The snow's all gone. Official. Depending upon where you live. London yesterday had little hints compared with surrounding areas.
My attire yesterday featured snow boots, ski-jacket, toned down non alpine jumper (* no reindeer or elephants), gloves and back-pack, as I walked in the darkness to where I'd parked my car, complete with a shovel in it's boot. After one sideways car on the way to the main roads, the rest of the journey was like a slow Monday.
By the time I returned, I'd forgotten about the need for snow-proofing, until I started walking around in my office shoes, which sank immediately under several inches of whiteness. By today, the tractor has been along the road and we can, once again, see tarmac.
The sequencing of the weather news over the last few days has been predictable with Blizzard Conditions, The Big Freeze, No School, Grocery Shortages, Scared Gritless, Unusual Sledge and Shovel Injuries and still to come, The Big Thaw and Floods.
What's also interesting is the weather vocabulary being sneaked into other stories. Frozen, Icy, Slippery Slopes and similar expressions.
But the ones I particularly like are the references to various senior politicians being asked to show clear leadership. The last couple of days it's affected Barack Obama (one year in office), Gordon Brown (to game change the next election), Cameron (to differentiate leadership).
Yes, they are all being recommended to show 'true grit'.
We've changed the original plans for today and will spend considerably more time at home. Maybe watch a movie later.
Need good ones with snow themes (in no order):
- Edward Scissorhands * where snow comes from - Fargo * classy, complex snow, sky and blood spatters - Let the right one in * vampires done right - Nightmare before Christmas * not pure xmas movie - Blow * a different type of snow - Doctor Zhivago * 3 hour epic - Help * Yay, Beatles - Snow White and Seven Dwarves * gotta have a Disney (Bambi?) - The Golden Compass * Dark materials done well - Jack Frost * just scrapes in - Bridget Jones Diary * snowy start and end - The Shining * poor Jack - Into the Wild * brilliant road movie - Bits of James Bond movies * too complicated to itemise - Superman II * prefer Superman I - Jeremiah Johnson * adventure in the mountains - Groundhog Day * always watchable * always watchable - Manhattan * Beth's great suggestion - The Chronicles of Narnia * Tilda forever - A Simple Plan * can go wrong - Ice Station Zebra * proper cold war - Gorky Park * ice and icepicks - Kill Bill I * spectacular at a cinema - The Thing * classic Carpenter == - Ice Storm - Ice Age - The Empire Strikes Back - Dreamcatcher
I like most of the above (to the ==, anyway). Please help me out if you can think of others?
The early morning snow (5/10) has stopped and if I believe the various weather and gulf-stream predictions, it could be the start of the change around of wind directions and an increase in temperatures.
I may make another short trip into the world of the white witches later, prior to tomorrow's expedition back to the car and then onward to the world of commerce.
Let the right one in - Toned-down US Trailer + surface reviewers - I decided the original Scandinavian trailer is too scary
If you leave rashbre central and turn left, then right, then right, then right, walk to the 'no turning back' sign and then turn right again, you come to the area in these pictures.
I sometimes cycle around here, but today wandered along to see the difference that the snow has made. It is always pretty when the area has been dusted white and the first thing I spotted was a wren flittering along beside me. Then a few deer tracks and the flash of a deer's tail in the distance. The deer are crafty around here and I suspect many people don't even know of their existence. There were several on what amounts to an island amongst a few small ponds and streams. Luckily I knew about the very flat differently coloured snow and didn't try walking on the water. Onward to find the wild ponies, who were in a clearing, grazing in the sunshine surrounded by snow that reached over the top of my boots.
It may not be Narnia, but it's also not bad for a ten minute walk from home.
It took me half an hour to liberate my car today. The frozen snow was about 20 cm all over it. I ran the engine, whacked the heater onto maximum and started scraping.
Then I dug out the wheels. A diagnostic message said something about take the car to the workshop to have the brakes checked. I suppose the ice has got inside the sensors.
Then I reversed it onto the road I'd dug yesterday. Slightly down hill, enough for the little yellow triangle stability signal to flash intermittently. Gingerly down the slope to the next level of road, which had become noticeably more slippery than yesterday. I needed to drive about another 300 metres to get to a bigger gritted and salted road.
I hadn't bargained on the sheer number of walkers who were splayed around the whole expanse ahead of me. More than when I'd been out yesterday or Wednesday. I suspect cabin fever had finally forced people to the streets. So instead of making my progress at a sedate 2-3 mph, I had to stop.
I knew this would be a bad thing.
The car got stuck. Luckily I'd brought a shovel so I could dig out the snow that had immediately formed around the front of the rear wheels. I moved the build up of ice and then three neighbours gave me a lengthy shove to get moving again.
End of the road. Glass surface but no traffic at the T junction so I could turn without stopping into the main road where I found proper grip. I've decided to leave the car on a main road now. The backpack, woolly hat, gloves and ski jacket came in useful for my walk back home.
As I passed the spot where I'd got stuck, I noticed another car parked there. It's wheels had sunk to around the level of the axles.
Here's Tori Amos fabulously singing about Winter. And fathers. And daughters. Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens, Wipe my nose, get my new boots on.
I had a bunch of phone call meetings from early morning until early afternoon and then as the sun arrived I decided to clear some of the snow.
Our part of the road is on a gentle slope almost unnoticeable in normal conditions, although the incident with the wall and a neighbour's car and the stranding of my own vehicle last year illustrates that there is lurking treachery.
Twenty five centimetres / nine inches of snow doesn't sound all that much until you start to shovel it away. Between myself and another neighbour we set about regaining vehicular access. Malcolm and I worked on our own sections until I had to go for another conference call (that ol' excuse!). He continued and made a neat line at the point when he also had to do something else.
I started again and had a clear run. It looked an immense distance from the house to the adjacent very minor road. I shovelled for hours and the snow was at least a metre high along the edge of the pavement where I'd been working. My garden shovel was nowhere near as fancy as other neighbours with some kind of proper Canadian snow shovel.
With the sunshine and common purpose, it was all quite chatty. Others were backpacking to the shops and we compared notes about the local snowmen and igloos. I'm sure other countries more used to snow would smirk at this type of activity, compared with having a motorised mini snowplough drive along pavements and roads to clear everything. Remember even Gatwick Airport was snowplough challenged. When I talked to my Norwegian friend during one of the conference calls, he commented that it was quite tough at the moment around minus 30 Centigrade.
Between the neighbours we've even found some grippy stuff. The neighbour's cat litter worked surprisingly well. Later another neighbour passed, marvelling at my roadbuilding handiwork and offering salt pellets. At this rate we will have a serviceable road again by tomorrow, although I have slight misgivings that it might be 'one way'.
I stayed there once, with friend Steve, by accident. All I can remember is a quite dangerous gas station. We moved on to San Francisco and stayed in suites in the Marriott before the infamous 49ers episode. Another day.
Its always good to keep one's hand in at building igloos. Better to make individual ice bricks and then shape them.
When I headed out to buy some milk, I found the lack of people coupled with the mix of white and some of the already ash coloured snow was somehow reminiscent of the book I'd just read.
Near home the snow was around 30 cms deep and on adjacent paths it had packed down although the few footprints were easily delineated. There were almost no cars. A few slow moving four wheel drives with mysterious lumps on them, reshaped by snow. And a tractor with a snow-plough.
When I arrived at Tesco's there was a mere smattering of cars in the large car park.
Yet Tesco's shelves were already relatively empty. All of the 'normal' milk types had gone yet I didn't fancy brandy flavoured cream. I don't know what the turnover must be, but one day without a truck delivery seemed to have left a pretty large hole. I found some one pint containers of semi-skimmed, which was all they had left. I Then, with a backpack full of my shopping goodies, I took a different route home through the train station and then past housing where I could count snowmen. There were plenty.
Tall ones, short ones, crooked ones, artistic ones, bodged together quickly ones.
As well as a few more igloos. And a couple of ice-sofas and dino-cars.
It looks as if they will all be around for a few more days.
A recent walk back from a pub included a random conversation along the lines of did we ever see any herons around here? I said "Yes, every week or two". Actually, if I'm out cycling then there could be more frequent sightings.
Then today I saw four different ones.
Unless they were stalking me for circa 20 miles, then I'm pretty sure they were different birds. All flying and quite close by. It had me wondering what they knew, that meant an unexpected number of them breaking cover. This isn't Florida and they normally keep themselves to the more countryside areas.
Its like a couple of weeks ago when the local deer that usually hide in the woods became disorientated in the snow and started wandering around various neighbourhood gardens.
Of course, by this evening, there's a possible explanation that the herons could sense the impending weather and were doing something secretively heron-like in advance.
Anyway, its snowing around here at the moment. Quite a lot.
Back to work today, with lots of people in the office, restocking with pencils and other useful stationery. I arrived early, to bag a good hot-desk and then join in a few meetings as we get 2010 on the road.
Actually, I'm reading a book called 'The Road' at the moment, by Cormac McCarthy. Its a dystopian story of a father and son looking for somewhere to go in a post apocalyptic world, where everything is covered in grey ash flakes that have killed the ecosphere. Maybe they should have handed out some copies in Copenhagen last month.
Truth is, its quite a tough read. Not the writing, which streams along, but the subject matter, which includes ideas that once you've read them, can't be uninvented. I won't say more, but there's a relentless end of the world theme. Despite the faith and hope imbued in the principle characters, I can't imagine how this is going to turn out well.
It's a quick read, with some fast simple conversations to power it along. I also noticed its just been made into a movie although I think it will be difficult to capture the same sentiments on film.
I only started it Sunday, but I'll finish it tonight. Gripping.
