Warm Shawls

The view from my window. We have only had about 10cm of snow here, but the temperatures are very low for London.

I am reminded of the very bad winter in the early 1960s. I forget the exact year as it was always known in our family as 'the year the cat sat on the rose bush'. We had a great deal of snow that year so the country lane where we lived had a snow drift that filled it up to the top of the hedges on both sides. It was 6 weeks before the road was open again.

Anyway, the garden was full of snow, and it had drifted against the back hedge so at that point it was over three feet deep ( a metre for those younger than me).

Our old cat, who had come to us because someone dumped him from a car over our front gate in the middle of the night, decided he wanted to explore this strange white stuff. My mother let him out and we watched to see what he would do (he had been old when he came to us and we didn't know if he had met snow before).

He immediately sank to his middle and looked confused, but he bunny hopped about a bit until he got tired and sat down for a rest . . . and immediately shot straight up in the air and headed smartly for home.

My father went out in wellies to see what had happened. You can guess, can't you! The snow had covered a row of rose bushes, and poor Cheety-pussy-catty-o had sat down on top of a rose bush! He never ventured out into the white stuff again!

It is weather for shawls. Not just lace wisps, but hefty shawls to keep you warm.

Here are a couple I keep for bad weather. A plain faroese shawl and a pi circular shawl.

And remember, there is no law that says shawls are only for wearing round the shoulders, one at a time. I often layer them, and I frequently put one or more over my legs as a lap rug. My present cats are all in favour of that too!