More of the same

Today’s guest picture is another from Dropscone’s Irish holiday.  As well as an interesting wall, he found an interesting house.

After more snow overnight, the first task of the day was to clear the path along our drive and go to the shops for some milk.  The path was cleared but the milk hadn’t got through to the shop so we just have to hope that there will be some there tomorrow.

The path clearing had the unhappy effect of bringing on the snow again and it then snowed on and off for the rest of the day, leaving us with nine inches by the evening.

As there was a brisk wind blowing and the snow is light and fluffy, it was sometimes hard to tell whether we were seeing snow falling or just blowing past the window.  Either way, it wasn’t a good day for watching the birds as the kitchen window was often covered with snowflakes.

Dropscone and Sandy braved the snow to come for coffee and as Dropscone brought some of his excellent treacle scones with him, we were all greatly cheered up.

After coffee, I cleared the path again and spotted a robin on the feeder…

…before making some soup for lunch.

There was a promise of occasional sunny spells in the afternoon so I was mentally prepared for a walk after lunch and when things lightened up, I put on my coat and shot out.

I sneaked across the unfinished dam bridge and saw that the dam itself was pretty well snowed up.

I had to run the gauntlet of some dangerous looking icicles on a gutter in Caroline Street…

…but after I passed, a resident was doing his best to knock them off with some well aimed snowballs.

There has not been a lot of driving about lately and you can see why.

Although the main roads are reasonably clear, the advice is not to drive unless it is absolutely necessary.  Because we get so little snow, it is hard to be prepared for it when it comes and also unreasonably expensive to get all the gear suitable for snow and ice which you might then use for perhaps only three days over two years.

Fifty years ago, lots of people, including us,  had chains for their car tyres because it snowed a lot more and cars were trickier to drive but I doubt if anyone still has them now.  Many of the problems on our roads come from the fact that so many businesses operate on a ‘just in time’ basis and in effect have mobile storage depots on motorways.  It only takes one sliding articulated lorry to block a road. Mind you, optimistic and inexperienced car drivers don’t help either.

It was reasonably clear when I started my walk….

…but by the time that I had crossed the bridge, far from the sun coming out, it had started to snow again.

I plodded on, making heavy weather of the deep snow but not tempted to to take a rest on this bench.

When I needed a breather, there was always something to look at.

It was a lot easier when I had some car tracks to walk in along the Lodge walks.

When the snow stopped and the tops of the hills came into view, I was interested to see that the wind was so strong  that it looked as though the higher up the hill you went, the less snow there was.  I could see a hint of green on the summit of Timpen.

The trees were very neatly outlined.

The gas canisters were the only spot of colour on my walk but there were many good patterns.

There is a lot of ice on the edges of the river but it doesn’t look as though it will be anywhere near cold enough for the whole river to ice up.

I certainly hope so.

I crossed the Duchess Bridge which looked quite handsome in the snow…

…and this was more than could be said of the view from the middle of the bridge as it had started snowing heavily again as soon as I stepped onto it.

As it was mostly buried under the snow, there had not been much in the way of lichens or moss to look at on my walk but the wall at the Scholars’ Field had small piece of iced moss on display.

Once again, I was interested to see how different the moss looks from a distance and in close up.

When I got home, I cleared the snow from on top of and around our car which is parked up the road a bit during the bridge repair works.  As a kind passer by noted, this may have been a bit of a Sisyphean task and it started snowing again not long after I had finished.  I also cleared the path along our drive and that was soon covered up again.

With a forecast of more snow showers tomorrow, a continual 25 mile per hour wind and the temperature at or about freezing all day,  I may have a busy drive clearing day in front of me.  Still, it keeps me occupied which must be a good thing.  And on the plus side, the snow is the easiest shovelling snow that I can ever remember meeting.

As the alert reader will have realised, we didn’t go to Edinburgh to see Matilda today, even though it was a Thursday.   Honestly, as superior newspaper columnists tend to ask on these occasions, what is wrong with us?  Two flakes of snow and the whole country shuts down.  Get a grip Britain!  But we are old and cautious these days.

The individual flying bird was not easily found in the whirling snow and poor light and strong winds make them unwilling to hover if they can avoid it so an ensemble piece will have to do.