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Thursday, January 07, 2010

And we think we've got it bad!

After several days of snow, ice and freezing temperatures, the shine is beginning to wear thin. True, everywhere looks beautiful, even the garden which at this time of year looks barren and dead seems magical



Our glitter ball taking on the appearance of a christmas decoration and showing just how thickly the snow fell, and now obviously - a snowball!



My summer time bench hiding the need for a good lick of paint.



The buddleia managing to look skeletal, metallic and beautiful all at the same time.



and finally the chickens thought they would get in on the act.

However, compared to the winter of 1947 we ain't seen nothing yet.

Snow began to fall on 24th January and continued for a week leaving 10 foot snow drifts behind. Vast parts of the country were cut off and food was even dropped by the RAF to isolated towns and villages. Snow continued to fall everyday until March 16 and it remained so dark that between February 2nd and 22nd no sunshine was recorded AT ALL.

Electric and gas were in short supply and coal wasn't able to be dug or delivered. When the thaw finally came at the end of March it resulted in flood and storms!

Here are a few pictures from that winter









Black and white images courtesy TopFoto


Other than the photos being in black and white, it doesn't look that much different to looking outside my front window right now!

Hope everyone is keeping warm,
for now
Ruby xxx

5 comments :

Stefanie Valentine said...

Mr V's mum remembers that winter. The snow fell higher than the doors of the houses and they had to actually dig a tunnel from their house to be able to move anywhere. People complain that they haven't been able to go anywhere for a few days, they were stuck in their houses for 6 weeks! xx

Anna said...

Those photos, and the story of 1947 were amazing! Thanks for sharing them.

Linda said...

My goodness! That was big snow then. At least its not that bad, even though schools being off and husband working from home is driving me a bit crazy!

Caroline said...

my mum also remembers it - they all skated on a local field that had flooded then frozen over :)

AudKnits said...

Thanks for sharing the photos and story. Brrr! I'm curious about the 2nd photo. I wonder why all those people were shovelling? It seems as if it's just a snow drift, but there must have been something important underneath.