Daniel Cann

When it started last Tuesday the general mood was 'ah, that's nice, everything looks like a Winter Wonderland.' Days later and with warnings that it could continue for another week or more and we have changed our tune.

It does look beautiful and it must be great for the kids, but the practical realities of 'getting on with things' are made more difficult by the snow.

This past week has shown dangerous travel conditions and many trains, flights and sporting events have been cancelled. The roads have been closed and both the AA and RAC have claimed a record number of call outs.

There has been concern for both the salt and grit supplies for our road surfaces as well as gas supplies. People are buying food and milk in bulk prepared for days spent at home being unable to get to work or taking their children to school.

The elderly have to rely on the kindness of neighbours and among all the tragic stories of people dying in the cold or in accidents related to the conditions there have also been heartening ones of people being more neighbourly.

Although communities have been cut off it has not dampened people's spirits.

Animals have suffered and are still suffering in the weather but farmers, members of the public and the RSPCA are all trying to do their best to ensure the welfare and saftey of birds, livestock and even swans that have become stuck in the frozen rivers.

I had a chat with my Dad the other day and he remembered the big chill of Boxing Day 1962 to March 1963. That length of time in these conditions seems inconceivable to me but it just shows that some of us have seen this all before. Indeed there was another record cold spell in 1947 so the climate change lobby can't point at this as a freak. There are past precedents.

I think what we must all remember is that next to nature we are mere ants running around in our nests. We sometimes forget how temporary all the things we take for granted are.

The earth is always changing and what we build on its surface is not going to be there forever. I don't want to paint a picture of doom and gloom in fact the opposite. I think times like this bring out the best in all of us. We need to be tested and I have personally seen great unselfish acts of kindness and generosity over the last few days. People are looking out for each other and we are all trying to keep a sense of normality. Just when the World can make you feel cynical there are some things that shine through. Before the snow melts and we are all bombarded with the Iraq inquiry, the latest from Afghanistan, corporate greed and government shenanigans across the globe just remember this time when everyone was brought together and looked out for one another. See? We can do it when we have to!