Blizzards and Viruses hit the Beach House – 4th April 2012

Snow hits the Beach House

4th April, a reasonably interesting day at the Beach House

The golden sunlight is pouring through the window now and spring is in the air, which is normal at this time of year, except there is a foot of snow on the ground.
Yesterday we woke to a fierce blizzard. We live half way up a mountain, above the snow line and facing the Irish Sea. We are well used to storms and high winds. Yesterday was different, the telephone lines were humming like a badly tuned bass guitar and the thick snow fell horizontally at roughly 60 mph. It was a little hairy! In April.
We lit a fire and went to turn on the kettle, but there was no power. No tea. Dear God, it was an emergency. Really, it was nice to be taken out of our comfort zone for a while, we sat and listened to the wind whistling, released from the digital world and free from any concerns of ‘doing’ things. We were snowed in, a great excuse to unwind and let life drift on by.
We imagined the whole area to be doing the same, but came to realise that this blizzard was only affecting our village! (Population negligible). Two miles down the hill, in Penygroes, they were enjoying a pleasant spring day whilst we battened down the hatches (put extra socks on) and struggled on, without even a hot beverage.
The electricity came back on and eventually we were dragged back into the ‘e’ world, we had bits to do on-line. I turned my little Filipino laptop on, opened an email and promptly contracted a virulent virus. Quite a special virus named the ‘Windows Custodian Utility’ which set about crippling me in an electronic fashion. Apparently it is very new and clever, which in some perverse way made me feel privileged.
It has only just left me, after many consultations with our ace techno neighbour Mark and no doubt a huge slice of luck. I have been bashing it with as many scans as possible for two days. Be gone you vile worm!
So here are some pictures of snow in April, falling on the fresh blossom of our garden and prompting us villagers, more so than ever, to bemoan our weather (we normally live in thick fog) yet secretly be fascinated by the unpredictable nature of this funny little island.
PS – If you are unfortunate to get this virus, drop me a line, I am now an expert at killing this persistent little sucker.