Plan B

Plan A - Friday 2nd March [after WWDP service] to drive to Cornerstones. Steph, Gary. Liz, Jon Rosie, arriving later. Saturday 3rd March, drive to Suffolk, meet up wqith Gary's family for lunch. Sunday 4th March, L,J,R to return to London, taking me with them. I would stop a couple of days, then get the train back to Dorset. Meanwhile, Bob would stay in Norfolk - quietly reading, and studying, and preparing all the Easter Services etc, without any interruptions.
Then the snow came. Although my friends in Albania, where March is usually snowy, wrapped up in scarves and went ahead with their services [pictured left] everything in Dorset was postponed. Bob announced around 3pm on Thursday we should leave NOW!
So we loaded the car, and left. As we drove up the A31, I was sending texts to friends explaining we'd departed a day early. There was some snow, and the westbound traffic weas stationery. "Ang, look, there's no other cars behind us" said Bob. We drove for ages not seeing other vehicles- arriving in Norfolk at around 9pm. It took about an hour longer than usual - but we had 2 motorway stops instead of one. Out of Dorset, all the roads were quite clear of snow and there was not much traffic.

We awoke Friday to discover that we were probably the Last Car out of Dorset - there was a gridlock there,late afternoon, and many cars were stranded for up to 8 hours. Bob decided not to spend his Retreat Time sitting with a book in the summerhouse next to the little paraffin heater! Steph and Gary's family were snowbound in Manchester, Liz said they were not coming up from London after all.
Plan B: Bob would get on with his work, and I would keep out of his way. So I have been doing many useful things [and watching lots of TV]

[1] I finished off the jigsaw which was started at Christmas- the Level Crossing at Halstead in Essex. If anyone would like this puzzle, email me your address and I will post it to you. Otherwise it will go into a CS when I get back to Dorset.

[2] I finished off sewing up, and crocheting the edgings on two blankets for Romania. Jenny and Margaret have done theirs - so now we'll have 4 warm blankets in 50 Shades of Green created from December's Church Christmas Tree.
[3] I forgot to post this earlier, but I remembered this week to photograph the book sling which Jon built for Rosie- he did the woodworking, I made the sling.

[4] I took my machine over to Adrian and Marion's when we went for Sunday Lunch. Their two Patterdale Terriers keep climbing onto the corner sofa in the conservatory. M had two brown throws which she was using to keep the seat cushions clean, but they kept slipping off. The throws are now fitted covers.

I still have a baby cardigan to finish knitting, and a library book to complete.
The snow is melting rapidly, the water in the river is high, and flowing fast. The weather is bright and definitely warming up. 
I have missed seeing the rest of the family, but it is not long till we are all here again at Easter.
They were wise not to risk the journey. My thoughts are with one blogfriend  whose daughter was in a nasty RTA this week. The driver had not properly cleared his screen of snow. 
We will drive back tomorrow. Not quite the week we had planned - but still very productive [as well as doing all his preparation, Bob's fixed my brother's internet issues, and replaced our boiler control panel]