Winter wonderland

Oh what a joy - seasonal weather arriving in the right season for once! Snow in April makes me miserable and even if it comes in January I still feel cheated that the Christmas card images have arrived after the event.

So you can imagine just how giddy I was this morning when my littlest man came into our room, with eyes as big as saucers, to tell us how white everything looked outside his window. I'm such an enormously, over-excited child when the merest prospect of snow is mentioned.

I could sit and watch the lacy curtains drift across the rolling hills outside my window all day long. Sadly today I watched most of it stuck in the bloomin' car! Around here it takes just a sprinkling to reduce the main routes into the city to gridlock.

For almost two hours we tried and tried to get in, only to be faced with long, long queues (about 7 miles!) of stationary traffic. In the end we gave up and turned tail, feeling bad and very frustrated about having to cancel meetings and not turning up for work when the roads now are clear and the fields just dusted with snow.

But it has been beautiful to look at as I've worked at home in my bedroom that looks out across the deeply wooded valley. The boys had a walk home from school with their daddy of the stuff childhood memories are made of; snowball fights, slippy slidy skids and cold pink cheeks and fingers.

Preparations for the festive season are well underway at No.25. Delicious treats are being stashed away, advent calendars opened and a few vintage, seasonal treasures spirited home from town.

Some vintage glass baubles and a dear Christmas plate were mine for just £2.

And these are for my boys, a little piece of Potteries heritage from the soon to be bankrupt Spode factory.

I remember a plate like this my mum had when I was little with its charming design. All my grandparents worked on the pot banks, like most people in this area, but today very few firms are left, with most production outsourced to the Far East and those left are going bump.

On the upside Emma Bridgewater and Caroline Zoob have all their ceramics produced here and are doing a lot to keep the industry and it's specialist skills alive. Woody interviewed Caroline Zoob this week and reports she's a very nice lady and as soon as his article is published I'll pop it on here.

If you're a fan of the white stuff I hope its falling in a very convenient manner and making where you live look gorgeously festive.