The Snow Has Arrived

The snow has arrived managing to curtail all my weekend travel including parties and visits to friends. Friday I managed not to slip on all the snow and and ice , though vertical continuation was curtailed by a combination of marble floor and spilt coffee on Newcastle's Central station. This capped a bad end to a really good day which started to go bad when I caught a bus to Darligton Station which went for a one hour journey round a dodgy concil estate before dumping me back where I started. At the beginning of the journey I asked the driver if the bus went to the station , he replied in the affirmative. Hmmmm....

Darlington seems to be the only place where busses with the same numbers going in the same directions can have completely different destinations!!! This happens with the 11 and 14 in Darlington . They also have timetables with huge important chunks missing . This one opposite the station has no information between 0718 and 1301 !!


Anyway to on a more cheerful note here's some of the snow that kept us housebound this weekend soundtracked by the excellent "Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland" by Grandaddy , which you can get here:

White Out...

Worst winter for Eighteen years so they say. London brought to a halt. Lot's of snow here, and this is what it looked like here, soundtracked by the Yardbirds "White Summer" a version of which can be found here by Led Zeppelin , same guitarist different band. The video is bookended by pigeons hiding in a tree from a predatory, but cold, cat.

The Met Office is the best source for weather forecasts and can be found here.

Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape 2: Fire and Snow

The second installment of the holiday entry. We approached Oswaldkirk on a Friday night in the dark and fog , with ice on the roads , not helped by the fact that Sutton Bank on the A170 is a one in four hill (ie steep). The benefit of this is that during the day you can get some excellent views, though towards the end of the week anything but a main road was very dodgy for our renault Clio, seen below at the far end of our snowbound car park.

Once we were in Oswaldkirk we had an excellent meal in The Malt Shovel , and meant to get back there but weather and other commitments meant it will have to wait until our next holiday.

The short video below starts with the chimeniere (we have two in our garden and they are fantastic) outside the excellent Star Inn at Harome near Helmsley (A Michelin Star pub apparently , and the food is excellent). The place is run by Andrew Pern who's published a history of the restaurant cum cook book called "Black Pudding & Foie Gras" , available here.


The following section sees birds behind the Fox and Hounds in some village that I cant remember then a lot of snowscapes. The music is "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" by Bebop Deluxe from the album Axe Victim and can be downloaded here should you wish to purchase it!

Some Snow

First winter snow, this end of 2008 , it's cold but all gone by dinner time. Took a few photos and bit of video then realised that I'd lost my battery recharger .

Also found out how slippy it can be as well , not looking forward to the journey to Darlington tomorrow. Anyway here are the pictures soundtracked by the Excellent Teenage Fanclub doing "Christmas Eve" from the excellent "Cool Cool Christmas" album available here.