Yesterday, there was a little bit of snow around, but not too much. There was some forecast for the afternoon, but generally it looked as if it was OK. Nope. At around 10.30 Mum phoned me and told me that it was beginning to get a little heavy up in North Molton, and that I should make sure I’m careful to get home. At around the same time, a global email was sent to all staff informing us that because of the weather in Barnstaple, they were closing and sending people home. It was suggested then that I should probably go home myself, so about an hour and a half in to my second day back at work I started back home.

To be fair, the weather was quite bad and it was probably good that I went home and there were some pretty heavy spots of snow on the Link Road on the way back. I did video this – as well as my journey into work yesterday – but the video is upside down (because of the way that I attach a camera to my car windscreen) and will need a bit of work on it before I view it here.

So today, a day off. Most people would be glad I suppose, but not necessarily me. OK, an expected unexpected day off (it is unexpected, but it was expected at the same time. Confusing I know, but I assume you understand what I mean) is usually a good thing. But after two weeks being bored at home doing nothing to have a further couple of days – tomorrow will probably end up being the same – it’s not really for me.

Anyway – I did get some photographs around North Molton earlier on of the snow. It’s been quite deep really as you can see in a couple of the shots – over 6 inches; I went to measure it to tell somebody what the depth was but it was only a 15cm ruler and I lost it in the snow. It’s still in my front garden under the snow.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/richie.g/SnowJan2010

(There is a paragraph about this in Rob Grant’s book Incompetence but I can’t find it at the moment – if you have the book it’s in the Prologue which you will find after Chapter 2.)

I also found out this morning that it’s surprisingly fun to drive over. For reasons that still aren’t quite clear to me, I decided that I should continue with my normal ploy of turning off the Link Road and nip the rest of the journey to Tiverton on the back roads to avoid the traffic that usually builds up around the Bolham Road roundabout.

Anyway – here are some photographs. Again, taken on my phone and while some are from the inside of the car I was not driving at the time, again caught on the roadworks just south of Knowstone. I will probably at some point touch some of these photos up in Photoshop but these’ll do for the time being.

http://picasaweb.google.com/richie.g/MoreSnowMarch2009

It was still relatively OK though, but quite white outside. That was, until I got into work…

http://picasaweb.google.com/richie.g/SnowMarch09

(all photos taken on my phone, and honestly I was not driving while some of these were taken – there were traffic lights on the A361 which caught me up! Images hosted on Picasa)

Admittedly mainly this afternoon the weather down here has turned a bit so it’s a bit more snowy, but it’s not settling. I don’t think I could cope with another snow-day to be honest as I just get really bored. I’m just amazed at how different a few miles can make in the weather – although it was a little cold it still looked rather summery down here when I got here this morning!