To be perfectly honest, the timing was a little disappointing. However, when the accurately predicted snow did descend on the little town of Walsall, it did not let us down; there was lots of it. Shame it didn`t fall on Sunday night.
Dispatching children off to their various utterly wonderful seats of learning, each child sniffing the lard coloured sky in the hope of a day off, it seemed that the end of the world had been merely a rumour and the maelstrom had not closed Walsall`s palaces of education and thereby ruin the day`s learning. That job, for now at least, remains with Serco. As the snow continued to fall and realising that the finest examples of academe in our picturesque town would be closing at lunchtime, like Captain Oates I wandered out into the garden in the general direction of the shed where I knew for certain lurked two sledges. It took some time to find them.
Sure enough, just after lunch, the waifs returned bedraggled, wet and frozen following the inevitable closure of their “nourishing mother of studies” and future alma mater studiorum. Dad thawed them out with hot chocolate and toasted bagels with cream cheese then found hats, gloves, scarves and boots. The arboretum was stunning. After such a marvellous afternoon out in the elements, something warming was required for tea. (more…)