02.02.09

London snow

Posted in Life, London at 10.59 pm by Caitlin

`The heaviest snow since 1991 transforms the capital.

Snow in London is a rare occasion, to be greeted with wonderment and awe, even when we’re talking about less than 1cm of the white stuff sprinkling the ground for a few hours.

So imagine the excitement when we get the heaviest (some news outlets says ‘worst’ but that’s a matter of opinion) snowfall in 18 years?

Pity my fiancé who had a 7am start this morning and had to walk into work because the trains and buses weren’t running. I’m sure the snow made commuting a misery for thousands of people.

But for many others it was an excuse for a Snow Day. Schools were closed, many businesses were closed, lots of people didn’t even attempt the commute. I was working from home today and I went out for a walk to admire the snow and take photographs this morning.

The park near my house was covered in a blanket of snow – close to a foot deep in places. If I’d had cross-country skis, it would’ve been perfect (I hear people were actually snowboarding on Primrose Hill!). The whole neighbourhood had come out to play – it seemed there was a snowman every 10 paces and there were some pretty serious snowball fights taking place.

I walked down to St Dunstans in Stepney – the Church of the High Seas. Everything was so pretty and sparkling white from the topsides of the twisted tree branches and Victorian-era iron lamp posts to the scattered tombs through the churchyard. The bark of the tree trunks was blushed with emerald green, wearing sheaths of snow like an ermine stole.