Winter Wonderland!

I have never seen the local landscape looking as beautiful as I did today. The fields, hedges, verges and trees were completely covered in a hard frost and against the blue sky, they looked gorgeous. Driving to work I wished so much I could stop and take photos, but it wasn't to be. The temperature had dropped overnight to around -9 to -10 degrees, the coldest I've ever seen in this part of the UK!

There was a slight delay in taking the inflatable to Hinckley as the van hire company we'd contacted yesterday let us down. I called another company and they had a transit they could hire us so I sped home, picked up Keith and we drove to Wellingborough to pick up our van. Back at work we waited for our neighbour to get back to his office so we could use him and his fork-lift truck to manoeuvre the bouncy castle into the back of the van, which was a hard process! We first had to clear some of the play area and then the fork -lift truck drove in, much to the delight of some little boys who watched round-eyed in wonder! Keith, my Dad and our neighbour somehow managed to manhandle it onto the bars of the fork-lift truck and then stuffed it into the back of the van!

Keith and I set off, ably helped by Gladys (mum and dad's SatNav) and we were in Hinckley by 1pm. The monstrosity was unloaded and then we headed back into the frozen landscape, gazing in awe at the beauty of the fields and woods. I loved driving the van - it was a bit larger than the people carrier we hired last year in Florida and I loved being up so high. It was extremely easy to drive and I handed the keys back with a touch of sadness. Back in my own car, I felt like I was about an inch off the road! A very strange feeling!

The temperatures rose slightly through the day but tonight looks like it's going to be another freezing cold evening. I did manage to take a photo of the trees in our car park this morning - nothing like I wanted to take, but better than nothing!