Hfghhhhgghg

No-one needs reminding that the weather over most of the UK has been getting worse since late December but this was merely a foretaste of the conditions during the last week.

As a teacher I’m used to the accusations that schools shut with the first sighting of a snowflake and that as a profession we are work-shy. This really isn’t the same profession I signed up for many years ago where there was still some respect for what we do.

I was stupid enough to read the ‘snow stories’ topic on the BBC website ‘Have your Say’ feature and as usual many saw this an an invitation for a little teacher bashing with some even suggesting that where schools had closed due to the weather conditions teachers should be equipped with shovels and clear the snow from people’s paths. The big argument being that the handy free child-minding service was no longer available and god forbid some people would actually have to look after their own children. Now I have every sympathy for those placed in a difficult situation with work and having raised four children we have been in similar situations ourselves but the bigger picture is still the safety of both kids and staff. Many people commented that when they were children they would have happily walked ten miles in the snow to get to school but these are the very same parents that would seize upon the lottery-like opportunity of entering into ‘no win no fee’  litigation with the school should their precious offspring get hit by a snowball. Unfortunately the knock on effect is that we now live in a world dominated by health and safety fears and you can’t have it all.

My own school hung on for several days as conditions got ever worse and for several days adopted a ‘later start – earlier finish’ policy to facilitate a safer journey to and from school. However the snowfall overnight on Thursday was exceptionally bad and on Friday the school website informed one and all that the school would be closed for the day. This produced feelings of elation tinged with guilt – I’d like to say it was 50:50 but when I started to add up all the late nights, weekends and bits of so-called holiday spent in extra and unpaid work for the school I was able to cancel out the nagging guilt. Even if the general public, via the medium of the BBC talkback feature could brand me a shirker – this day was mine.

With my free day I did what school work I could from home and then we spent the rest of the day in Fritton Woods. Circumstances were such that three of our adult children were able to join us and we were able to enjoy the winter wonderland which is the forest under snow.

The day after Boxing day saw us heading out to Horsey following a chance remark made by Graham; an old friend and fellow elderly hippy rocker. Graham lives in Winterton and mentioned that recently he had been walking his dog the two miles or so to Horsey to see the seal pups that are born between December and January. This sounded like a good post-Christmas blowout mission so we set off to find seals.

We did indeed find the seals and their pups along with several hundred other seal watchers. Poppylands the cafe cum art gallery which is situated nearly had set up a food and coffee stall and also provided a seal shuttle bus for those that felt unable to brave the walk along the dunes.

I’m not a huge fan of nature on the whole but this was good. The adult seals were surprisingly large and were (I’m sure there must be a proper word for it) flolloping along the beach using their enormously powerful forelimbs. The pups that we saw on the beach were downy white with velvety fur and seemed to enjoy the attention – indeed many seemed to be playing to the audience.

I understand that elsewhere in the world these animals are regarded as pests that decrease fishing stocks and as a result the pups are culled – which somehow sounds slightly less emotive than ‘killed’. Given the heartwarming sights we were privileged to see today you would have to be very hard hearted indeed to raise a club with the intention of dashing out the brains of these baby animals.