Snow on the Sphinx

Just when you think spring is finally here, that the long harsh winter is finally drawing to an end and the flowers are starting to bud and blossom, the weather can turn and plunge us right back into winter. But it usually isn't quite as dramatic as what it was this weekend, when we had heavy snow fall in London on just the right side of Valentine's Day.

I love the snow. I adore everything about it - the cold of it, the blanketing crispness of it, the feeling of walking or skiing on it, the inevitable days off work which it results in....well usually. That was the only down side this time - everyone was prepared as the snow fell on the weekend and so the roads were cleared on Monday.

Still, it felt like an extra long weekend, even when it wasn't, as snow just gives such a different perspective on things. I felt like I had been on a mini-break after I went for a long walk in Crystal Palace Park.

It was a grey and cloudy day, but it was still glorious.

The Spinxes looked more majestic and aloof than ever in the snow.

They are still guarding the stairs of the old Crystal Palace. The spinxes and stairs are all that remains of the glass and steel building that housed the Great Exhibition in 1851. The palace had been moved two years after the exhibition in Hyde Park, at a significant loss to the company (which they never recouped). It slowly declined in this location in Crystal Palace, at the top of Sydenham Hill  (then Penge Place) until it literally went up in a blaze of glory in 1936.

I can't help but wonder how fantastic it would have been to see towering glass glinting in the sunshine there. I wonder if it really did look like crystal. I know that it fell into disrepair and was not the success that had been envisioned. Perhaps that would have meant it was more eyesore and less the elegant building I would hope it to be. But one thing I know for sure.... the view over London, Kent and Surrey is still breathtaking.

I walked down the hill, past the maze ..... the ponds ...... the site of the 1909 Scout Rally in Crystal Palace which girls attended declaring themselves as Girl Scouts ........ past large expanses where people had built a range of snowmen, snow dogs and even a snow pig ......... past forts that had been built up to protect those launching snowballs.

Finally I ended up at the dinosaurs.

They were unveiled in 1854, some six years before the 'Origin of the Species' was published, and although considered largely inaccurate now they are still impressive, and must have been awe inspiring for the Victorian's to visit.

They looked right at home in the snow.

Feeling delightfully cold, it was time to go to my favourite cafe in Crystal Palace, Domali. They served me an amazing sweet potato and goats cheese pie, with the most delicious gravy I had ever tasted. I read the paper, eating a late lunch and sipping gluhwein stirred with a cinnamon stick, feeling blissfully content. I couldn't have been happier - it was though I was in a chalet on the slopes of Austria, enjoying the Apres-ski.