What an adventure we had on the weekend in the SNOOOOOOWWWW! I looove snow. I wait for it all year. I fantasise about it in the scorching summer heat. I severely crush on northern hemisphere blogs in January & just genereally pine for snow. I don't know what it is about the stuff. Maybe it's the way it sparkles. Maybe it's the way it transforms the landscape. Maybe it's the fun you can have in it. I'm sure all you northern hemispherers who live in snow for half the year think I'm crazy & yes I've never experienced a blizzard, but oh, it's just magical to me. We headed up the Ovens Valley to Mt Buffalo for a day of toboganning. It had snowed all day Friday, so we arrived to find fresh, dry powder. The sun was shining & it was a balmy ten degrees. We flew down the mountain on our pieces of coloured plastic, built a snowman, threw snowballs, drank hot tea, absorbed our daily dose of high altitude Vitamin D & fell in a heap of happy exhausted. I even got a snowboard run in. The girls had a ball but the wheels fell off as the sun started sinking & the temperature dropped. We filled our bellies, dried off, changed into warm gear & piled in ready for the trip back down the mountain. Only thing was the car woudn't start. "Come on Violet " we all chanted { I have a habit of naming cars... Sophie, Sylvie, Pauline, Veronica, Francesca, Will's car Connie & now our old Volvo, Violet, named by Zahra}. People are leaving & the car park is now shadowed by the hill behind us as Will asks around for jumper leads. Meanwhile I run into an old friend. Small world. We chat while Will finds some leads & we get a jump. Hooray. We pull out of the carpark & start off up the road. Only, onaproblem. Foot to the floor & no power. Hmmm. No phone reception. Hmmm. It's now zero degrees. Hmmm. Will parks in the last of the sun while I head back to the carpark to catch up with the ranger who has just pulled in. By now the carpark has emptied except for a few last stragglers. We chat about our predicament & the falling temperature & the screaming baby in the backseat & the lack of phone reception. Best thing we decide is to keep the car running back in the carpark while we make an RACV ranger radio call. Will needs his wallet for that, which incidentally we can't find. We turn the car upside down while trying to keep the heat in. Bless those Swedish cottonsocks, they sure know how to make great car heaters. One ransacked car later & Will finds his wallet where he'd put it, ya know, to keep it safe! One phone call later & there'll be no help till tomorrow. Abandon ship is the verdict. Will & ranger Scotty head off to the office while I stay with the girls, car running, heater blasting, sun sinking, carpark emptied. We wait, we sing, we watch the sun change colours on the tors. We talk about what an adventure this is & how everything is going to be ok as the sky turns pink & lavender then indigo & finally black. Eventually Scott returns with his car. We say goodbye to Violet as the temperature hits minus three. Scott takes us back to his house where there's a wood fire. We rotisserie ourselves until we're thawed & chat about our options. We decide to phone a friend. It's agreed. We'll leave Violet, get the girls home & Will will come back for her tomorrow with a tow. So we wait. We eat the last of our scroggin & soup. I completely forget about the whole baked cake in the bottom of the bag while Niamh eyes off Scott's lamb casserole, pointing at it with her egg flip, which she found in one of his drawers. Poor guy. It was the last day of his work rotation & he was down to his last meal. Boy it smelt good. We follow Niamh around trying to keep her little, overtired self out of mischief while Zahra watches out the window. Just when everyone was really starting to hit the wall, our dearest of dear friend turns up. There were quick goodbyes & many thankyous then off we pile into the next vehicle. I suggest we head back to get the last of our gear out of Violet & perhaps one more try of the engine, you just never know. She blasts into life, hah, of course. The temperature gauge now reads minus five. William takes Violet & the rest of us follow down the mountain. Niamh fell asleep the moment we left ranger Scotty's & Zahra wasn't far behind as we headed for home. We arrived just before midnight, bundled the girls into bed & pondered our snow adventure over a chamomile. My heart is always overwhelmed by the kindness of friends & complete strangers. While waiting up there in the carpark Zahra asked anxiously "Are we going to be ok Mama? Will I get to sleep in my own bed tonigh? " " Yes, baby girl, we're gonna be fine. People help each other, the world is full of kindness". A big, big heartfelt thankyou to Kim & Scotty & those kind strangers in the parking lot who lent a hand. We are incredibly grateful. It could have turned out so differently, but we ended our snow day tucked up in our own beds.
