Microadventures: Where the Snow Fell
*This will be my last microadventure style post to celebrate my completion of walking 1000 miles in 2017.
It seemed such a perfect few days to have snow up in the welsh hills. Timely in fact for December although, it was our second covering of the year, only this time much thicker.
It reminded me of when I was a small child, my cousins and I would use bin bags as sledges
and use the banks of the woodlands to whoosh down, only to be taken out by a root, or a tree!
On the first morning, I woke early, there's was an intense glow above my curtains. There had been no tractor sounds or from passing cars. Something was different. The anticipation of peaking behind the curtains was a little too much for me, and instead, I dragged them back to expose a shocking white mass of the ol' white stuff.
"It's snowing!" The household was awake then...
My pup was out of the door before me. Over the next 4 days, we enjoyed sledging, hill walks, and snowman building. Oh, and there was a case of a lost and never to be found glove of mine, from a late-night, escapaedeinto the village to collect supplies (mince pies).
The roads were constantly blanketed, and although the tractors and gritters did their
best to clear it away each night more fell from the sky.
There's something quietly deafening about snow. You can hear a pin drop. There are no echoes in the valley, and each crunchy footstep I took got louder and louder and I found myself tiptoeing, hoping not to disturb the jittery Robbins or resting sheep!
Oh how the local communities came together. And despite what you hear nowadays about the world becoming a frightening place, I know that it's not true. Offers of food pickups and dropoffs from the 4x4 owners for the elderly don't seem to sell many newspapers...
The roads in the small villages were filled with people rather than cars, all snowball fighting, chatting, laughing, and enjoying what nature had to offer us in abundance.One morning, we woke to the most azure blue sky one, could ever ask for - my home looked exactly like it does on those winter travel brochures!
Now in January, the hills are back to their earthy green palette except in the parts where the sun doesn't reach, remains fragments of that ol' white stuff I love so much. The rivers are up high threatening to flood like they do each year, and the sludge was thick and not at all pleasing to the eyes. The trees no longer carry their icicle decorations and the snowflakes have turned into rain. And the winds, how she howls....
I feel utterly blessed I got to finish off my 1000 mile challenge at home in the snow. My walking adventures have taken me to some amazing locations but there really is no place like home.
