It's snowing somewhere in the world I'm sure

I think we are, as a nation, collectively glad that today is the shortest day of the year - given the weather!  It was good that the day ended sooner rather than later ;)  The forecasted snows didn't materialize for most of the south island, but it has been a hot topic of debate over the week (hmm, maybe all that heat melted the snow).  Anyhow, we got a fair sprinkling of sleet which I can now identity as miniature hail, and in fact we did have some snow - huge wet flakes hurtling down to land in a wet pile on the sodden ground.  It wasn't the right kind of snow to stick or settle though, so unless you had been looking out of the window you would never have known it had happened.  All in all, it's been miserable, cold, gloomy and wet.  We optimistically cling to the hope that Metservice has it right this time for a few sunny days next week.

Above: about the extent of any settled snow we could see, although the mountains in the distance are looking spectacular.  Meanwhile, my own lake reappeared within about an hour of the precipitation starting.  It's quite draining to keep wondering whether it's going to seep indoors ~~

Fonterra now supplies all our Year 1-6 students with a free box of milk each day.  We celebrated a week of 'milk in school' by dressing up in anything milk-themed - easiest to pull off was a farm-hand or truck driver, but we had a few cows, some white-clad milks, and even a bit of grass!  Good effort from the kids.