anyway I had the lovely quiet snowy churchyard all to myself, and had a good time photographing headstones, trees, gates, etc. There's been a church on the site since Saxon times (7th-11th centuries) and sections of the current building date at least from the 1100s. You can see headstones from the 1700s for sure, when they aren't covered in snow. :) If you're interested in the church you can go to http://www.swavesey.org.uk/meridian/s_bull_station_rd/station_road_3.htm to read up on the history.

Swavesey parish church.

Swavesey churchyard, including the 300 year old cedars of lebanon

After the Swavesey church I went on to Fen Drayton, the nearest village over, population 800. It's one of my favorite little villages. It's very old, with plenty of medieval timber buildings, thatched cottages, and quaint Georgian houses. There I encountered a very surly Royal Post man, who asked if I was "out in this for the fun of it?!" I told him I was a photographer, which seemed to make it ok in his mind. Interestingly, just 5 minutes before I walked past a young woman with her 5 month old baby in a pack in front of her, who smiled and said "It's beautiful isn't it!" To each his own I suppose. :)

From Fen Drayton I went on to another cute village, Holywell, which has a picturesque church building and a good view of the farmland surrounding it. After that I had to jet back for G to take him to a noon meeting. Whew! :) From there I went on to Anglesey Abbey to photograph out there, and though it had stopped snowing it still looked very interesting.

Anglesey Abbey, plus a snowchild in the foreground. :)

The river leading up to the Lode Mill at Anglesey Abbey

Yesterday (Saturday) I was a bit tired of getting up early to go out, and there was no snow but there was a beautiful sunny morning, so off I went down to the churchyard to take some shots for comparision before the snow melted off.

That's what I've been up to during the snowy week, which I'm sure will be called the "snowstorm last February" in the future. :) Most people just stayed home- there are very few plow trucks, and no snow shovels, or proper ice scrapers. Kids had most of the week off- school was canceled here in Swavesey Thursday and Friday, giving them a nice long 4 day weekend. I have a lot of photos to process, but I've put up a few to give you an idea what it's looked like here. Maybe not all that interesting to you Michigan folks, since you get snow all the time it's not novel. :)