EPT
I'm at home from university for Christmas and my house is full of foster children because my parents get bored now my sister and I have moved out. So this morning we decided we'd go for a walk with the dog and play in the snow. Living out on Salisbury Plain has it's advantages, an ocean of rolling hills under a blanket of virgin snow but we eventually ended up at nearby Stourhead.
Stourhead (see here) is an artifical fantasy landscape created by a Victorian multibillionaire (by today's standards) and in the snow it was stunning. This was the only photo I could find but it doesn't do it justice.
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![[image loading]](http://jjprzy.envy.nu/images/globalwarming/20090110-StourheadEngland.jpg)
Quite a group was forming at one particularly good hill where repeated sledging had created a very smooth sheet of ice on the snow and you could attain rather impressive speeds. There were dozens of dogs (I love dogs) nosing around and frolicking and chasing each other and one family had a trio of beautiful chocolate labs. My parents took our dog for a stroll while I went sledging with two foster brothers aged 13 and 11.
As stated earlier, England is not used to snow and the result is that we are both overjoyed and wonderfully amateurish when we get to play in it. People were sliding down the hill on trays, bodyboards, plastic sacks and anything else they could find, racing each other, filming some quite impressive wipeouts and having a great time. I went down with the boys dozens of times on a plastic sled we found and a big plastic bag which would always somehow rotate as you went down before finally throwing you off.
On an unrelated note there were quite a few very hot girls there although I was slightly confused by their ages. I've suddenly found myself 22 years old and unable to easily distinguish between girls my own age and those nearer the 18 mark. But whatever, they simply added to an amazing morning. Britain may not be very good at dealing with snow because we rarely have it but we know how to enjoy it when we do. With more snow we'd probably get used to it and it wouldn't be so special but there was this wonderful communal thing with us all there on boxing day enjoying the snow together. Really made my Christmas.
