It’s official – stuff.co.nz reports this morning

“An antarctic blast of snow, hail and sleet ushered in the first day of winter, bringing snow to sea levels and the first flurries in downtown Wellington for 14 years.”

With the weather being so wintry we thought we’d make a big cauldron of hearty soup, and settled on minestrone. We had to give in and get a giant bush of celery though so will have some to use in the chicken and rice pilaf.

The recipe called for cannellini beans, which we knew were white beans, but had to decipher many tins of Italian beans in Moore Wilson’s before we found them – trick for young players – when you come across tins and tins of haricots blance with not a cannellini bean in sight, just turn the tin around! Different writing on each side!

Made a mean carrot, celery, onion and garlic base,

Added tomatoes, cannellini beans, macaroni and boiled the lot in chicken stock.

Very good and hearty and plenty of left-overs to have after a cold day at work again tomorrow. The ‘S’ indicating wind direction on the weather this evening was practically horizontal – gale force southerlies.

Is that snow in Wellington? Is it?!

Have been watching rain and hail outside my office window all morning and I’m sure there was actual snow just before! Man it’s cold today! Jiff twittered that he’d seen snow so it must be true – he’s from Chicago after all.

Update – 2 hours later

This time I’m definitely sure and positive that it snowed. Just for 20 seconds, just long enough to get a reasonable photo. The Mister ran downstairs to catch some but by the time I got there it was over and he was standing there with a little lump of hail in his hand.