Snowed In!

For the first time ever in the fourteen years we are completely snowed in. Yesterday we woke to 16 inches of snow and it has gone on falling ever since off and on. In the past there has always the train to fall back on (that was how we got to our son’s wedding four years ago, when snow and a fallen tree blocked the way out of the village). But yesterday the trains stopped running. The school’s closed today for the third day running, but even if wasn’t, we couldn’t get there. There isn’t a village shop (it closed in the summer). Walking to the next, larger village is a last resort as the snow is over our wellies and anyway deliveries haven’t been getting through there either.
The milkman and postman are not getting through and the organic fruit and veg delivery people have rung to say they can’t make it tomorrow. However we are in no danger for running out of food for a while. True, we have no milk now, or eggs or cheese (except for Parmesan) and not much fruit and veg. However we have loads and loads of rice, pasta, olive oil, coffee and tea, because I buy them in bulk. Quite a lot of Parmesan, lentils, tins of red kidney beans and other pulses and enough flour for several loaves. Also a tin of sardines and one of corned beef. A joint of pork in the freezer. No cake, biscuits or chocolate. Yesterday we got a craving for something sweet so we broken into the Xmas cake that we made a fortnight ago. Might have been better if left to mature, but it’s very good all the same and there’s always too much at Xmas anyway. We’ve got plenty of wine and there is wood in the woodshed.
Thanks to my book-buying habit there is no shortage of things to read either. To be honest I probably have enough books to last for the rest of my life, what with ones I haven’t read and ones I’d be happy to re-read. It’s comfort reading at the moment. I am well into THE NINE TAILORS and am thoroughly enjoying it. And I’ve found a recipe in Peg Bracken’s THE I HATE TO COOK BOOK for a chocolate cake that uses cocoa and cooking oil instead of butter or margarine. So I might get my chocolate fix after all.