OneGuyFromBarlick

The council put a lot of work in yesterday salting the pavements in the Town Centre. Well done lads! Odd flakes of snow falling all night but no covering. I reckon it's about -6C at the moment but the forecast says that it will get colder till about 10:00 and we'll probably get to about -10C. The glass has fallen to about 29.2" and we can expect the wind to rise from the East. Funnily enough, the forecasters say that the worst of the snow will be to the south and there's a chance that we'll miss the worst, I certainly hope so! One thing is certain, I feel sorry for anyone who has to be out and about at work today, sensible thing to do is stay at home if you can and fire the stove up!

Snow is falling nice and steadily here in Hoylake, somewhat earlier than the forecasts were predicting but hey it's hardly an exact science this weather forecasting lark. There's a right wind too. I shall as I mentioned yesterday, sit and watch it all day and once we have a decent covering we'll toddle off to the beach for a good stomp followed by a soothing pint in the local's snug in front of the log fire. A casserole's in the oven and a vat of soup's on the hob.

Must keep an eye on things as we're up to Barlick tomorrow to take mother out for lunch as it's her birthday today - I reckon we'll be OK. A I will be stocking up at the grocers in Barlick on curry pastes etc it's good to know the pavements are being treated well.

Richard Broughton

No signs of snow yet and the going underfoot is good with care. However, the wind is getting up and it's bitter if you're out in it.

In our bit of Somerset it snowed late in the night and we had two inches lying this morning but I think we're on the edge and other parts of Somerset and South Wales have it worse. Schools are closing (except our village school - a hardier rural lot!) and we've had to cancel a meeting with Dad's carers in town. They can't get to it so it gives us the excuse not to! The builder can't come to finish his work because a lorry has jack-knifed in his village and he can't get out. The plumber can't get his van out of the drive because it's sliding the wrong way.

No heavy snow here but the forecasters said last night it would reach us about 2pm - we shall see.
2.35pm and it has just begun to snow very finely.

Continuous light snow over here in Nelson this evening and its blowing about now. Very cold, raw in that wind too.

We took the bird netting off our Peach Tree today.
There seemed little point having it there after a flock of beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets broke through somehow and gorged themselves. They were so full, they could barely clear the fence when they took off.
We don't mind. We had our fill. And, they are the most beautiful birds...

The Great Barlick Blizzard amounted to an inch of fine snow over 12 hours. Main problem was the biting wind! Glass has fallen further to 29". We have been lucky again!

We didn't get any more snow than we had had all week in Langdale

Oh dear some of you sound as if you are having problems just trying to have a normal day. Victoria still has 24 bushfires burning. An 80yr old man has died while trying to escape by car from one of the bushfires. 9 properties destroyed. No rain in sight but temps should be cooler over the next few days, in some parts of Vic and NSW temps will be down by 20C. Adelaide has a perfect 25C tomorrow.

Cazza, its not that bad around her. Cheshire and into Wales have it worse as does East Anglia. Still panic buying in the shops around here though. Sainsbury's had no bread and little fruit and veg on Thursday. Nolic

It is a bit like that here, Nolic.
Our supermarket opens 0730am. On really hot days, all the sensible people and school mums have been and gone by 09 30am.
You could shoot a cannon up the supermarket aisles and chances are you would not hit a soul after that. ( I have known days where the temperature hits high 30s C by 9am and most folk simply don't go out.)
So the fresh bread tends to sit there and not be bought..until it is 'on sale' by school pick up time.

We pulled into the car park today just before 10 am and I commented that I had never seen it so deserted...I actually parked the car and felt so uncomfortable being the only car there that I wondered if there had been a hold-up or something. ( Febby laughed). But it was really strange. Supermarket was deserted and at 10 am on a Saturday morning only had ONE checkout operator on. (usually 8 or more)

Marilyn wrote:I have known days where the temperature hits high 30s C by 9am and most folk simply don't go out.

That made me think about my walk to the village shop this morning. When we returned I mentioned to Mrs Tiz how different it is these days - in the past there would have been kids playing out at the first sign of snow and they wouldn't be bothered by the cold. Now we don't see any out at all when it's cold ... and rarely any even when it's warm and dry!

I have just come back from a couple of days stay in Durham (birthday present). I parked the car up on Thursday when we arrived and have not driven it since we had to come home. Durham is a nice compact city so all points available on foot. There was about 4" to 6" of snow overnight last night and it took me about 10 minutes to get the car properly cleared for the 90 odd mile journey home. All the roads were passable and once on the A1 it was pretty good all the way down. The A1 Southbound was on a single lane until we reached Scotch Corner as the plough and gritter had only been down once. Some idiots still driving at 70-80mph in the snow bound outside lane though, usually 4x4 drivers some also who seem not to have any lights or can't be bothered to use them, mayhem for everyone else who are driving according to the conditions. Outside temperature round -2º and up to +1 and 2º by the time we came off the A1 for Ripon.

One of the fires here is 180 kilometres long.
Can you imagine it?!

Maz, that's a big fire. No bushfires here!



This about as bad as it's got so far. The back street yesterday. Still a cracking frost, probably -7C+, glass is rock steady on 29" so no change in prospect. Forecasters say it will continue like this till at least Thursday next week.

Reading Ian's story about his Durham Trip reminded me of a day when I was one of the idiots in the fast lane overtaking everyone. We'd had a heavy fall opf snow, here's King Street when I got back from my trip, it was worse when I set off...



It was winter 1982 and at that time I was paying serious attention to Mary Hunter who was divorced and lived in Addingham. Her parents were in Oz and she had arranged to spend Xmas with them. We arranged that I should drive her down to Heathrow in her company car, a Vauxhall Cavalier estate. As we got near the day I recognised there was a good chance of snow and urged her to come over to Barlick the night before but time management was never Mary's strongpoint and she had a lot of last minute work to do before she set off. I told her to get to Barlick at about 6am as it was already snowing and I knew we needed plenty of leeway in our timing.
The morning of the appointed day dawned and when I got up we had about a foot of snow in a straight fall. I made the flasks of coffee and the bacon butties and sat there waiting for Mary. What I didn't know was that the snow had blown on Chelker and drifted during the night and Mary had failed to get over the hill. She had got a friend out with a tractor to tow her over the summit but the consequence was that it was well after 09:00 when she finally arrived at King Street. My time cushion had gone, I think the flight left at about 15:00 and it was almost 10:00 when we got away from Barlick.
Even though I was probably at the height of my driving skills then and well-used to driving against the clock, I suspected that we were faced with mission impossible. I didn't tell Mary this, I reassured her that we could make it on time and we set off down the road. The snow was heavy right down the country and that was when I became one of Ian's idiots. I settled down to making the best time I could, constantly reassuring Mary (though I'm sure she knew as well as I did that it was virtually impossible.) and she sat there knitting while I did my best. Fast lane all the way!
Eventually we got to the turn off to Heathrow off the motorway and I said to Mary "I'll tell the truth now. I think we can do it." I got her into the check-out queue with 20 minutes to spare, full of bacon butties and wearing clean knickers! Another driving job completed, problem solved, all I had top do was drive back to Barlick.
The journey back was, if anything worse than going down but I was under no pressure, took my time and eventually arrived back at King street 12 hours later at about 22:00 hours.
This is where the funny bit starts! My Dad always said that there was a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots and my God, was he right. I pulled onto the car park in Brook Street, reversed into the parking place behind my house and as I depressed the clutch after reversing in the clutch cable snapped! It must have been hanging on by a couple of wires for days! Never mind, I was home!
There was a sequel. Mary had arranged with her friends Thelma and David who ran the chip shop on Rainhall Road for them to use her car while she was away and at about 10:00 the next morning they turned up all bright-eyed and bushy tailed to collect their free transport. I broke the news to them that they weren't going anywhere until the car had a new clutch cable and left them to it. Funny thing is they weren't happy and apart from making it quite clear that they thought I was to blame, I think they expected me to get it fixed for them but I suspect common sense prevailed before they could voice this. By about 14:00 the car had gone and I was left reflecting that it was a funny old world!

Back to this morning. Just walked round Valley Gardens with Jack and though it is bitter cold and frozen underfoot, nowhere near as treacherous as it would have been if it had thawed and refrozen. The pavements where the council salted are clear and dry. What a good job they did! Now for a bit of reading......

Another enjoyable story and great pics, thanks Stanley. 34C for us tomorrow.

We're temporarily having a respite from the very cold temperatures because it is snowing and will do all day. We've had about 4" since last night and it's still snowing lightly. The forecasters tell us that the very low temperatures come back with a bang tomorrow and continue all week. Glass has fallen almost to 28.8" so that fits in with the snow. Expect the wind to get up a bit as well. It will be wintry at Lower Burnt Hill!

Same here Stanley

It's just a bit wintry Stanley. I'd say there is about 8 inches in sheltered bits and drifts of a couple of feet at least in places. Still snowing. The hens like to come into the barn so I shuffled a track through the snow for them but only a couple had the sense to follow me down the path, the rest wandered off till they were floundering around in drifts and I had to rescue them. The ducks seem to swim through the deep snow! The ponies get to stay indoors today.

If we could trade places, just for a few days, Wendy...
I can offer you SUN, WARMTH, BLUE SKIES, and at the very most the care of one brainless but very loveable Labrador ( on Sundays only)
Freezer well stocked, pantry likewise, large wine store, and garden in full bloom, complete with fruit trees. Large, shady verandah overlooking lush green lawn. Handy double glass doors provide direct connection fron shady verandah to wine store.

I ache to spend a few days freezing my nose off, rescuing brainless chooks !

P.S. No inground pool ( regrettably), but large bath will fulfill all aquatic needs...
( do you have aquatic needs?....)

Sorry Maz, I have no aquatic needs whatsoever.....though I suppose I would develop them quickly if I was there in the heat. I don't thrive in sunshine either, so I'm afraid I am going to turn your kind offer down. The spare room is always ready for guests, so if you want to pop over later today feel free!

Oh . OK.
That 's cool.....