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Winter 1999 Winter 1999 was a very mild winter. Often, the temperatures were in the 70s. Some mornings there was frost on the car. Christmas morning was very cold, and then it started to snow. We didn't get a great deal of snow, just a light sprinkling. Enough to put a little white coating on the road and the car and the rooves. Enough to give us a white Christmas. There wasn't enough snow to cover the ground, but there was enough to make it look whitish. We decided to let the cats out in the snow and see how they would react. Redrum enjoyed it. I thought their paws would get cold, but we finally learnt why they grow so much fur between their toes. It protects their pads when they walk on snow and ice. Redrum enjoyed being out in the snow. She didn't want to come back inside. She looked up and watched the flakes coming down, and she built up a thin layer of snow on her back and head. These Himalayan cats enjoyed the snow. Here's the front of the house showing a bit of snow. I'm crouched down at the front while Anne takes the photo. That furry white blob in front of me is Ruffian. If you look carefully at the door, you can see a little figure peering out. It's not Ruffian this time, it's Evelyn. Here's a wider shot of the house showing the extent of the snow. Not much, but enough to be interesting and give us our first "white Christmas". Ruffian likes to sit quietly in odd corners and observe the world go by. She doesn't like to be observed while she is observing. My car with snow. Here's Ruffian sitting on the cold concrete, completely unconcerned about the cold and the snow. She's got fur between her toes, masses of fur everywhere else, so she's well insulated. This is what Himalayans were designed for. She's not exactly the most graceful cat in the world, our Ruffian. She wallows and waddles and here she's wallowing towards me.