Friday, 3 December 2010

A British winter!

My street
Much of Britain is under a blanket of snow at the moment! Where I live we have had 18 inches of snow - this is a lot for us, especially as early as November. As Britons we really are not geared up for dealing with these conditions. As this is a relatively unusual situation for us the local councils can't justify buying expensive machinery to shift the snow and there is no compulsion (or habit) for people to fit winter snow tyres to their cars - the result is that side roads remain impassable and cars that do venture out slip and slide around or get stuck completely!
 
icicle hanging from the eaves!
My sons' have been off school for a week, though they did go back today;  local shops have run out of food because they can't receive deliveries; all bus services in my area have been cancelled completely and life has generally ground to a halt! My local express supermarket had a queue of at least 30 people trying to buy milk that had just been delivered but there has been no bread for 3 days!
 
My car!
However, we are a family of troopers! Both my husband and I have walked to work (6 miles for him, 3 miles for me) and my youngest son has continued to do his newspaper delivery round. Many other people have done the same thing - nothing seems to dampen the British spirit for long! I have never seen so many people walking around, clearing snow, shopping locally and just stopping for a chat. It's been quite a nice atmosphere - difficult situations do seem to bring out the best in people.
 
my hanging basket!
However, I've had enough of the snow now - I'd quite like it to disappear though with temperatures below zero it's not likely to happen soon! All my martial arts classes were cancelled this week and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. I have done some training at home but it's not the same as going to class.
 
My back garden
I hope you've enjoyed my photos - no doubt you'll be thinking that this is nothing compared to what you have to endure every winter and I'm sure you'll be right! Have you had snow yet this winter? How do you cope with it where you are?
 
 
 
 
 

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10 comments:

Felicia said...

Wow - no school or karate for a week would be enough to drive me batty! Good luck with that!

I live in a somewhat snowy area of NY - but what we get is quite mild compared to some sections of the state (namely Rochester and Buffalo in the west and snow-belt Syracuse near the center of the state), but even a few inches when you aren't used to it is a lot. It's all relative, I guess...

Stay safe - and and I hope your local shoppe gets some bread soon :-)

. said...

Crikey Sue, that's a lot of snow! You're over the Pennines from me I think - we've not been hit any where near as hard this side (except maybe Cumbria). The most we've had is a light spattering. It's snowing now, the heaviest we've had as yet, but even that doesn't look like it will be at it long. Half of me is completely jealous of all the "Winter wonderland-y" photos I keep seeing people post online.... the other half of me is thrilled I can still get to the shops and don't have to drive through a blizzard!

Bummer about the cancelled classes. I get terribly angsty if I miss too many dojo sessions. Hope its back up and running soon.

xMx

Etali said...

You're hit by snow too?

We're having a similar problem up here. Technically, the shops can get some stock in because the main roads are gritted, but people are panic buying so they're still running out.

I see people trying to get their cars out (the side streets aren't gritted), and either getting stuck (my husband and I have pushed several people's cars out of danger - it seems most people don't have the knack for pushing cars!), or sliding off the road, panicking, and abandoning their cars.

When does your Karate break for Christmas? I know I hate missing out on so much training time when there's a hiatus coming up. You must be going crazy!

Michele said...

Hi Sue. Great photos!

No snow for us yet. In my area of PA, the moment the weather channel mentions the possibility of snow flurries, the supermarkets are busy selling bread and milk. In Feb 2010, we had several days of snow. We had to hire a front end loader to remove the snow from our small parking lot.

Take care.

John W. Zimmer said...

Hi Sue,

Cool pictures - I remember my dad used to change tire sets to the snow tires every year in New York. I guess things are farther here.

I had a paper route and know how motivated you are are to be tromping around in the snow! :)

By the way the last winder I saw snow was in 1970... since we moved to San Diego and I stayed here - the most I've seen is a couple of days of frost!

Hang in there - beautiful pictures.

Sue C said...

Felicia, being stuck at home for 3 days was driving me batty, thats why I decided to walk to work on Friday (they'd told me to stay at home but I couldn't stand it!)It was very quite when I got there though. However, I managed to get some bread when I was out!

Marie, the snow seems very localised. Just got back from my mum's in the midlands and all there snow is gone!

Etali, the local council here have been a complete joke in trying to clear the roads. We were so fed up with not being able to get our car out of the street on Saturday that we set to clearing the road ourselves. We were soon joined by several neighbours and between us cleared about 100 metres. It was enough to enable us to get the car on the main road! Our karate classes will only shut down for Christmas week - our sensei doesn't believe in holidays!

Michele, I remember you blogging about your snow troubles in February - looks like it's my turn now!

John, We're considering getting snow chains if this continues!

Ariel said...

Wow, that's a lot of snow! Hope it gets more manageable so that you can get started back with class soon!

We rarely get snow here. We get snow flurries where nothing sticks, or if we're lucky, a couple inches once or twice a year. Of course, being in the south, if we get even the threat of a snowflake, then all the schools start closing and everyone starts going into winter survival mode at the grocery stores!

Sue C said...

Hi Ariel, all martial arts classes resumed again this week, though I did walk to class on Monday. The roads are a lot clearer now but the pavements are impassable because everyones piled the snow from the road onto the pavements! Life is slowly getting back to normal and temperatures are due to rise again this weekend so hopefully it will all melt away.

Ninjutsu Techniques said...

Great photos, but I know exactly what that is like living in Michigan. There's a saying that "Michigan summers are three months of bad sledding." Kind of true.

Sue C said...

Hi Ninja, I don't think I could cope with this weather most of the year - 2 weeks is enough for me!

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