Just a little break from the usual garden-related chat to join in a new meme which has been started by The Mindful Gardener.

She suggests sharing on your blog ‘anything that makes you feel emotional, warm and fuzzy, grateful, inspired, appreciative of the world around us’ and as I have experienced this in the past few days I wanted to join in and write about my Soulful Sunday, reflecting on the past few days of joy and happiness and warmth in my community, despite some of the coldest temperatures we’ve experienced for many years.

Very few of us have escaped the icy grip of the Beast from the East in the past few days – the Siberian snow storm which has hit Britain.  I live in Scotland, in one of the areas which was under a Red weather alert for the first time ever! This meant heavy snow, extremely hazardous conditions and risk to life – so the usual work and school routine has been disrupted since the middle of last week.

Despite the icy chill, the freezing temperatures and the long days at home our community has become closer than ever, thanks to a friendly village v village ‘Winter Games’.  A mass snowball fight on one afternoon was extended to a snowman-building competition the next day.  And when each village won a point each, we held an Olympic- style series of races to decide the winner.   Each day brought families, parents, grandparents and other villagers along to take part and have a bit of fun in the snow.  Not only that, but it galvanised us into action to clear paths for the local sheltered housing complex, and today we all gathered to clear the snow and ice from the school grounds to make sure we could all return to normal tomorrow.

It’s been one of the best bonding experiences for our community, and a series of snow days which we know our kids will remember for a long time.  I’ve felt so happy and proud of where we live and the good people that we know.

And that’s why I’m feeling quite Soulful this Sunday.

Another snowball fight at the conclusion of the ‘Winter Games’