Mistletoe's Musings

Summer Solstice here today and for once the weather matched the season. Here is the view at Stonehenge 4.50 a.m. this morning.



Oh look, Matthew Upson is playing on Wednesday. That's one I've got right! Am I worth £5 million a year though? *ponders sending CV to FA*

No more mouses; dentists on Friday; Chile play today.

Yes that is a word; I know because I made it up. So, I have had my hair cut at the local salon and it was cheaper than my mobile hairdresser. £6! Unheard of in this day and age. I like it.

It was rsining when I went yesterday, and when I got up this morning it was absolutely pouring. I have put the heating on. Really, I don't know why I'm surprised: June is always like this these days.

Here is a famous painting by Sir Frederic Leighton callled Flaming June which shows no similarity to the weather today.

92 years old. She had such a pure voice I think.

So Gordon Brown has bitten the bullet and stepped down as Labour Party Leader. Looks like the last attempt to have the Party hang on to power now that Nick Clegg is keeping his dance card open. This whole political vacuum is very disturbing. No party was elected with an absolute majority so both main parties are dancing round the Lib-Dem flame when the only have 56 seats. Either way the voters will be dissatisfied and any standing we still had in the world will be reduced again.

I am taking solace in the cricket now that KP is safely home being a daddy. Come on England!

The weather here is disappointing. It looked lovely and sunny in Brighton at the racing this afternoon and it is grey and chilly here. I'm blaming the volcano. This can't just be cloudy skies day after day surely.

That programme was quite interesting. It revolved around a medieval skeleton found in a burial ground in Ipswich. Turned out he was African, probably brought back from the Crusades. He died of a nasty abscess on his spine. The research was fascinating and of course stable isotopes and DNA played a crucial part in the identification of where he was from. This being Dundee University and not the Jeffersonian they had to wait 3 weeks for the results. Also the webcam link was very wobbly and had a delay. Ha! The realities v. television. This week's warns of upsetting scenes because the body is a mummified child from the 19th century. Sounds upsetting indeed.

I'm watching the horse racing at the moment - such is the busy life of the retired - and they are racing in a blizzard at Lingfield (in the south east of England) immediately followed by bright sunshine and green grass from Punchestown in Ireland. We aren't having anything like either of those extremes here. It is what the Scots call dreech. There are still swathes of dirty snow all over the place but also grass.

I see one or two famous people have died like Erich Segal and one of the McGarrigle sisters. It's sad.

So soggy today. Of course this is the naff end of snowy weather; the dirty stuff takes ages to shift and is just a nuisance. Here's a link to local BBC site with pictures including some from where I live and nearby. I like the frost on the car picture. You never see that sort of pattern any more. Whatever happened to Jack Frost Eh? Eh? Winter Wonderland

Damn. I see Being Human started last night and I missed it. That happened in the first series as well. Still, having seen the Pre Raphaelite series that was crap I can't watch the actor playing the vampire without expecting to see him take off his trousers and roger Lizzie Siddall.

Thaw! Well as the subject line suggests more likely a temporary reprieve. Anyway, the icicles are gone, along with part of next door's guttering which has been brought down by snow sliding off their roof. This is what happens when you don't use proper slates; the ones they've got are too slippy and didn't hold the melting snow so it came off in one fell swoop. Mine is just melting. Hah!

Out to check the car which has been under its blanket of snow since a week past yesterday. Door opened first time and the snow swept easily off the windows. Tried the engine and it fired first time. What a good car!. It was 36F in the car, which is as warm as it has been for a fortnight. Managed to get it half unparked when it stuck so I did a bit of shovelling and then next door neighbour and downstairs son in law gave me a shove and I got out onto the estate road and thence to the actual road. This was single track largely due to the numbers of cars parked so that people can get to work.

So to Morrisons, which was relatively busy, for essentials like cigarettes dumpling mix and pizza. Shock horror, no dumpling mix to be had, but I didn't panic and bought self raising flour and vegetable suet to make my own. Pah! This will go well with the broth I have been defrosting since yesterday. Today will be some of the broth with sausage, onions, mushrooms and sliced potatoes baked in my casserole tin to form that miners' standby: panackelty (posh name Pan Haggerty), filling, warming and cheap.

Got back safely and was able to throw the car into its parking hole with a minimum of sliding and looking stupid. Jimmy (neighbour) took a broom to the remaining snow on the roof. There must have been a foot depth. It's a lot of years since we've had that much snow down without it melting. Now the wind has got up and a further 20cm are forecast for today and more especially tomorrow. With the wind, drifting is the major worry along with the lack of grit nationwide and the ice on the roads. The Army is on standby in Kent. Such wimps in the south of this country. Bah! Meanwhile, checking the BBC travel news pages for the local roads I see that vast areas of Cumbria are cut off. Doesn't count if you live in the north you see. One stretch that is closed to Kirkstone Pass is called The Struggle. I think that says it all really.

The sun is shining now and we have had no snow since yesterday morning so people have been able to clear drives and take dogs for walks. The wind means that the trees are now bare of the snow that has been stuck to them since New Year's Eve. It's always picturesque when the air is so still the snow lies where it falls. In that sense we have been lucky not to have had the wind because, with the amount of snow that has fallen, we would have been buried in 20 foot drifts like 1963.  Actually, you only have to go back to 1980 for drifts of that proportion up here when cars were buried behind the school and ice was inches thick on the roads. I was trapped in Stanley for two weeks that year thanks to a Council workers strike leaving the roads untreated. Good times.

Also this morning I watched The Searchers, the best western ever made in my opinion. My favourite scenes all involve Ward Bond. John Ford made that film beautifully from the opening shot through the open door of the homestead to the closing one that bookends it with Wayne standing in the frame and then turning and walking away as the door closes. Just perfect and the song at the start always makes me cry. Lah!

You know you've had enough when there are icicles at least three feet long on the house down the road and you can't be bothered to get all wrapped up and force your boots on to go take a photo. So instead here's a picture from Nasa that people were so eager to see they crashed the website. It shows all the country blanketed in snow.
Locally we got down to -10, but Scotland managed -21.7 which is just slightly above the South Pole temperatures. I knocked some of the icicles off the back window with the broom handle but I haven't done the front yet. If they get to three feet I may have to.

Sunderland's game tomorrow is off, no doubt thanks to the environs of the stadium. If I come across anything else pictorial from the area I will post. My heating has been on all day yesterday and today. Such bitter weather is unprecedented for such a long period. We have had snow on the ground since December 17th.

I'll put some pics up later when I get them off my camera. I woke up and it was broad daylight. Actually it was 1.24 am and it was snowing so heavily the sky was white; hence the daylight effect. So I stayed up for a while, had a cup of coffee and watched the Australians pulling the irons out of the fire against Pakistan to win. Pah!

Most of the country is under at least 6 inches of snow now. We've got about 10 inches as the hailstones rattle down again. That's what happened on the day before New Year's Eve. I've not seen unrelenting weather like this since 1981-2 and rumour has it we have another two weeks of it. This takes me back to 1963 when there were 11 weeks of sub-zero temperatures. I can remember that. I lost a welly in the field opposite our house when it got pulled off in the depth of snow.

It's quite ironic watching the cricket in South Africa now when the weather there is in the 40sC and we are in the 20sF.

Back later if I don't lose my connection like I did yesterday.

Well here we are again. Another inch here overnight and they are now suggesting this could be the coldest spell it has been in the UK for 100 years. My neighbour's son in law has cleared the path for a third time and I have been able to get the rubbish into the bins at last. However, Durham County Council has suspended refuse collection for the forseeable future because the back streets are too dangerous.

In other parts of the country supermarkets are reporting panic buying of cat litter up 55%, which is apparently serviceable as a de-icer for paths. People are also buying wellingtons, takeaway foods and puddings at Asda as well as antifreeze products fire logs and thermal underwear. Sainsbury's are reporting sales up on store cupboard items and vacuum flasks as well as porridge. Morrisons say table and cooking salt sales are up 400% on last year.

There's plenty on the BBC sites to see. Here's Scotland where temps have been -15C.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8440601.stm

Hmmm LJ seems to be acting itself so that may not be a link. Icing in the aether probably.

Frosty wind did indeed make moan.

I am an excellent driver. Rang parents this morning and we arranged an exchange of washing, calendars and food at high noon at the Park and Ride car park in Durham. So out with the trusty broom to clear the snow - 3 days worth - off the car. The snow at the side of the car was up to the top of my boots;  that's 10 inches. A paltry 8 inches on the car itself. Back to incidentally first foot for myself to pick up the parcels and out to attempt to get the 50 yards to the road. Heh heh. Man along the road in VW yesterday? 20 minutes. Sara in Peugeot 206? 90 seconds. I rule.

The snow had already started to fall, but I was out now, so away I went. Roads OK until Iveston where the frosty wind came into play blowing the snow off the fields to make a hazardous 150 yards. Negotiated that safely and then a very picturesque drive to Durham in flurries. Thought: this will be bonny driving back. Got into car park, which hadn't been cleared, with 20 minutes to spare. Exchange safely made I headed back.

Needless to say, things had worsened at Iveston where the road was white and the negotiating lasted for 3/4 of a mile. Decided I might as well do Morrisons while I was out so did a bit of shopping and then tippy-toed down the 3 hills home. I only got stuck when I was trying to park and ended up at a 90 degree angle across the road unable to get the momentum to back in. A car arrived trying to get out of the cul de sac, but I did not panic. I merely changed my mind, drove forward, backed up and let him out before I drove into the parking bay a bit further on and parked in the deep snow. I rule twice!!!

It is now snowing a blizzard AND it is FA cup 3rd round day. The York City bus is apparently stuck on the M62 trying to get to Stoke. Our non-league opponents, Barrow, sensibly travelled yesterday and only had to get from Middlesbrough cos they never would have made it today. I'm just pleased I haven't got a ticket because I wouldn't like to get back here at tea time.