General Chat

Afternoon all
A few light snow showers but its not lasting here although in other parts they have quite a bit!

Glad everyone is well and keeping warm.
Joan, hope you still have water and not too much snow. I saw on the news there are plenty of schools shut in the NE.

Im hoping to go off for a trip with my pal tomorrow to town. i have several boxes and 2 large bags to get rid of to the charity shops but a friends birthday present to post too. So hoping it isn't white when i wake up in the morning!

Strange but the wind has gone and its flat calm here and that means it doesn't feel as cold so haven't had to put the heating on yet.

Well coffee time for me now and a snack.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

We had a very hard frost but only on the roof tops and anything high off the ground. roads and paths appear to be ice free. But it is very dark and very cold 1 degree here at the moment, no wind though. I am staying in still a lot of jobs to get done after being away for three weeks.

I am sure that it takes a lot of patience to play schools so long at a time Linda, so well done for endurance. Are you able to introduce any learning opportunities into the play aspect?

Well, it isn’t getting any better here. It is still so cold with hard packed ice everywhere and all the schools are still closed
It did thaw slightly just before lunch time yesterday, so OH managed to dig the snow out of the tyre tracks, so we were able to get the car out of the garage. We only had a couple of hundred yards of icy estate road before we were on a bus route which had been gritted, so the roads were fine after that. Going down my daughters track was difficult, but we managed it, so I could spend the afternoon playing with Esme
She is off school again today, so we will go again this afternoon . OH isn’t allowed to play schools, much to his relief. Yesterday he mended one of their kitchen blinds which has been broken for ages. I am sure that he will find something else to do today.

We are getting off very lightly compared to you others - so far, at least.

It's very frosty, with blue sky and sunshine. The roads and pavements are dry, so not slippery, thank goodness.
The hills are white, but no snow down here at sea-level.
We had a handful of half-hearted flakes of snow this morning, but they didn't lie.

I had homemade leek and potato soup for lunch Florence

It was minus five here overnight and all the slush is frozen solid now, it is going to be even colder tonight. I was supposed to be going for a hygienist appointment tomorrow back where we used to live, but I have cancelled it as it is just to dangerous to drive all that way.

The local schools are all still closed, so Esme if off again. She wants me to go and play, but I don’t think that the car will come out if the garage. There is quite a slope down to the garage and yesterday when OH was trying to back it out, it was skidding in the slush. The tyre tracks from yesterday are now solid ice. He went out to try and clear it, but he couldn’t. It is due to be even colder tonight, it isn’t due to get above zero until the weekend. It was a good job that I planned the weeks menus and went to the supermarket yesterday as I don’t normally do that until Tuesday.

Afternoon all
Gosh it really is freezing today and blowing a gale with hail and sleet thrown in for good measure.

Yes of course, it was bin day too grrrr. Daughter put them out and the neighbours as he was away to work and forgot but i had to get them back in all 4 wheelie bins as daughter suddenly decided to go to town!!

Anyway all safely back in their places once again.

off to make lentil & veggie soup plus a salmon on croute with cauliflower cheese bake for tea later. Def a day for hot food and soup.

Hope everyone looking in is ok and keeping warm and safe.

Florence in the hebrides

I need to have a declutter in my smalls drawers Florence, I have too much stuff which I never use.
OH came with me this afternoon and we went to the superbfirst, then to p,ah with Esme. Once we had gone a couple of hundred yards, we were onto a bus route and that had been gritted, so was fine. The Morrisons car park was awful with very deep slushy snow, but what was worse was that they had made no attempt at all to clear the paths in front of the store. At least we are reasonably fit, but I saw an older lady with a stick who was in the disabled parking right next to the store struggling to walk on the paths which hadn’t been cleared. Also they hadn’t collected any trolleys to put at the entrance as they normally do, so having trudged through the deep slushy snow, we had to go back again to find a trolley in the car park.

Getting down my daughter’s drive was difficult, they share a private track with two other houses. It is full of potholes which are difficult to miss at the best of times, but today being covered in snow was even worse. Still, we made it and I occupied Esme for an hour while her mum had an online meeting.

Morning all
ArgyllGran, I went online and read about the earthquake in your area. It must feel quite frightening really even if it was only a small one!. Don't think we have ever had one up here that i can remember.

Woke up to see it snowing!! However although it was coming down quite thick to begin with, the rain has now come and its all melted. When i opened the from t door though, the cold air was just Baltic, soooo cold and its very very windy as well.

I am going to make a start on ging through my drawers this week and decluttering but instead of taking stuff out, sorting and then putting it all back.....some has to go!


Hope everyone is keeping warm today and Joan hope you still have water!

Florence in the hebrides

That is interesting AG. We had one when we were on the beach in Zante in September, it was strange.

We still have a lot of snow, but it is becoming very slushy. Most of the local schools are closed, but Esme’s school had a teacher training day today, so she wouldn’t have been in anyway. Some of the bus services in the area have been cancelled because the estate roads are just too bad to drive on. I was planning to go and play with Esme this afternoon, but I will see what my daughter says about the roads. They drove Eve to her school this morning and Esme has a hospital appointment this morning, so they will have been out and about

We've just had an earthquake , about an hour ago - a long loud rumble with slight vibration.

Apparently 2.9 magnitude.
Reports of it over quite a wide area around Oban/Fort William and district .

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/quake-info/10097931/quake-felt-Jan-5-2025-Near-Oban-Scotland-United-Kingdom.html#reportsSection

Argyll Gran.
Living in a different house but same area our 3rd baby was born Christmas Eve 1983, when he was just 3 weeks old we had a power cut during a snow storm & being rural we were without power for 3 days !
This meant we couldn't get any water to the house due to the pump not being able to work & we also had to resort to gathering snow (of which there was a LOT) to make hot drinks, cook, & make up the babys bottles !

It's amazing how much snow is needed to do any of those tasks , we had to use water from the garden fish pond for the toilet cistern !

Joan.

Afternoon all
No snow here but bitterly cold in the biting wind.

Joan, so glad you have the water back on. If you have a spare kettle, i would fill that up or some jugs just in case.

Its actually raining now but just showery rather than a down pour.

I'm off to my polytunnel to sort out some pots that need repotting. Its actually quite warm in there!

Take care all and keep warm.

Oh just realised the thread has made it to page 200 yay! :-D :-D

Florence in the hebrides

Thank goodness you've got water again, Joan!

I remember the winter of 1981. Lots of snow, and very cold. The house where we were living at that time had a private supply, which was frozen for several days.
We thawed panfuls of snow for drinking/cooking water .
Luckily the house was at the edge of a sea loch, so we carried buckets of sea water to flush the toilet.

I can't remember how we washed ourselves. It would have taken a lot of melted snow - perhaps we just didn't wash much!

Freezing here today, but snow only on the hilltops. Blue sky and sunshine earlier, but now starting to cloud over. . Not a breath of wind.

Hello Linda.
Daughter has been here for an hour thawing out where we thought the problem might be ( a pressure pump) that increases the pressure on our water supply, though it is lagged & has extra covering over it, it sometimes does freeze, but hasn't done so for a long time !

The water is now running as normal thank goodness, I would be lost without daughters help for so many things.

Joan.

Oh dear Joan, having no water is not good. Given the low temperatures, your supply may not thaw for a while. Can your daughter get up the drive to take you to her house?
The snow is still coming down here, it hasn’t stopped at all

We've had snow here for days, it is very cold.
The freezing temperature must have been low here last night as I am without wather this morning, nothing coming through the kitchen or bathroom taps or toilet cistern !!

Joan.

We have lots of snow this morning, so it is a good job that I am not going out

Brr, it is so cold, but no snow yet. I hope everyone is keeping warm

That is the worst part of winter sun. We are crying out for a glimpse of sun then when it comes it makes it hard to walk and drive into it as it is so low.
It is very bright here nearvWorkington and the goldfinches are loving it.

A very heavy frost last night with much still on the ground. But OH! The bright sunlight. My eyes still hurt from the short walk back from the village. Luckily no major roads to cross as I couldn’t see where I was going.