More On the British Obsession With Weather
Why do we check the weather outlook 2/3/4/more times a day and then either completely ignore it, or scoff superciliously at the likelihood of it being even remotely right ? When the online forecast predicted a 90% probability of snow for Chieti province in Abruzzo this weekend, there was the usual Brit scorn when that 90% probability on Friday night materialised as a faint veil of blink-and-it's-melted dusting of white come Saturday morning.

It was still trying to snow in a rather half-hearted way when I had to nip down the hill mid-morning to run a few errands in Selva; when I got there ten minutes later, there was a raging, full-blown blizzard in progress; when I eventually fish-tailed back up the hill to Ascigno, it was like this…

Weathermen Get It Right Shock !
Credit where it's due – at least as far as this bit of Abruzzo goes. Snow for Chieti province they said: snow for Chieti province we got. By Sunday morning, Ascigno had five inches of snow. Thrilling without being threatening. Guardiagrele – only about 8 miles away, but higher – had a couple of feet; Roccascalegna – still further, still higher – had a metre; on the coast at Le Morgie, they're still in a state of shock as it's only the second time in 30 years they've had any snow at all ! 

There was a little break in the weather that allowed us time to walk down to our new home/holiday villa rental property. (We have to think of a name – we can't go on calling it 'B35'). The little track we use as a shortcut had become a frosted tunnel. Our usual brisk stride slowed to a leisurely stroll, with every step savoured. We're told February's the month for snow – but this'll be hard to beat.

B35 – Summer And Winter
It's been making us laugh to look at the summer/winter pictures of the house that's going to be rebuilt as four holiday villa rentals for two.  Almost impossible to believe when you're relaxing on your sunbed by the pool, sipping something long and cool in Summer, that the scenery you're looking at will become so markedly different in Winter. As we've seen in Summer, the greens of the olive groves and vineyards predominate; under snow, the landscape becomes almost a study in black-and-white. Think we'll need to hang these pictures up in each villa as proof !

(Click on pictures in text for larger images)

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