It is very cold here in NW Galicia - 0.2 degrees at the moment. But I must admit our children have had a wonderful day with all the snow. I read in last week's local paper that there was a nine car pile up. Thirty seconds of hail turned the road into a skating rink and they had to get the snow ploughs out to clear the road of the hail.

Trouble is that if there is a slight bit of ice on the road the school bus will not come and collect the kids - they are happy, I am not.

Keep warm everyone.

Even with the torrential rains, I'd still rather be here than in the UK. They may be better geared for cold, but they have to be as you need that heating 6 months of the year. Here, it's rare for us to need the stove for more than three months.

You are right I have to stop complaining but only if the sun comes soon

That's the way it is done in many houses in Spain. My house is in the mountains of Granada province and is BL%%dy freezing in the winter. There is no suitable central heating we can have so we just heat the room we are in. The house has a selection of a woodburning stove, three portable gas fires and an assortment of electric heaters.

Welcome to Spain!

Anyway it is a bit of nostalgy memories for me as I come originally from Macedonia very very cold country in the Balkans and when I was small due to electricity restrictions we use to heat only one room so the room was meant from breakfast, lunch , siesta, hopmework and dinner.

You see, that's why I love it here. I have seen whole summers in the UK go with just one single perfect summer's day. In the last 5 years I was there, we didn't see 15 perfect days in the whole of those 5 summers. We saw more perfect days in Jan & Feb, when it makes no odds. A typical summer's day was grey and miserable. You would put up with a grey autumn, a miserable winter and a sh*tty spring, waiting, waiting for the summer, and what happened? We'd get a taste, - just to let us know what we were missing, then the bars would slam shut again.

Here, no matter how bad the winter, I know I will get a good spring, a faultless summer and a delightful autumn. I say that puts Spain streets ahead!

I am off to the UK on Thursday for a few days and am dreading the cold - houses may be warm but what about icy roads and pavements, disruption to public transport and possibly flights, etc, etc.

It may be wet and comparatively chilly here in Spain at present, but at least I don't have all that to put up with.

In summer my windows stay closed until the sun goes down, in winter it's the exact opposite, the windows stay open until the sun goes down and then the gas fire goes on. At the moment just having the gas fire on low in the sitting room seems to keep the whole house comfortable, the layout is pretty open plan so we leave the main bedroom and bathroom doors open and close the doors of the bedrooms we're not using. As it gets colder we may have to turn the fire up but so what!

Of course your flat roof leaking every time it rains is par for the course.

Luckily we are not alone....in this part of Spain, every house has a flat roof and everybody's flat roof leaks.

We fix it every year the Spanish way - stick buckets under it until it stops.

Or, if it isn't tiled you can do what we did and cover it with a fibreglass mesh, and paint that on with a couple of coats of white gaucho paint.

Result, no leaks and the house is cooler in summer.

Was -13 not too far from here, but only down to -4 here on the South coast

It is crazy paved, it's a roof terrace. The main flat roof does not leak, thank goodness, although the terrace leaks onto the dining table.

I have seen a silicone solution used for tiled terraces, and the water runs off without wetting provided there is a bit of a slope.

We have lots of snow,temperatures way below zero and blizzards forecast for tomorrow.
Unfortunately one poor little lost sole hasn't seen the weather forecast.
The local North East TV has just shown a somewhat cold and confused Hoophoe Bird hopping about in the Winter snow up here in the frozen North, a long way from home.
I believe they have occasionally been seen in the South of England in better weather,but never up here in mid-Winter to the best of my knowledge.

They're predicting -20 this week (in southern England to boot ) I think the canals will now start to freeze over if we don't get a relapse soon.

Tell me you are kidding?

Minus 20, whether C or F is a tad chilly.