On the spur of the moment we decided to make a quick trip to the UK over the Dubai half-term break to see my elderly mother and my brother, his wife and my niece so we could spend our seventeenth wedding anniversary together with our family . We left Dubai early on Thursday morning with a 52% percent chance of snow in Brentwood ... and snow it did. It was wonderful not only giving my mother a total surprise as my brother had managed to keep the secret, but seeing my boys playing late that night in the snow with their dad and uncle having a snowball fight. The next morning we woke up in the local hotel to the grounds covered in snow and it was a truly magical experience to be the first human to walk across 


the virgin snow in the early morning light armed with my camera trying to to capture the wintry wonderland from different angles without getting my knees wet .

The interesting thing about photography is the challenge that light in a different environment provides and coupled with snow ... oh boy! You have to up the ISO and exposure compensate ... and remember that a battery has less than half its usual life in the cold. And everything is white... and a polariser does not make much difference either. Snow in my humble opinion is more diffcult to photograph than a white satin wedding dress. So an hour later and some interesting pics I went back inside to have a hot bath while my sons ( 16 and 7 soon to be 8) built a mini-me snowman. So mum comes out to photograph the boys' work of sculptural snow-art and dad drops a huge snowball on her head and all over her camera... forgetting that camera's are electrical devices! So after photographing some snowdrops , the first flowers of spring underneath the tree at my brother's home and witnessing their cats dancing with wet paws across the snowy ground we headed off to Windsor Castle to be delayed enroute on the M25 because of an accident but we did enjoy our walk around the Royal Palace and the quaint town. Yes, the camera was useful but I was not allowed to take any pics inside the buildings... security reasons! Whereas the next day at Leeds Castle dating back to 1280AD you were allowed to take pics inside the building previously lived in by Lady Baillie. This castle has a lovely air of history about it and is surrounded by a moat. I will post some pics when I get back to Dubai.
Today as I write this entry on my blog, I am sitting in West Horndon, Brentwood with the rugby between Ireland and Italy on the television and my youngest son playing with his new Ben 10 omnitrix. Eldest son is visitng a friend in Kent who he has not seen since his early childhood, husband and daughter have gone to visit friends in Hemel Hempstead. This morning I went with my sister-in-law to to local hobby places looking for beads and crafty stuff for myself and my daughter as well as two craft paper punches for my friend Jacky in Dubai.
And what did I learn ... cameras do break on holiday so always bring the back-up and that snow is perhaps the hardest thing I have ever had to photograph...
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