CHAROITE SIBERIANS

The weather at the weekend looks decent, yay. Cool and dry, I really don't ask for much. Hopefully get some nice long runs in at the forest with the guys.

This same weekend last year saw us down at the Quantock Quest and it was so cold then my hands froze to the handlebars. Well, not quite. But after the night run which was very fast and very icey I did have to prise my mitts off the brakes and got a serious case of what we used to call as kids "hot aches".  We had great fun at the race, glad to hear they've secured enough entries for it to happen again this year.

Brrrr, the guys racing into the finish at last year's Quest. Will we see this kind of weather at all this season?

Sunday morning at the Quantock Quest 2010 (Bruce Hall's van in the corner!)

It was driving back from the Quantocks the snow really began to fall and I drove into my village that night with the road rapidly disappearing.

The week that followed saw the most snowfall we've had for years and the most times people have said to me "I bet your dogs are loving this weather". The dogs did although they had to spend most of it playing in the garden in the deep deep white stuff as it took me five days to dig the van out of the drive and dare to go anywhere! I wasn't as keen although it was very cool walking down the main road into work, as there was no traffic for two days, and feeling even my eyelashes freeze!

Major downsides to the cold spell were driving on the point of hysteria in a white-out (there was blue sky when I set off), snapping three sets of windscreen wipers and having my van turn into a large white lump of ice. Sherwood was transformed into a skating rink - thank doG for ice-grips for boots and auto-socks for vans and I experienced for the first time the horrors of three feet of snow on the dog run roof and frozen poo with layers of ice to remove it from...Ice pick anyone? Peversely, was all kind of fun really but this year I'd prefer cold and dry, just a smattering of snow to look pretty!

But yes, my dogs WERE loving that weather!