Weather

Couldn't she take shoes with her, to change into? If they have lockers she could leave them there all week.

Freezing here. I don't like it. Going into the Grotto for hot chocolate.

They don't have lockers. They already have to carry a change of shoes for PE, plus all the other PE kit, as well as their outdoor clothes, and all their books. More than enough to deal with already!

That's crazy, Bags, given that there must be plenty of children in the school who come in from country areas. Even in a suburban school my DSs had lockers.

It certainly is crazy. I don't think the council would get away with treating actual employees like this so it's outrageous to foist it on kids.

DD copes by attaching more bags (one for PE stuff; one for her coat, hat, gloves) to her school bag with carabinas. Until last week when it got really cold, she went to school coatless (as many of them do) to reduce the load.

And then they wonder why kids don't want to walk anywhere! School planners need to get real.

It's a new school (about five years old) and well equipped in other respects, but nobody thought of how to seal with kids' clobber!

deal with!

Reminds me of the Head Mistress friend of my mother telling her that when her big inner city school was being rebuilt in the 1970s. When she was - eventually - shown the plans, the first thing she noticed was the complete lack of cloakrooms. With work already started the school had to be redesigned to include them. The architects and LA education department had completely failed to notice that they missing from the plans

When I was chair of governors of a primary school, we had a new school built and the architects asked for input from parents, staff, governors and children. We thought the result was fantastic.

Sunny, chilly, damp - but then this is Cheshire. Thermals on? I've been wearing my silk vesty-top things since the end of September! And the very stylist wrist warmers daughter bought for me when we were in Iceland in August have been on too!

Another Cheshire gran, purplehairstreak. There are quite a lot of NW G'netters and we had a great meet-up in November - another one planned for the 19th when Greatnan will be over from France. Are you interested?

It's snowing in sunny Surrey!

It has snowed here too, but it's melting. Sunny and chill.

Very glad we draught-proofed the passage at the side of the house yesterday. That keeps the kitchen warmer too. But today - because there was a warning of a very hard frost tonight - I need to think what plants to bring out of the cold greenhouse to the warmer passage......

Bright morning, black frost. Will have to de-ice the car.

It is snowing here, big fluttery flakes. I think I will do some work in the house today rather that go shopping.

Snowed here and sunny now - the perfect combination. FlicketyB's post about the temperature at their Normandy house reminds me of when I donated our old (too small) fridge to my neighbours who were just refurbing a fairly derelict gite they had bought in the Limousin. When they got there they texted me to say that "le frigo" was working well and its internal temperature was probably higher than that in their kitchen. 10 years later it is still working, although relegated to an outhouse, which is more than I can say of its bigger and more expensive replacement

Not snowing here at work. Sun shining but cold. It is snowing 10 minutes up the road at home and one of our engineers has had to turn back from Scarborough.

Temp at the back door is still zero.

Bags "but he has come across me before". Love it!

And can imagine it.

I'm sure the tabloids tell us something like this every year. Should we believe it this time?

Been raining here all day but the frozen snow is still clinging on in the garden. A thoroughly miserable day brightened by a visit to DD's house to babysit two of the DGC's tonight. This is them

It's rainy, it's cold but i think it's brightening a little...that's good because I said I would take my neighbour to the library soon.

Cold and bright

Cold, bright and very still here - so far.

Now clear and the sun has come out!