It's not called ThornHILL for nothing, we have a great hill in our midst and in fact people denote themselves as being up or down hill dwellers. So yesterday morning ( was it only that long ago) while R set off in the car for work, getting there with no problems to find it shut, A and H got up too early and were too excited, so before 8.30am we had left the house and were heading for Hannay Rise. Us and one other family, who bizarrely were building a snowman on the steepest slope for miles around. It started snowing again and we were joined by Family Davidge and Whitmore, and had lots of fun on our tea trays. One, a metal one, was a wedding present from an Austrian godfather of R. It did good service as a sledge. At about 10am the piste started to get crowded and I wished I had put my salupettes on after all, so we retired to the Whitmores for hot chocolate. Then trudged through the thick drifts ( ok, a little poetic there) to the Taylor family for a play and a cup of tea before finally reaching home, alive. We spent the afternoon cleaning, as Wendy Wednesday was not happening so we all pretended to be Wendy instead. I scrubbed the new kitchen tiles as you only do once when they are brand new, and also had another go at the floor in the lounge which still smells of cat wee. Today I found cat wee and a cat poo in the lounge. She is going to have to go.

Today we had perfect sledging weather, blue skies all day, stunning views and if I had a battery in my camera you would by now have shared my nature photography. We walked over to Telegraph woods, and just tumbled over a gate into the golf course which has undulating terrain and a picture postcard view - looked like Austria, were it for the big industrial estates in Hedge End in the foreground. We had some great sledging on some bits of black plastic that had been left there. There were a couple of other families who had bothered to make the walk through the woods to get there, including a few snowboarders. It was amazing to see so much designer ski gear in West End! And proper sledges, we were the poor relations with our trays up there, whereas on Hannay Rise the day before we had been at the top end of technology, above the Quality Street lids and bin bags. After shivering yesterday, I wisely wore my full ski wear today and was toasty. After a detour to buy chips for lunch, the girls and R spent the afternoon making a sledge, so we trotted back 'up Hannay' to try it out. By now, Hannay Rise was a sheet of ice and only the brave and foolhardy of Thornhill were out. One of the things which makes Thornhill fun is times like this, and seeing the resourcefulness of young people, who get a bad press, but had pressed into action as sledges items as random as an inflatable dinghy, a road sign, a car bumper ( that was in bits at the bottom) a freezer door (one very annoyed mother at home wondering why the freezer has no door), a sofa cushion ( someone wasn't listening to that Science lesson on friction) and lots of signs from the Range. Some kids I knew were proudly telling me 'I nicked this from the Range' and another boy who had clearly been primed by his mum said 'I just found this on my balcony'. Despite starting very low down the piste we still had casualties early on, with A and Matthew wiping out the rubber dinghy lads, so we all came home for pizza and chips. R's sledge is not bad but needs some modifications and the children found the Whitmores' pieces of damp coursing plastic better fun.

I noticed today a plumber's van with 'Flood the plumber' written on the side. You couldn't make it up could you? Well, you could but it wouldn't be so funny.

R is, at the very moment, helping Amanda bid on council flats. It seems she had not got the idea at all on her own, and somehow had managed to not bid on anything. So he is 'helping her'. We have had some good conversations lately and she seems to be realising the huge debt of gratitude she should be showing us, and have a better attitude towards us and towards herself. She has also spent 2 nights at Ang's 1 at her mum's and she tells me she is spending a night at someone else from church on Saturday, so we get to have some time alone. Hooray! It feels great when the load is spread out a bit and other people are pitching in a bit and doing things without being asked over and over again. Well, I have asked over and over again, but clearly it is going in and people are caring and trying to help and recognising that we need some respite.

Ah, probably obvious but none of our schools open today, yesterday or tomorrow! So, I will be a week ahead of myself with planning, and as I am on a course on Wednesday, I won't have seen my kids for almost a month by the time I go back on Thursday. I am actually missing them - when you spend your working life with 30 engaging and fascinating people you do miss them a bit....