Are you making any plans for the Snow?
- Thread starter SiWhite
- Start date
Well, our planned holiday is the first casualty of the snow. I’d hoped that the weather would be clear until lunchtime, giving us a window to make it to Devon, but it’s been snowing fairly hard for most of the night and still coming down. I’ve decided not to risk the journey - a pregnant wife, a 1 1/2 year old and a dog mean that any time stuck in the car wouldn’t be a pleasant experience for anyone. We are covered for the costs through insurance, so it looks like we’ll be bugging in for the next 48 hours!
Only person in the team at work, most of the patients cant get in, so there will be a lot to do next week.
I'm only a kilometre from the hospital so it was easy to trudge in, colleagues outside Edinburgh can get out of driveways, no transport options, so advice is to stay put.
I'm only a kilometre from the hospital so it was easy to trudge in, colleagues outside Edinburgh can get out of driveways, no transport options, so advice is to stay put.
When you look at the forecast we are in the part of the UK that will likely miss it all
Which to be honest is a good thing as I am currently laid up with either strep or tonsillitis
Which to be honest is a good thing as I am currently laid up with either strep or tonsillitis
As part of the Cornish diaspora, I have to take issue with your description of Cornish folk as “delicate”!
Although much of Cornwall has now been colonised by retirees and second home owners from “up-Country”, and suffers an annual migration of lobster coloured emmets, the indigenous folk (mostly fishermen, sailors, farmers, miners, clayworkers etc.), or at least those from my family may deserve many unflattering epithets but “delicate” is not one that immediately springs to mind!
True, half a millennium has passed since a ragtag army led by a blacksmith fought its way from the Lizard to London and threatened to burn it down in protest at the proposal to include carrots and peas in the recipe for pasties and it is nearly 30 years since the friendlier (and more successful) Cornish march on Twickenham for the 1991 County Rugby Final but they are still a pretty resilient lot south of the Tamar.
Its snowing here now.
-5 by the car thermometre. (but its old and may not be reliable)
Landlord just popped by with a bucket of water for the toilet. (He is so thoughtful.)
I am having hot porridge for brekfast
I am hoping no idiot rings dad with a problem; Just because he can drive in snow does not mean he should
-5 by the car thermometre. (but its old and may not be reliable)
Landlord just popped by with a bucket of water for the toilet. (He is so thoughtful.)
I am having hot porridge for brekfast
I am hoping no idiot rings dad with a problem; Just because he can drive in snow does not mean he should
Ah, Nomad64, but only one person I met was delighted at the idea of snow. And most folk here whether they are native or no (and some are) shiver well before me.
But I am cold now.
3 sets of socks, 3 blankets, 3 jumpers (and hood well up) and 2 hot water bottles...but bear in mind I have no heating on at night and no insulation.
But I am cold now.
3 sets of socks, 3 blankets, 3 jumpers (and hood well up) and 2 hot water bottles...but bear in mind I have no heating on at night and no insulation.
We have fresh snow but we have had about a metre of it in the garden since early December, so it's not really anything like 'news' here. Unfortunately there is never a day when the schools are closed or the roads are shut, the ploughs are just too efficient (and the infrastructure too well implemented). I remember with fondness the snowy days of my childhood in Southern England and those amazing times when we were let off school to sledge and make snowmen and the streets seemed deserted. I miss that.
Regarding the 'odd' snow @Toddy I find that here at least, it sticks to the windows when the storm comes with high winds, so that maybe is what you are experiencing now? After living through 13 winters with 5 months of continual snow on the ground, you start to see the differences and nuances - dry snow (impossible to make snowmen with), sticky snow (collects in the fur under dogs bellys in huge balls), wind-blown snow (plasters the house), soft snow on top of hard snow (makes animal tracks almost impossible to read), crystalline snow (glitters like diamonds) - it is endless.
Regarding the 'odd' snow @Toddy I find that here at least, it sticks to the windows when the storm comes with high winds, so that maybe is what you are experiencing now? After living through 13 winters with 5 months of continual snow on the ground, you start to see the differences and nuances - dry snow (impossible to make snowmen with), sticky snow (collects in the fur under dogs bellys in huge balls), wind-blown snow (plasters the house), soft snow on top of hard snow (makes animal tracks almost impossible to read), crystalline snow (glitters like diamonds) - it is endless.
After years of living in an uninsulated ex-council house with a boiler that stopped working when the temperatures dropped below zero I am now loving my modern energy efficient house. I bought a fancy feather duvet when we moved in which has a thin summer layer and a thicker autumn layer and you pop them together to make a super thick winter duvet. So far, even at -9 outside, I havent used any of it apart from the thin summer layer. Gone are the days of having to take my clothes for the next day to bed with me and having to work up the courage to get out from under the duvet in the morning. I'm still wearing my Craghopper insulated trousers everywhere though. They can cut me out of them in the spring.
My complicated plan is now in full swing:
Log fire roaring (actually just had to turn it down, too hot!)
Second cup of fresh coffee with a toasted tea cake (the missus is baking later)
Watching the blizzard coming in from the East; but it's very dry powdery snow.
We're now cut off by road unless I need to take the risk (snow chains on the Defender down a 1 in 4 ).
Log fire roaring (actually just had to turn it down, too hot!)
Second cup of fresh coffee with a toasted tea cake (the missus is baking later)
Watching the blizzard coming in from the East; but it's very dry powdery snow.
We're now cut off by road unless I need to take the risk (snow chains on the Defender down a 1 in 4
).
Weird isn't it. The snow we normally get just piles up in a layer and blankets everything but this stuff settles to about a centimetre deep then a gust of wind blows the lot off somewhere else. Roofs and cars are staying clean but we've got some really deep drifts in sheltered corners.
If you're cold in your house....cook!
Get a joint in the slow cooker for tea or tomorrows sarnies, nice bit of background heat all day
Make some bread old school style, all that fannying about will keep you warm all morning lol.
Or a pie from stratch
some stew....made properly that you eat on the second day
Its all good stuff and keeps you warm several times
Failing that go outside and split some logs......it is physically impossible to be cold while either swinging an axe, digging a trench, or running a chainsaw
Get a joint in the slow cooker for tea or tomorrows sarnies, nice bit of background heat all day
Make some bread old school style, all that fannying about will keep you warm all morning lol.
Or a pie from stratch
some stew....made properly that you eat on the second day
Its all good stuff and keeps you warm several times
Failing that go outside and split some logs......it is physically impossible to be cold while either swinging an axe, digging a trench, or running a chainsaw
As part of the Cornish diaspora, I have to take issue with your description of Cornish folk as “delicate”!
Although much of Cornwall has now been colonised by retirees and second home owners from “up-Country”, and suffers an annual migration of lobster coloured emmets, the indigenous folk (mostly fishermen, sailors, farmers, miners, clayworkers etc.), or at least those from my family may deserve many unflattering epithets but “delicate” is not one that immediately springs to mind!
True, half a millennium has passed since a ragtag army led by a blacksmith fought its way from the Lizard to London and threatened to burn it down in protest at the proposal to include carrots and peas in the recipe for pasties and it is nearly 30 years since the friendlier (and more successful) Cornish march on Twickenham for the 1991 County Rugby Final but they are still a pretty resilient lot south of the Tamar.
I'm proud of my Cornish surname which is well represented on gravestones in the churchyards of StAgnes and Padstow. My great-grandfather was part of the diaspora and settled in Portsmouth where my grandfather, father and first son were born: thanks to Mr Hitler, I was born elsewhere. I wouldn't describe myself or any of my ancestors and descendants as "delicate"! It was the tough ones with drive and determination that left.
I've been putting off replacing some fencing at my house for about 18 months but suddenly my brain decides that it really wants to get it done now. Digging the post holes was easy enough once I got through the rock hard frozen layer that was a few inches deep, the sun came out long enough for me to pour the postcrete and allow it to go off before freezing, the fencing panels weren't too badly frozen together and if anything it made them easier to move around in lumps of 5 or 6. I might leave it until the spring next time though.
I'm now running low on some bird food supplies though. I didn't count on 17 blackbirds permanently camped out in the garden demanding non-stop suet pellets. I've gone through my apple store and offered them the soft ones but I think they're freezing solid too quickly.
I intend to go walking at the highest point near me (so not high) and wander around with pack on.
By strange coincidence, whilst I was out splitting logs to make sure we have enough over the next few days, the missus was making leek and potato soup for lunch and putting a bara brith in the oven!
However, calamity, dial 999 and call emergency services, it looks like I've miss-calculated and will run out of Italian Blend ground coffee!
I was doing a large sycamore removal (climbing the tree and rigging every bit down) in driving snow the other week...i had a sweat on and was going great guns till i noticed my ropeman's teeth chattering! Lol the other groundman was running a saw and the chipper and was as warm as me. They started rotating jobs as soon as one of em got cold and we got the tree down in decent time.
I did't actually expect the snow to come to Devon, weather forecasts around here are very much crying wolf. It has been properly cold the last few days and then this morning when a few flakes of snow were falling my housemates and i thought that maybe there might be something to it this time!
I headed off to work as usual and the drive was 'interesting' with cars sliding on the small amount of snow already down. I got to the workshop at about 9am and don't expect to leave until next week! Not a problem though as i always keep a week worth of food in the workshop and i have both a bed and a woodburner here. My housemates were both sent home from work by lunchtime, so the dog will be looked after and i can just get in with some work
Extra bonus to sub zero for a few days is that the mud has frozen and i can actually move around without slipping and churning the place up!
Happy days. Only downside is that rain is forecast for next week, so back to stinking mud again ☹
I headed off to work as usual and the drive was 'interesting' with cars sliding on the small amount of snow already down. I got to the workshop at about 9am and don't expect to leave until next week! Not a problem though as i always keep a week worth of food in the workshop and i have both a bed and a woodburner here. My housemates were both sent home from work by lunchtime, so the dog will be looked after and i can just get in with some work
Extra bonus to sub zero for a few days is that the mud has frozen and i can actually move around without slipping and churning the place up!
Happy days. Only downside is that rain is forecast for next week, so back to stinking mud again ☹
