Before I continue with our daily doings here in Boston, a word on the weather.

Boston is used to harsh conditions in the winter but the weather of the past week has been extreme even by Boston's standards. Temperatures started to fall around New Year and many people (including us) decided not to brave the midnight fireworks on New Year's Eve for fear of finding the conditions too unpleasant.

Snow had been forecast for Thursday but the forecasters had been playing it down, saying that there may be a few inches but nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. However, by New Year's Day it was being given a name, Winter Storm Hercules, and was getting the forecasters much more excited. The Mid West was already bracing itself for snow but the problem for Boston was that two cold fronts were due to merge over the coast north of New York, bringing the worst of the storm to Cape Cod and north to Boston. Temperatures across Canada, the Mid West, New York and New England were reaching record lows for the last couple of decades and there were warnings against staying outside for too long for fear of frost bite. Even states as far south as Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama were seeing snow and sleet. Another concern was coastal flooding around Boston as a result of seasonal high tides at midnight Thursday and midday Friday combined with strong winds.

The girls were due back in school on Thursday after the Christmas break and Barry was back at work. The Brookline schools decided to open for business on Thursday despite all of the schools in metropolitan Boston staying closed. It was snowing on Thursday morning when we woke up. It wasn't particularly heavy but obviously it had been snowing steadily through the night as there were already a couple of centimetres on the ground. It was very cold when the girls went to school at 8am. The temperature stayed well below freezing all day and it continued to snow. By the time the girls finished school at 2.30pm the wind had picked up and a few more centimetres of snow had fallen. They had been told there would be no school on Friday and had done very little work all day as apparently the teachers were none too impressed at having to be in school so the girls were very happy!

By this stage the Mayor of Boston and the State Governor were requesting motorists to stay off the roads partly for safety reasons and partly so the snow ploughs could get to work. There were many concerns that the extremely cold temperatures made the salt on the roads ineffective. Barry managed to finish early and get home before any traffic chaos started and was relieved that the IHI had declared a snow day for Friday too so he was able to stay home. Unfortunately, our planned trip on Thursday evening to watch the Boston Bruins play ice hockey in Boston with Peggy and co had to be abandoned. The match still went ahead but as the heaviest snow was due to start at about 6pm we all decided that it wasn't safe to drive and we didn't want to have to rely on what was likely to be a busy and much reduced subway service to get there and back. So we stayed in and watched the Weather Channel instead (and some of the ice hockey on TV).

Friday morning was a winter wonderland. The snow was at least a foot deep and was very dry and powdery due to the cold temperatures (I learned an enormous amount about different types of snow and the relationship between moisture in the air and the amount of precipitation thanks to the Weather Channel and the local Boston TV news channel). It was very beautiful but bitterly cold - the warmest temperature recorded all day was -10C, plus the wind chill factor. Dougal ended up with an ice-encrusted beard and fur coat after his walk. Rachel still managed to have a play in the snow with her friend Alex in the school's playing field which has a small slope perfect for sledging and bum boarding.

The snow stopped about lunchtime on Friday but the temperature stayed several degrees below freezing through Saturday before warming up a bit on Sunday, just in time for a day's skiing. Today it's (relatively) mild and raining before freezing again overnight and back to a top of -8C for the next couple of days so everywhere will be like a skating rink tomorrow. Apparently North America is in the grip of a "polar vortex" at the moment. We chose an interesting winter to be in Boston!

In the midst of all our weather, we have been hearing about the UK weather and the ongoing storms there. Apparently they are a knock on effect of the cold weather in the US so many apologies.