Snow: "IT'S BORING AND RUBBISH"

Official photojournalism from the Shire: sock monkeys, seemingly oblivious of their African origins

Official words from a small child, in a playground, that I grumpily trudged by around 9.20 this morning. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, eh? Ok, so there was also a kid grabbing onto the railings shouting 'GET ME OUTTA HERE' but we'll only stick to the relevant outbursts.

Technically this is my second snow-based post, not including the one from the Dolomites, home of deep, crispy and even sneh. But if BBC News can spend two mornings in a row reporting solely on the weather then Bowlface is definitely qualified to. Thank god there's loud whispers of an anti-Gordon ballot, for a change in news if not greater political reasons.

I opened my front door and promptly plomped a DM into a DM-high amount of snow. Not the best way to start a twenty minute walk. Good job the shouty kids came up 200 yards later. Then a tiny spaniel puppy was being dragged down some steps similarly covered in snow. That was quite good too.

Other snow adventures include the man towel-drying a dog and a massive increase in fur hats. Granted, it is the only real time I crack the Russian hat out, what with it being double the size of my head and looking thoroughly ridiculous in a non-Siberian context. Watching brave souls wobble about on bikes in the stuff is also slightly lessening the pain that my beloved bicycle Joan is still wrapped up inside my lounge. The fact my head is not inside a helmet is third reason why fur is a justifiable casing. Otherwise, it's unnecessarily cold, makes everywhere difficult to get to and is putting me in a thoroughly Scroogey mood. I can't even appreciate how pretty is because of the size of the fur hat.

A man on Radio 4 said it might last til March. Heaven forbid. If kids are bored already, massive social unrest will definitely break out. At least if the grit's running out there's less chance of it coming at me hidden in a snowball.