Ros and I had been visiting friends for dinner in Hadleigh, a rather lovely little town in South Suffolk, on Saturday evening, and so found ourselves on the road on Sunday morning, snow or no snow.
The road out of Hadleigh towards East Bergholt was twisty and slippery, as the volume of traffic had not been sufficient to clear away the snow, and Ros drove cautiously as far as the turning for the A12. But thanks to the work of the Essex and Suffolk County gritters, road conditions were pretty good as far as Stowmarket.
Stopping only to buy a newspaper, some milk, crumpets and soup at Tesco, we then embarked on what we feared might be the trickiest part of our journey, along Mill Lane and then up the rise to our village. There isn't a lot of traffic at the best of times, and we're a long way down the order in terms of roads most likely to be gritted. But we made it home, to find our village covered in a white blanket of snow, and our house with it.
A fire set, and some logs burnt, and the house was cosy and warm.
But yesterday, with the weekend over, it was time to return to the work routine. And for me, that means the community bus. So it was with some trepidation that I headed out to the pick-up point in the middle of the village, with ice on the road and visibility down to less than fifty metres, after all, road conditions weren't great and the bus schedule is busy.
And so, at exactly eight o'clock, the bus arrived, on time. The road north to Stowupland had been cleared, and it was the usual efficient journey, as I chatted to my driver. All this for £2.10 return.
It reminds me that, here in the country, you need to be just a little more resilient. And fortunately, those that I depend upon usually are...
Well well. I was playing chamber music at Belstead House at the weekend. Because, apparently, of police advice that the snow would freeze the management requested our course organiser to cancel the last (Sunday afternoon) session; she acceded. I thus lost the Brahms piano quintet which I had specially requested to play.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet: it was perceptibly getting warmer, my journey home was entirely trouble free, and all Sunday night the thermometer at the bottom of my garden did not fall as far as freezing let alone below it. I would like to know whether the Belstead management considered the police advice for themselves and judged it sound, or whether the very words "police advice" closed down argument.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me as though they have concluded that their insurance cover might have been at risk, given police advice. And these days, if in doubt...
A pity about the Brahms though. I'm rather fond of his chamber music, although as a non-musician myself, I'd guess that it's pretty tough to play.