It's dark but not cold...

We have, for the past 2 weeks had about 20 cm of snow on the ground, and air temp of below zero (-4 in the day, down to -15 at night). And then the terribly reliable weather service let us know that the temp would head up to + for the weekend. So it did, starting on thursday night, and now 2 days later there's very little evidence of snow at all. So it looks like Ireland or England on any normal winters day, ie grey and overcast. Except that, with two weeks still to go to the shortest day, the sun rises at 9.29 and goes down again at 14.34, giving us 5 hrs. 5 mins. of daylight. The good news is that it will freeze again at the end of next week, promising -5 to -10, so we hope that it will be a white christmas for the arrival of the grandparents. C'mon now, let's all join in: I'm dreaming of a....' A bit louder, I can't hear you!!!