Snowfall

February 9, 2009

Last week a white ‘Narnia’ descended upon London and suspended the daily grind. Snow! The headlines said ”-5C and we’re all going snowwhere”. I pulled on the layers and walked through mounds of fluffy powder. Our road had become a heavenly avenue with snowladen branches bejewelling my steps. That sound snow makes as it packs under your boots! The velvety swish of car tyres on untreated streets!
And instead of fussing about interest rates we found ourselves asking how do you roll a snowman, what have you done with the sledge, can I build an igloo in the garden?

At the park I heard whoops and cheers, as if it were a blazing day at the beach. Monday had been cancelled along with school and all of London’s buses. The entire city surrendered to delight. It’s a scene one barely witnesses in London, one of innocence, of snow in a city that doesn’t do extremes of weather. Families were out in force with young children and dogs. People slithered downhill on anything from professional snowboarding kit to an estate agent’s For Sale board (very apt in the property downturn don’t you think?). A modern day Bruegel had happened before my eyes.

It wasn’t a day for bicycles either. On the subject, this weekend I’m visiting a man in Norfolk, who, according to my friend Fiona, has a shed of secondhand models going for reasonable sums. Exciting. Maybe this time next week I’ll be pitching up at the post office and getting the thighs in trim on my own pair of wheels.

Thankfully the ice didn’t deter the shoots. Stylists, photographers and set builders are a hardy crew: one poor boy spent the morning getting bluer and bluer sawing chipboard amongst the drifts in the back garden, and the heavily laden props’ van negociated the Alpine conditions of Tulse Hill with aplomb. The Earthborn paint gang arrived with beautiful environmentally friendly rich chalky colours. I have my eyes on a soft mint green that would suit the garden shed which is need of a tart up for spring.

Good news. Garden experts predict the freezing weather will encourage an explosion of colour as the blanket of snow has put back the flowering of daffodils, crocuses, and snowdrops. For the past decade, spring flowers have come up early meaning the impact of the traditional spring bloom has been barely noticeable. Particularly pleasing to know, is that garden pests like aphids and white fly which survived the milder winters of the past few years are also expected to have been decimated in greater numbers.

Log fires, thermal leggings, and ginger and lemon tea are keeping me warm, plus the blue and white check blankets I bought over a decade ago from Welsh manufacturer Melin Tregwynt. Lux soap flakes and a quick spin on the wool cycle have maintained their fluffiness. It is also of no little importance, too, that the blankets are of top notch quality.

When fingers are swollen, after throwing snowballs while wearing under-performing woolly gloves, it’s time for tomato soup.

1litre stock ( I use a cube of dried organic vegetable stock if there’s no chicken stock in freezer or fridge)
2x 500g cans tinned tomatoes
l tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 onions
4 cloves garlic
4 teaspoons of dried oregano or
three or four sprigs of fresh and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
cr?®me fraiche to stir in

Peel and chop the onions and garlic and sweat for 10 minutes or so in pan with the olive oil and oregano,
Add the tinned tomatoes, puree ,and stock and simmer gently for 15 minutes,
Pulverise in a mixer or with a hand blender.
Add salt and pepper.
Serves 4-6