Lois Anderson (1928-2009)

The sad news is that my mother, Lois Anderson, was quite ill and I had returned to Minnesota to visit her. I am sorry to have to share that she died on Sunday night February 15th 2009.

While Fiona and I had shared some postings about my mother on this blog, we both felt that her passing deserves its own space, so we created a Remembering Lois Anderson blog.

http://loismemories.blogspot.com/

It already has the three postings we had written about her and I intend to add more of the photos I scanned and stories I heard while I was in Minnesota.

Our adventure abroad continues, which is exactly what my mother had hoped for us. And as she joked -- now she won't need a ticket to come visit. We know in our hearts that she has already been to visit.

Bockett's Farm

The kids and I went to a place about 15 minutes from home called "Bockett's Farm."  It's a working farm with sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, chickens, rabbits, and goodness knows what else, as well as indoor and outdoor playgrounds and child-sized farm equipment.  We enjoyed feeding animals, seeing newborn lambs, and playing inside and outside -- I'm sure we'll go back soon to do some of the other things there.  

Lilian going down the big indoor slide

Lilian and William pretending to dig (I ran out of the pound coins necessary to actually work the things, but they seemed to enjoy them anyway!)

A little goat trying to snitch some of Lilian's food

Cobham in the Snow

Fiona walked into Cobham the day after the big snowfall and she took some lovely photos along the way. We thought you might enjoy a 'look see' of our little snow covered village.

There are lovely public footpaths
(but it really helps if you already know the way to where you are going)

The Public Footpath Into Cobham

The Old Bear - The Recently Renovated Pub in Cobham

Lovely Bright Red Post Box
with a view up the Cobham High Street

Neither rain nor snow, nor sleet nor dark of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds... er wait, that's some other guys postal creed - I'm not moving this truck -- there's snow on it!

Along the High Street

High Street Shops

The Clock At The End of the High Street

True Barber Shop
(Grandad would approve)

The Cobham Mill

Visiting Swans

Snow Day!!!

The Start of Something Special

I must have jinxed it with my last post. Ahem, what was I thinking taunting the good people of Minnesota that we didn't have snow here in January? Well it was true. And it seemed safe enough -- it really rarely snows here enough to stick. From what I understand even 1/4 of an inch can shut London down, they're just not prepared for it because it doesn't snow very often here.

But last night, on the first day of February, it started to snow. And snow. And snow some more. The way it was coming down -- we started to wonder would we have . . .

A Snow Day?

Yes!

Not Going Anywhere for a While?

Serious Snow Fall

The BBC told us that London had a couple of inches, but as you can see here in Cobham we had more like a foot of snow! It was more than enough snow to close Lilian and William's school and the CarVal office. The buses were stopped, half of the underground lines were closed, the airports (somewhat comically) were open, but their runways were closed. The main motorways were parking lots.

It's the biggest snowfall to hit England in 18 years!

A Beautiful Day!

The sad and funny part is that we certainly own all the gear we would need to take advantage of this wonderful snow, but we don't have it all with us. Thankfully we did have some. I didn't think I needed to put my snow boots and gloves in the air shipment. Who knew?

Fiona and Lilian and William got busy and built a snow igloo and a snow man. We tried to explain to the children how truly rare having this much snow is here. But to children from Minnesota -- this seems like just another winter day.

William is dressed for the weather!

A Sense of Wonder in the Igloo

The Igloo, The William & The Snow Man