Winter is here and has started off strong.

Lots of snow here today. Russell and I just dashed out to try and put our candy cane lights in the ground before the clay soil freezes solid.

Only very light snow in Bromsgrove when we left the house, but going up the M5 by Birmingham it was really heavy and treacherous so we came home.

Yeah, it’s really heavy and a thick layer. We’ve built a large snowman, been sledding (sledging?) and had a snowball fight.

That looks great! Just wind for us so far, resulting in the partial renewal of my shed doors

Oof. We’ve had some of the neighbour’s tree come down in the garden. We seem mostly intact, but I did hear a few things falling over in the road overnight.

Absolute carnage here. Snow everywhere and at around 11:30pm last night, the wind blew the metal surround off a wingmirror on the Cube. Devastation.

The usual fence panels here. Not mine though. I maintain my stuff.

Flex

I was in the house on my own last night, heard a noise and went downstairs, and immediately heard it again. Some fucker banging on the patio doors, unmistakeable. I properly shat myself. Ran out into the back garden with half a mind on where the pile of bricks was in case I needed a weapon then saw the table on its side bouncing off the window in the wind.

There was sideways snow when Helen was walking the dog at 6 but none stuck.

What has stuck however is the power cut which started at 2am. Currently expected back on by 1730 but there are loads in the area and all slipping (presumably because there are loads in the area).

It are a mite chilly in the house, but that's ok because we're heading to Barry to see my mum and sister.

I had a similar reaction to a flappy letterbox!

Reading the last few posts of this thread:

Hate it all.

The road surfaces are frozen over here. The couple of vehicles that I’ve heard pass today sound like a load of fireworks going off as the snow and ice cracks beneath.

Unexpected

It has not snowed

Not warm on the pleasure peninsula.

Frozen model boating lake!

I could do with that fire today

Always welcome, you know where it is.

Hmmmm

Meanwhile, less than 10 miles away, it's raining

More bloody snow. I moved to the seaside to avoid this.

Looking at school closures: There should be no reason snow days exist now that there's months of proof that teaching over Zoom is a thing.

Kids today don't understand the sense of anticipation and disappointment involved with waiting to hear your school read out on the local radio.

So. Fucking. Cold.

I'm not normally one for finding cold painful but the way autumn dragged on pretending it was summer and then KABLAM! has really got to me.

Still, 11C again in a few days. Nothing wrong going on at all.

And just like that, winter is gone.

Must have been an Act of True Love happen.

What you do in home office is your business, bud

Wrong year and it's not about snow (although it was caused by a winter storm, so )

I took a walk along the river yesterday evening and noticed that it was much calmer than it had been recently, and the thought breifly crossed my mind of having my January Wild Swim this weekend.

I happend to be be in the same place this morning and took a quick lap around the town centre whilst waiting for my wife to finish in the opticians.

The River looked like this:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5w9zvPCrKKgbxAQQ8

and the path looked like this:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A87Qox4dqxSK1xJT6

As I said, it was totally clear the night before, that's just the rain that fell over night!

Snowy day today

I have a little bit

No snurrr here but a heavy frost and it's *cold* - the conservatory radiator is triggering frost protection during daylight which is unusual since I installed all the fancy controllers a few years ago.

Meols frozen over, yesterday.

Apparently there *was* snurr, looks like it'd give by the time I looked out of a window.

And on that day, Satan will be skating to work

Perfect.

For the second day running I find myself getting an uber home from the station because my bike was locked in a frozen shed.

I tried WD40 on the padlock last night and this morning. No dice. Boiling water hasn't helped either.

Boiling water potentially takes you past the point where the ice melts to the point where the metal expands from the heat. You want water from the hot tap, I reckon

Piss

Or that

And then when you do get it open, use 3 in 1 type oil liberally, as that’ll stop it freezing up again.

The pad lock is five foot off the ground. Going to have to find some inner strength to piss up there. Will report back.

Findus Fop, there, minutes before experiencing his first Bear Grylls moment.

Mrs Fop: What the fuck do you think you're doing?

Mr Fop: Th-the people on the internet told me to do it.

Nobody said it had to be your piss

Piss in a jug first. You don't have to be an animal about it

The heating is in for the first time this winter.

Last week it was 25°c when I did the school run. Today it is 4°c at midday.

Brrr..... cold here too!

I think I'll be fitting the electric blanket when I next change my bed.

We came back from Lisbon on Saturday where it had been 30 degrees. Flew into Bristol where it was 11 when we landed, and yesterday morning it was 1.5 when I woke up. The heating is now on.

Second night with log burner on.