The story ‘First Snow‘ was inspired by Fern and her first encounter with snow, although the snowfall Fern experienced at the time was only a very light dusting and nothing at all like the snowfall that Fifi encountered in the story. All that changed this past week when Fern really did get to find out what snow is like.
The part of England we live in gets very little snow, usually only a light covering which may last a day and then quickly melts. This year was very different and we got 8 inches of snow falling in one night and it lasted the whole week, although by Christmas Day the snow was more packed-down ice than snow.
Fern was not very impressed with the snow at first
Fern is usually a very brave bunny, getting into all kinds of bunny mischief and when we woke up to a wonderful white blanket of snow last Friday morning; we thought Fern would be very excited and ready for an adventure. We were wrong!
As always, Fern spent the night in the house and Derek put her outside in her run she seemed happy enough, but when he opened the door to let her come out and play she was not impressed. The snow had been slightly trampled down outside her bunny door, by the door opening and Derek standing on it, even so Fern was not convinced. Derek was standing at the side of Fern’s run, sorting out a plant that had been damaged by the weight of the snow, but Fern would not even look out of her bunny door. Instead she sat in a corner looking a little shocked at all the whiteness around her.
All that day Fern would not leave her run, even though we were sitting outside with her, as we always do come rain or shine. I admit I was a bit worried by her reaction, as Fern can be a bit of a handful and I wasn’t sure how she’d cope with not running around every day. I needn’t have worried.
The next morning Derek took Fern out again and opened her bunny door for her. This time she hopped out of her run, looked at the snow and hopped straight back in! Not a great reaction, but it was an improvement. Luckily, later that morning when we went out to see her she was obviously feeling a little more adventurous and came hopping out of her run across the lawn, although she did stay in the tracks Derek had made getting to her run.
Fern eating one of the many berrys that had been knocked out of our tree by the snow
Fern’s confidence with the deep snow continued to grow, until she was bouncing around in the snow, doing bunny binkies and laps around the garden. It was lovely to watch her, though we were a bit cold standing around in the back garden.
Unfortunately the down side to Fern’s new love of the snow was the plants in our garden suffered. Fern didn’t seem to appreciate that the snow had raised the ground level and weighed the plants down, so they were in her way. Our sweet little bunny Fern went on a chomping spree, lopping off whole branches of shrubs and then trampling them into the snow. Even though she can be a very naughty bunny it is hard to be cross with her.
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