Where is the snow?!

Monday, 28th of February 2022

When I first saw @JonicaBradley 's prompt SNOW I got a bit confused. What snow? I was just sitting on my front porch in the morning sun and saw first flowers popping up with my very eyes! Isn't it spring already?

Then I look at the date - 11th of February. So yes, technically we were still in calendar winter. We still are now as I write this article. I was waiting for that snow all winter, but it never came. In fact even some of my annual plants, which usually die off in winter are still alive as if winter never happened.

Mind you, mid February last year I was ice skating away on one of those frozen Dutch canals and came back home with a broken shoulder! So yeah, technically we’re still in winter, although in practice there was no winter here this year.

On the south of England where I reside snow doesn't really happen often. In almost 17 years since I moved here there were a few snowy winters however. 2008/2009 was probably the harshest one I've seen. Snow was falling abundantly and the temperatures dropped well below 0, causing unusually high amount of road accidents.

The usual thing to happen when it snows heavily here is that people just don't go to work at all. School are often closed too and various events cancelled. Can't even blame them - it's quite scary to drive in such conditions if you're not used to it and your car is not equipped adequately.

In Poland, where snow and freezing temperatures in winter are norm it is unheard of to not go to work or school because of snow. Most people change their tyres for winter type around November/December and get on with their lives. Within the reason of course… Those who don't have to leave the house, often won't drive either and the roads might look like o the picture below (although it was taken in Netherlands 😉).

The other night however it was rather cold. I turned off my heating during the day and my nose was red from the cold. When I glanced at the weather in the corner of my laptop, I realised it was -2 degrees.

That reminded me that I was planning to write this article 😅 Then I parked it for another couple days and here I am, finishing it more 2 weeks from the start.

I have an Italian friend. She hates cold with passion. Now that she has a partner from Argentina, she takes every opportunity to fly away to Argentina for at least a month in winter. I seem to be the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, I love being warm too, but I love all the seasons. Spring the most, Autumn the least, but in general there is a beauty in each season and I am used to experiencing them all. In England the seasons are different, milder than in Poland. If I have to be cold anyway, I'd rather have snow too. So I often end up spending some winter weeks or months in either Poland or Netherlands.

Snowy winter reminds me of a care free moments in my not so care free childhood. At home I was never at peace, but for a few hours every day, my little brother and I were allowed to be outside in winter. My mum would dress us in many layers of thick winter clothing until we looked like astronauts and send us on our snowy adventures with other kids.

We would either slide from the hills near the church. Sliding was fun, going back up the hill again not so much ;) Or we would ice skate behind my parents block, where firemen would pour water to make ice rink for the kids like us. Or we would throw snow balls at each other. Or we would make a snowman...

Speaking of the snowman. Most of them are made of 3 snowballs stuck on top of each other, with carrot as a nose and stones as eyes. This is what I was expecting when my partner announced that he will be making a snowman on the balcony last year. Imagine my face when I saw the finish product! (see below)

I mean... he even has suitable face mask and sunglasses! In the past I’d always hesitate to post this, but hey, it’s a form of art, right? I can’t do much about this artist’s wild imagination.

He also looks good from the back! This would be the version I posted on my social media last year. This guy worked on every detail. Why would I keep the laughs for myself, when you can laugh too?

This has been a PromptlyJonica writing prompt. Would you like to join us? It is easy and fun!

1. Join the Promptly Jonica community here

2. Write anything about snow

3. Write 100% original content

4. Submit your article to PromptlyJonica

5. Tag  @JonicaBradley

Until next time 💙