Snow White

The snow arrived as forecast this morning, small dry flakes falling on very cold ground means it stayed and is accumulating.Forecasters said we in the south would get 3-5 cms of snow....eh I think we have that now, would somebody please make it stop!
There is nothing like the imminent threat of being snowed in to focus our minds on warmth and food.Last night I made a pot of Leek & Potato soup, I had to buy 2 leeks to make it as ours are frozen out on the plot.I also made 2 brown wheaten loaves, now I have always made brown bread from scratch as it is simplicity itself but I had seen a bread mix in Aldi and I have been meaning to try it out so yesterday I did. One pack makes 3 loaves which for 1.49e and a litre of milk is about as good value as you can get.The mix packet would make a good store cupboard standby, the bread tastes as good as anything I have made or tasted so I will be using it again. I would use buttermilk when making brown bread but it is getting more and more difficult to purchase locally.
I had a crust left at the end of a sliced loaf which was over an inch in thickness, I thought that is waste and cut it into cubes to try out croutons.When the bread was baked in quite a hot oven,I put the croutons on a tray and put them into the oven with the heat turned off for about 45 minutes.They dried out nice and crisply but did not colour, the time would probably vary depending on the freshness of the bread.I must look up adding flavour to them as they could be frozen to use as needed.
The snow is coming from the north east and only that side of the tree has been covered with snow,it looks quite a monochrome and clean landscape!The child's red jacket stands out, she is there not photo shopped in for effect!
The shrubs in the front garden covered with snow and taking on weird shapes.
My Buddha in the back garden is slowly disappearing
My table and chairs covered in snow, it covered everything fairly quickly.We would usually get a couple of hours of wet snow if at all and it rarely stays on the ground for very long. The sky is grey and heavy with lots of snow, it is now late afternoon and it has not stopped since it began around 11.30 this morning.The children have been out making snowmen and throwing snowballs and with no school until next Thursday they are looking forward to the snow lasting until then.
The trouble will start tomorrow morning when workers have to begin the task of getting into their jobs. I know from listening to the radio today most events which were on tonight have been cancelled and some bus routes are impassable.We are running out of salt based grit to keep our roads clear, another black mark against this government who were on holidays when the cold snap began on Christmas week and they are only now getting to grips with the problems.