I was going to put a photo of the snow in this post, but the one I took really wasn't that exciting: and whereas last year I was out and about in the snow a lot, this year so far I've only really been out in it in the car. It's a pity: I'd love to go for a walk but I just don't feel it would be particularly wise on my own as it's so icy.
Driving to school in the morning there is often a lovely pinkish glow to the snow from the morning sun. Hedgerows really do glitter in the way that Christmas cards sometimes depict snow-covered trees, and I just want to stop the car and get out with my camera. In the afternoon the colour changes to a golden, warmer hue. It all looks so beautiful but is beginning to annoy many people who would just like a little respite from it (ideally for it to come back in time for Christmas).
The temperatures have been anything between about -7 and -14 during the mornings and evenings. We've even had ice indoors: Son's windows had ice on this morning; the utility room the other morning; and each morning I not only have to de-ice the outside of the car but also wait for the thin layer of ice on the inside to disappear, before I can see safely enough to drive. The weather forecast predicted temperatures of +4 or 5 degrees tomorrow initially: I didn't believe it for a moment and I see that they have now changed their prediction to just below freezing to 0 tomorrow and then +2 - +4 degrees on Friday: along with fog and generally rather horrid, dull sounding-weather. I gave up on the weather forecast some months ago as it was so often wrong: I think it's better to look around you and just go by nature's signs as much as one can with limited knowledge, and by gut instinct.
It probably doesn't help that here we don't quite get Northumberland's weather, we don't quite get the Solway Plain's weather, and we don't necessarily get the northern Pennines' weather: it can be any one of them. The forecast for Carlisle can be wrong for Brampton: the forecast for south west Scotland is often more accurate for northern Cumbria than the forecast for north west England. I have never really felt part of north west England anyway: this neck of the woods feels more akin to Scotland and Northumberland, and the accent and history bear that out.
The snow has given me an excuse, being now 8 months pregnant, to be quite house-bound and very lazy. I did get a spurt of energy today and do stacks of housework: less 'nesting' than just hating dirt and mess I think. I also took the opportunity to have a lovely long soak in the bath while I read a very interesting book about medieval history and watched my stomach making weird lop-sided shapes. I even weighed myself: I'm not sure whether it's good, bad or irrelevant that I have now stuck on 12 stone for several weeks. Either the baby isn't growing enough again (I'm not surprised, the amount of activity going on: he must be burning up calories at quite a rate) or he's using up my fat stores somehow. Considering that I ate more than enough for 2, if not for 3, in the first two trimesters, I'm hoping it's the latter. I have a feeling that he's not going to be as heavy as either of the others though: I keep thinking that he's somehow restricted in there, like a pot plant without enough root space: he can't grow as there's nowhere to expand into. He is quite low down, as if my diaphragm, with all my singing and general breathing 'stuff' from exercise, won't let him go up any higher (my mother has told countless times the story of how my sister was up under one side of her ribs and she had to sit down sideways as it was so painful: I certainly don't have that problem).
Speaking of singing and breathing, tomorrow is my singing exam and I've just done some practice. I only got about one word wrong in each of the songs which is more difficult to remember, so fingers crossed for tomorrow: I'm hoping that a last-minute run-through with my teacher will be like last-minute swotting for exams, which in my experience often pays off (I shall never forget the day of one of my Latin 'A' level papers. I read the full-length words for an abbreviation, remembered them, and found the words and their meaning were one of the first questions on the exam paper: it was hugely confidence-boosting). I also did some sight-singing, which as usual was mixed but on the whole not bad: enough to make me feel that I could do OK.
I was meant to be going in to school to sing and give a bit of a music lesson to years 0, 1 and 2 but it just hasn't happened: the school was closed on the day we'd arranged and then it hasn't been possible to reschedule. However I gave them my lesson plan and a CD of Mozart arias in case they wanted to use it themselves, and it was satisfying this morning when one of the teachers said it looked really good and please could I go in to see just her class at least? I think realistically it's going to be next term sometime now before it can be arranged though. I still haven't seen the Education Outreach Worker jobs at Carlisle Leisure advertised, and being able to say I've gone into school and sung and talked to them about music I would have thought would be a plus point in my favour. Hopefully the jobs won't get funding until next Financial Year and then won't start until I'm ready to start work again!
Domesticity combined with supporting the school last night when I made chocolate fairy cakes for the christmas fair, which was postponed from last week to this week. Just as well as last week's cakes were a disaster: it was a really runny recipe so I added more flour, and the taste was bland to say the least. This time Daughter - my key helper - and I used the basic '6, 6, 6 and 3 eggs' recipe and it turned out fine. I later put white peppermint-flavoured (Daughter's idea as we'd run out of vanilla) frosting on top with edible glitter sprinkled on that: they looked lovely and, as I'd hoped, like snow-covered ground. There wasn't enough glitter for two of the cakes so I saved them: I ate one and then later allowed Son to have the last one as Daughter bit him on his back, twice, when they were fighting over a piece of red glittery wrapping paper. They did at least make up: she was sent to her bedroom where she spent some time and effort making him a 'sorry' card and he - magnaminously I thought as she'd hurt him quite badly, and torn the skin - then made her a 'forgiveness' card in return, and all was love and cuddles again. And there will soon be a third one to add to the equation...... sigh!
How they will react is a matter of some speculation to Husband and me. Our instinct is that Son will be interested and caring whereas with Daughter it will depend whether she still gets enough attention. I was watching them with interest with the smallest ferret this afternoon: Daughter, when left to get on with it on her own, stayed still and quiet and started reading to the ferret, but as soon as Son came back and tried to get the ferret to play with his toy cat, everything started getting a bit bickery and noisy (the ferret went and hid behind the fridge-freezer: I can't say I blame her). So whilst individually they may be great with the Little Guy, together they are potentially going to be vying for his attention! I think they may surprise us though. They are both such loving children that I think they will love having a far younger brother, and maybe sometimes it will help the dynamics rather than being a problem.
It's getting towards my bedtime (10pm at the latest) and I need to sort out how to copy or scan a map to the scale I want it at, and I'd like to read some more of my medieval history book. I can sense that my eyes are beginning to want to close already though: so often I only read about a page of a book before I feel myself falling asleep over it. Wish me luck for my exam tomorrow!
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