The Big Freeze is back! A stroll through my own backyard winter wonderland
No recipe today I’m afraid… in fact, I’ve not cooked all week but I’ll be back with some recipes soon enough. Meantime, do you fancy a virtual walk with me through my town in our little corner of England?
Our wee cottage is kinda somewhere in the middle of the houses you can see in the background. And this bush is our ever faithful blackberry bush, which provides us with lots of fruit every year for my husband's bramble jelly.
Last weekend, our town was only lightly dusted with snow so our planned walk turned out to be a bit of a squidgy sodden mess. We set off for our walk at about 10am but even though there wasn’t much sunshine, it was quite a warm day so most of the snow was already turning into that squelchy and unattractive mush, like walking through a grey and muddy slushy.
From looking at our house in the previous photo, imagine yourself doing a 180 and you'll see the Farncombe boat house. I love the lockkeeper's cottage on the right. Isn't it sweet?
This is the River Wey. The water's not quite frozen but at least it's clean ie no floating rubbish frozen onto the surface 🙂
I didn’t snap a lot of pictures.
To be honest, I wasn’t very inspired by the snow or by the day itself. I don’t really like it when it’s so grey that the sky is indistinguishable from the sludge we were making our way through. You could still make out the tufts of grass peaking through what snow there was on the fields.
Someone – kids I imagine – had still tried to make a snowman earlier that morning. It was rather small and sad-looking, and it looked a bit hairy – there were tufts of grass sticking out from all over the snowman’s body and, bless, whoever built it had also planted a tuft of hair on its head, making it look like it had an off kilter toupee. I was just about to try and take a picture of the snowman but didn’t because just at the moment, a dog ran up and weed on it… kinda sums up the anti-climatic atmosphere of our so-called big freeze weekend. 🙂
Here's my rather grumpy husband, who didn't appreciate having to wait in the cold for me to take silly pictures.
This is one of the many locks you'll find on the River Wey. This one is directly opposite the road from the boat house.
We might hire one of these canal boats in the summer and just do a day trip along the canals. Not now though, bit cold. 🙂
However, as I sit here typing, it’s started snowing again in the UK. There is a big part of me that would like it to dump it down. I feel short changed that we haven’t had enough snow to have at least one decent snowball fight. I’ll let you know in the next few days if get my wish however I’m not really getting my hopes up.
You wouldn't really want to fall into that water. Brrrrrr!
I was trying to take a picture of the almost frozen surface when my 'darling' husband did this. Twice.
The semi-frozen lock.
On the bright side, the photos I snapped with my phone didn’t turn out half bad and thankfully, the snow appears white in the pictures, at least in places. I did my best to avoid getting any of those suspicious yellow patches along the side of the canal into the shot. My husband and I are thinking about getting a dog to add to our animal menagerie this year, so I guess I better get used to the yellow puddles. We’ll probably have our own bundle of fur adding to these the next time it snows.
As we neared the town centre, we spied these houses between the barren trees. We'd never noticed these houses tucked away there as they're normally hidden.
I couldn't resist taking some pictures of our local ducks as we got closer to town.
There were about 3 female ducks that were being harassed by some males. Typical! 😛
Here's the main bridge into Godalming's town centre. You can just make out the church in the background. It's however been converted into a gastro pub.
This last photo is the odd one out. I took it on Monday during my usual lunchtime walk around the canal in London. Bet these Canadian geese wished they’d flown a little further south this winter!
I know England must seem a little warmer than Canada at the moment but... there are even warmer places to go to if they flew just a wee bit further 🙂
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you have a fabulous weekend.
Lots of love
thebigfatnoodle
thebigfatnoodle 
Love the pictures:) Looks like here right now, its icy, snowy and cold…brrr
We had a little more snow than last weekend but today the sky is blue and the sun is out, shame I have to go to work instead of taking more pics! Have a nice weekend!
Thanks for sharing and the pics are beautiful! I do not care for the cold much any more:)
It hasn’t really been a very cold winter so I’ve just about coped too. At least it won’t be cold for too much longer (she says hopefully!)
Wow! Beautiful.
Thank you, we love our town 🙂
How beautiful! Thank you for sharing these! We’re not having much of a winter here, so it’s fun to see it somewhere 🙂
My pleasure, as I’m originally from the tropics, I always still get a thrill from seeing snow 🙂
John has gone from grumpy to long suffering, so give it time. Hey Noodle. When you say that you have not cooked all week .. what does that mean. Have you not eaten? Are you living on Marmite sandwiTCHes. How does one survive when one does not cook. i don’t understand. COOK darling! EAT! c
Hi Celi, Hahaha, i’ve been eating but didn’t really want to post any of the recipes as they’ve been quite basic – roast chook, grilled steak etc etc. that kind of thing… and you NEVER have to worry about me not eating, simply impossible LOL!
Brrrrrr…. I do not know how those birds can swim in that frigid water. LOL . I am a big sissy when it comes to cold now that I am living in HK. It is 16 degrees Celsius and I have on my leg warmers and I am still cold. LOL
It’s been between -2 and -5 most nights, even dropping down to -12 in some parts of the UK but thankfully not around us. The needle is hovering around the zero degrees mark today so I’m wearing 2 pairs of socks, my winter boots, 3 layers of clothing and my winter coat! 🙂
What a nice area in which to live! Thanks for taking me along on your walk. It’s always good to get a little exercise in the Winter. Even better when I don’t have to leave my desk chair to do it. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the ‘walk’ too 🙂
I love going on virtual walks, especially along canals as I grew up near one.
You’ll hopefully get to talk a walk along one when you’re back in the UK during your hols 🙂
Great photos! Your “walk” looks fun!
It was ok, today would have been better after last night’s fresh snow. Alas, I’m at work instead and the snow will probably have melted by the time I get back 🙂
Gorgeous area and photos, and I’m very jealous of your snow!
Sometimes I wish that Perth (Australia, not Scotland!) got snow. But only sometimes.
Oh England – great photos Noodle – lovely to see the canal photos especially. Looks so wintery… bet it was lovely to return home after that! 🙂
You’re not far from where my parents are living. Although they do own a restaurant in Farncombe. Rina’s Fish Bar, if you’re interested 🙂
No way!?!! That’s awesome! 🙂 I need to check if we’ve ever been there. If not, I’ll definitely give it a try. Do you still live in the area too?
I live in London now. But I visit home every so often. It’s good to visit the countryside.
I moved from London about 5 years ago and I love this area. I’ll check out your parent’s restaurant soon and let you know what I think! Nice to ‘meet’ you 🙂
Cool. It was nice to ‘meet’ you too 🙂