The Beast from the East

The weather forecasters have been proved correct with their predictions of heavy snow this week. The cold weather has apparently swept in from Siberia and has been named by the media "The Beast from the East!" There were few flurries of snow on Tuesday but nothing to speak of, however I was quite late to bed on Tuesday night and when I looked out of the window the snow was coming down heavily and steadily. The Beast had arrived! By Wednesday morning the snow was lying thickly and, unsurprisingly, James' flight to Heathrow was cancelled, so he worked from home. The Glasgow schools were closed but I don't work on a Wednesday so it didn't affect me. I visited Grandma, who was mightily enjoying the scenes of chaos on the television, and watching the snow from her warm, cosy living room.
In the afternoon James and I ventured out for a walk. It was deep underfoot and still snowing heavily. But with our snow boots on (I'm so glad that I bought nice new snow boots in Arabba!) we were able to have a good old tramp around the area and it was so good to get out into the fresh air. We walked up to Holmhills Park and were treated to dramatic snowy vistas across the city, although it was too grey to get any good photos.
The Met office put the central belt of Scotland on a Red alert weather warning between 3 p.m. on Wednesday and 10 a.m. on Thursday because more snow was forecast, which is extremely unusual. This meant that all schools were closed on Thursday too, so I am blogging this from home. I'm genuinely disappointed because today is National Book Day and I had already arranged a rather fetching Robin Hood costume for myself. This involves a green tunic with matching hat and green tights. I thought that my brown cowboy boots would look enough like medieval boots, and I have also purchased a large Robin Hood storybook to carry, to make it clear that it is a literary costume!
Spare a thought for wee Floof who has only been allowed outside for a week and is completely confused by the arrival of snow! She has loved being able to explore the garden and has taken very quickly to popping in and out of the cat flap, but is clearly not keen on the snow - to be fair the drifts are deep enough to cover her! Yesterday evening I went into the kitchen and saw her half in and half out of the cat flap, with her wee bottom still in the kitchen, as she tried to decide whether to head out into the strange white cold stuff!