Welcome to a Muppet’s winter wonderland.

Snow is pretty. Unlike a lot of people in the UK, I’m not a muppet and when I have to travel, I generally succeed and go well prepared. I’ve ticked all the boxes so far for living with the winter conditions effectively and safely.

Or so I thought. Last night I discovered that there was one little thing that I had overlooked. It might not be weather for painting and fibreglass resining a boat, but snow still falls where it is kept, and a foot of snow on a tent roof is rather a lot of weight. I scraped most of it off, but the tent’s structure has buckled in places. Only when the snow has fully melted will I be able to assess the damge to either the structure or tarpaulin. The boat should be just fine, but the weather in the future may well get its wicked way and drip on through the cover again and make my working area squidgy.

It seems though that out on the roads, a little snow is bringing all the Muppets out. I’ve seen a lot of cars with smashed lights and stoved in front ends. I’ve also seen a lot of cars that are just abandoned in the middle of the roads, forcing competant drivers to have to drive around them and risk getting really stuck themselves as a result.

I’ve seen idiots stealing the grit from the yellow grit boxes on roads so that they can use it to grit their own drives and garden pathes, leaving side roads frozen and with no source of grit for the roads. I do feel that if people want to grit their own drives, they should be buying their own grit.

Finally, there seems to be a spate of Muppets walking in the middle of the roads without a care for the traffic. Hello? How stupid are these people? Meanwhile the intelligent masses watch them from the pavement with incredulity.

One thing that I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks is how energy efficiency of homes has become very visible. Normally the waste heat radiating out through poorly insulated walls and rooves isn’t all that obvious; it is the invisible wastage that can be easily forgotten about. Not in the snow. Looking around the locale, it is interesting to see just which houses show signs of lots of heat escaping from them.

Those that are well insulated still wear their white toupé of snow. Those that are leaking heat like a seive have long since had the snow melt and slide from their rooves. There is also a stretching island around some homes too where the snow doesn’t quite reach the walls. Where that snow free gap is bigger, so the walls are radiating more heat. I really think that many homeowners might be wise to take note of this very visible display and make the most of the insulating grants that are available; I believe they start to run out from April this year.

The snow on the roof of chateaux Jenny is still thick and fluffy. The no-man’s land of bare ground around the walls has barely appeared. I think it is safe to say that the insulation work we had done in October last year was very wise indeed. It has certainly meant that we haven’t had to resort to running the heating for any more than an extra hour a day, even when the temperature last night hit at least minus eleven.