Sorry for the total lack of updates but I was really busy yesterday and will again today and tomorrow.
I am away for 2 weeks tomorrow and I'm not too sure when I shall do the next update..
Sorry again.
Cheers George.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
No snow today!
Well I guess the day after the snow was never going to be much fun...but I think I could have done without having a south east gale and rain as a replacement!
Today started dry, but a late start meant a quick drive to school as we had no milk for breakfast again!
I am definitely a breakfast kind of guy, don't even bother trying to get any sense out of me until I have had my Frosties!! :-))
So after the school drop off I went back home as it was dustbin day and time to clear out our guinea pig hutch.
We have 3 guinea pigs and what great pets they are!
We have had 2 of them since they were just a couple of weeks old,and they were both girls and both had babies.
We kept one of the babies and gave the other 3 away as they would have been overcrowded.
And we thought at least 2 of the others were boys!
So with that done it was time for work and I headed off up to finish of yesterday stair carpet.
I had done that by lunchtime and had time to pick up the youngest little one from nursery too.
After lunch I had a large lounge carpet to do, again it was straight forward and I had a clear room, so was done in just over an hour or so..
Then I went to pick up the boys from school,take my dad up to the health centre, pick up my sister from her house and take her to the airport.
And then pick up my sisters in laws and take them for a special St Marys tour.
I'm getting the hang of these tours and I am now rattling off the facts while showing the sights to any willing passenger!
With them safely dropped home, I went back up to the health centre to collect my dad and take him home, bless him he was waiting for ages!
I went home,thought about what to have for tea...took wifey to a meeting and then back home to make and have tea.
Then back to pick up wifey and then sort out what we need to pack for our hols!
I am ready to go away now, and have had plenty of driving practise today!!
I like to drive and will be doing about 150 miles on the first day on the mainland.
Not much you might think, but when there is only 9 miles of road in total on my whole island it puts it into perspective!
So today was a bit of a blur and I really think the islands look quite boring on this cold,wet and windy day!
I didn't take one picture, because it just looked so uninspiring after the snow of the past two days!
I had time to reflect about the snow of which the majority of people really hate for some reason...
And I guess it is because of the damned inconvenience of it, if you need to go somewhere and the snow is not letting you.
Probably anyone that has prolonged snow to deal with must get fed up with it quite soon.
But for me it will always be magic!
And the reason is because of the way it makes the islands look and how it never ever lasts long enough for you to do all off the things that you wanted to do!
I hope it snows again sometime, when I can be more prepared and then maybe we could go sledging like I did when I was a child!
But I do understand those who don't like the snow because of all the associated problems that come with it.
I have seen one van today that looks as though they had a bit of trouble in the snow, he has lost a whole drivers side wing! Ouch!
I guess I was lucky during my driving in the snow....
I'm going to get some pics of my guinea pigs now as a blog without pics just looks to boring!!
I shall add another c
ouple of pics of the snow too just for 
good measure!!
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Tuesday 3rd February MORE SNOW!!
Well if yesterdays excitement wasn't enough, yesterday evening the snow started again!
At first it seemed to be just a shower, but again it was cold enough to stick straight away.
We got the boys off to bed and looked out to see lots and lots of snow falling and it didn't stop.
It snowed on and off all evening, sometimes small powdery snow and sometimes huge slow falling tranquil flakes.
It was like a scene from a movie!
I can't remember a time when we have had such a snowfall.
Certainly last time we had decent snow in 1987 it was blizzard like conditions that you really want to go outside in.
Back then apparently we had 23cm!
Last night we were close to 10cm (4inches) in places..
I had 3 and half inches on my car roof.
I went on a photo frenzy and I have taken at least 500 pics and might be sometime sorting them out.
I have a few beauties!!!
So after playing about in the snow and pushing a huge ball of snow from Old Town Cafe right back home to my garden, I finally got in around midnight
The temp was around zero, and the forecast was for the wind to change direction to the west which would bring warmer weather.
I knew there wouldn't be so much snow in the morning, so we set our alarms for 6.30 and hoped for the best.
When the alarm went off the whole house came alive!
A couple of us had a quick breakfast and then it was off out in the snow.
It was certainly starting to thaw already but the sheer quantity that fell meant that it was going to take a long time to go all together and there was a good 2 inches lying everywhere on the ground.
We went down the Old Town beach again...I must have been down there at least 10 times in the first 48 hours to see the snow!
There is something really quite magical about seeing snow on palm trees and certainly on a beach that you never see snow on!
It was great to look at.
We had done a snowman based on that big ball of snow I collected last night.
We had had a snowball fight.
The only thing now was sledging!
On looking around to see what we could use, not much came to hand...
We thought that the little ones toy boat might be ok, so put it in the back of the car and headed for the nearest hill!
Which was on the road the leads up to the airport..
Cars had already been up there a
nd it looked ok, so we had a go on the hill up ther
e.
It was quite tough going, all the boys had a turn and the youngest one was the fastest with Michael just clearing all the snow as I pushed him down the slope....we needed a bigger gradient!
Nearest place we thought off easily accessible was Carreg dhu gardens, at the top of the garden on the path that goes down the hill.
Sure enough Brandon was first and went down a treat.
They all then followed, it was brilliant!
We could of done with more space, but there wasn't time to go anywhere else as today we decided the boys would be going to school.
Now I have never before
driven in snow and seeing how I might be faced with it again this weekend when I go away, I thought that I had better get some practise.
I also wanted to take some pics elsewhere on the island.
So I took the boys home to get ready for school and took a drive up to the golf course as yesterday it looked great in the snow.
The drive up Telegraph road was easier than I thought it might be, it was made easier because several cars had already made the journey.
As I turned off Telegraph road I was into fresh snow and the first car to go down the road...lovely!
I had fun taking it easy down the road.
Fortunately my car has new tyres and anti lock brakes and I'm sure that it helped lots!
I didn't have any trouble and got to the golf club and took my pics.
Then went home because it was time for school.
The boys were waiting for me, but it was getting late, so we drove the short distance to school through the slush that had quickly changed from white snow.
There was still plenty of snow about and kids were having great fun with snowball fights galore.
Great scenes..
I 
really needed to do more work today than yesterdays poor efforts and I had taken lots of pics.
So headed off to make a start, I was very easily distracted all the way when driving, seeing views and scenes that looked fantastic.
Some very hard to capture,so I didn't really try!
I got to work and today I had to do a landing and stairs.
I also had lots of calls to do,phone calls and measures.
So a busy day really.
By lunchtime we had had another couple of snowy,sleety,light hail showers, but the sun was out and the temp rising and on the drive home for lunch there was hardly any snow left on the roads and the thaw was evident everywhere.
Quite a surprising amount of water dripping off roofs and running down the roads.
After lunch I finished off the job and did a few more calls and orders.
By the time school pick up had arrived the only snow left was in the odd hedgerow and a few fields that hadn't seen direct sun,also a few roofs in Old Town too.
I went back to work and worked until 5.30.
Then home for tea and puts the boys to bed, before getting ready to go out and indeed going out to play pool.
We took on the Bishop team tonight and at one stage the score was 6-1 but somehow ended up 6-3 to us, after a late come back!
As always a good evening out and here I am typing away again!
I really must have a look at all those pics, but I have so many I really don't know where to start!!
At first it seemed to be just a shower, but again it was cold enough to stick straight away.
We got the boys off to bed and looked out to see lots and lots of snow falling and it didn't stop.
It snowed on and off all evening, sometimes small powdery snow and sometimes huge slow falling tranquil flakes.
It was like a scene from a movie!
I can't remember a time when we have had such a snowfall.
Certainly last time we had decent snow in 1987 it was blizzard like conditions that you really want to go outside in.
Back then apparently we had 23cm!
Last night we were close to 10cm (4inches) in places..
I had 3 and half inches on my car roof.
I went on a photo frenzy and I have taken at least 500 pics and might be sometime sorting them out.
I have a few beauties!!!
So after playing about in the snow and pushing a huge ball of snow from Old Town Cafe right back home to my garden, I finally got in around midnight
The temp was around zero, and the forecast was for the wind to change direction to the west which would bring warmer weather.
I knew there wouldn't be so much snow in the morning, so we set our alarms for 6.30 and hoped for the best.
When the alarm went off the whole house came alive!
A couple of us had a quick breakfast and then it was off out in the snow.
It was certainly starting to thaw already but the sheer quantity that fell meant that it was going to take a long time to go all together and there was a good 2 inches lying everywhere on the ground.
We went down the Old Town beach again...I must have been down there at least 10 times in the first 48 hours to see the snow!
There is something really quite magical about seeing snow on palm trees and certainly on a beach that you never see snow on!
It was great to look at.
We had done a snowman based on that big ball of snow I collected last night.
We had had a snowball fight.
The only thing now was sledging!
On looking around to see what we could use, not much came to hand...
We thought that the little ones toy boat might be ok, so put it in the back of the car and headed for the nearest hill!
Which was on the road the leads up to the airport..
Cars had already been up there a
nd it looked ok, so we had a go on the hill up ther
e.It was quite tough going, all the boys had a turn and the youngest one was the fastest with Michael just clearing all the snow as I pushed him down the slope....we needed a bigger gradient!
Nearest place we thought off easily accessible was Carreg dhu gardens, at the top of the garden on the path that goes down the hill.
Sure enough Brandon was first and went down a treat.
They all then followed, it was brilliant!
We could of done with more space, but there wasn't time to go anywhere else as today we decided the boys would be going to school.
Now I have never before
driven in snow and seeing how I might be faced with it again this weekend when I go away, I thought that I had better get some practise.I also wanted to take some pics elsewhere on the island.
So I took the boys home to get ready for school and took a drive up to the golf course as yesterday it looked great in the snow.
The drive up Telegraph road was easier than I thought it might be, it was made easier because several cars had already made the journey.
As I turned off Telegraph road I was into fresh snow and the first car to go down the road...lovely!
I had fun taking it easy down the road.
Fortunately my car has new tyres and anti lock brakes and I'm sure that it helped lots!
I didn't have any trouble and got to the golf club and took my pics.
Then went home because it was time for school.
The boys were waiting for me, but it was getting late, so we drove the short distance to school through the slush that had quickly changed from white snow.
There was still plenty of snow about and kids were having great fun with snowball fights galore.
Great scenes..
I 
really needed to do more work today than yesterdays poor efforts and I had taken lots of pics.So headed off to make a start, I was very easily distracted all the way when driving, seeing views and scenes that looked fantastic.
Some very hard to capture,so I didn't really try!
I got to work and today I had to do a landing and stairs.
I also had lots of calls to do,phone calls and measures.
So a busy day really.
By lunchtime we had had another couple of snowy,sleety,light hail showers, but the sun was out and the temp rising and on the drive home for lunch there was hardly any snow left on the roads and the thaw was evident everywhere.
Quite a surprising amount of water dripping off roofs and running down the roads.
After lunch I finished off the job and did a few more calls and orders.
By the time school pick up had arrived the only snow left was in the odd hedgerow and a few fields that hadn't seen direct sun,also a few roofs in Old Town too.
I went back to work and worked until 5.30.
Then home for tea and puts the boys to bed, before getting ready to go out and indeed going out to play pool.
We took on the Bishop team tonight and at one stage the score was 6-1 but somehow ended up 6-3 to us, after a late come back!
As always a good evening out and here I am typing away again!
I really must have a look at all those pics, but I have so many I really don't know where to start!!
Monday, 2 February 2009
2nd February 2009 SNOW SNOW SNOW!
Wow!!!
SNOW SNOW SNOW!
I love snow and was more than happy to be woken by the phone at stupid o clock time of 6.45 to look out of my window and see lots of white stuff and more falling.
Normally the snow we see here does indeed fall...but normally just melts!
A quick look at the outside temp revealed it was -1 which was why the snow was sticking.
Great so we all got up and were out by 7 to play and walk about in the falling snow.
It wasn't long before it stopped but it was still cold enough to hang around for a bit!
Michael was enjoying just being in the snow.
Brandon was having a go at throwing snowballs and playing with his ride on quad bike, well for about a minute until the wheels got stuck with compacted snow!
And the little one was quite amazed by the whole event and not too sure what to make of it!
He wasn't at all interested in being in the snow as it was falling from the sky and didn't touch any for ages after it had stopped!
I guess if you have never seen snow before it must be quite an adjustment! Bless him!
We took a drive to see how other places were looking after we had looked at all our familiar sights around us.
By now the snow was already starting to thaw and driving was very safe as the roads were almost completely clear.
So now it was a search for remaining snow.
We found plenty up at the golf course.
The ducks down at Watermill seemed to be enjoying eating the snow!
The trees by the pond were just beautiful.
The pics don't do them justice!
Onwards the to mother in laws house via Holy Vale.
We arrived at mother in laws and there was only a bit of snow left on the ground and a fair bit on a couple of cars there...and my own car too.
Just enough really for a quick snowball fight!
We then went home as by no
w it was 10.30 and really I should have been a
t w
or
k
and the boys at school! Ahem!
To be fair they were a bit under the weather today and didn't really get out of the car much.....
So off to work I went..
Today's job was a stairs and landing/hall in a house up Carn Friars.
By the time I got here it was now 11.15.
So I did the stairs and went for lunch.
Lunch for wifey and boys was pasties from Steve Griffin Butchers.
Lovely and just the job on a cold snowy day!
i had lots of snow pics to download, but got caught up checking out weather forecasts and enjoying other peoples pics of the snow, on facebook and the internet in general.
It was nearly 3 by the time I was back to work.
I stayed at work until after 6!
Late for me and I was glad to come home to a nice Tikka Masala that wifey had slow cooked this afternoon. Delicious!
On the way home it had started to snow again and it was sticking again now that the sun had gone an the temp was dropping below 2 degrees.
After tea a look out of the window revealed that it was snowing some more and was looking like this morning all over again.
The temp right now at 8.40 is at zero and should drop a couple more degrees so I expect to see the snow when we wake up in the morning!
Any more showers overnight should add to the existing snow.
I really hope so because then we can try our hands at sledging!
Something I haven't done since 1987!!!
I can't wait and I'm not sure how well any of us boys will sleep knowing that there is an inch of snow already lying on the ground outside.
I reckon we need another 3 to make sledging viable!
Just looked outside right now and the snow has stopped for a while and we do seem to have an inch of lying snow in my garden!
Great stuff! I LOVE IT!!!!
SNOW SNOW SNOW!
I love snow and was more than happy to be woken by the phone at stupid o clock time of 6.45 to look out of my window and see lots of white stuff and more falling.
Normally the snow we see here does indeed fall...but normally just melts!
A quick look at the outside temp revealed it was -1 which was why the snow was sticking.
Great so we all got up and were out by 7 to play and walk about in the falling snow.
It wasn't long before it stopped but it was still cold enough to hang around for a bit!
Michael was enjoying just being in the snow.
Brandon was having a go at throwing snowballs and playing with his ride on quad bike, well for about a minute until the wheels got stuck with compacted snow!
And the little one was quite amazed by the whole event and not too sure what to make of it!
He wasn't at all interested in being in the snow as it was falling from the sky and didn't touch any for ages after it had stopped!
I guess if you have never seen snow before it must be quite an adjustment! Bless him!
We took a drive to see how other places were looking after we had looked at all our familiar sights around us.
By now the snow was already starting to thaw and driving was very safe as the roads were almost completely clear.
So now it was a search for remaining snow.
We found plenty up at the golf course.
The ducks down at Watermill seemed to be enjoying eating the snow!
The trees by the pond were just beautiful.
The pics don't do them justice!
Onwards the to mother in laws house via Holy Vale.
We arrived at mother in laws and there was only a bit of snow left on the ground and a fair bit on a couple of cars there...and my own car too.
Just enough really for a quick snowball fight!
We then went home as by no
w it was 10.30 and really I should have been a
t w
or
k
and the boys at school! Ahem!To be fair they were a bit under the weather today and didn't really get out of the car much.....
So off to work I went..
Today's job was a stairs and landing/hall in a house up Carn Friars.
By the time I got here it was now 11.15.
So I did the stairs and went for lunch.
Lunch for wifey and boys was pasties from Steve Griffin Butchers.
Lovely and just the job on a cold snowy day!
i had lots of snow pics to download, but got caught up checking out weather forecasts and enjoying other peoples pics of the snow, on facebook and the internet in general.
It was nearly 3 by the time I was back to work.
I stayed at work until after 6!
Late for me and I was glad to come home to a nice Tikka Masala that wifey had slow cooked this afternoon. Delicious!
On the way home it had started to snow again and it was sticking again now that the sun had gone an the temp was dropping below 2 degrees.
After tea a look out of the window revealed that it was snowing some more and was looking like this morning all over again.
The temp right now at 8.40 is at zero and should drop a couple more degrees so I expect to see the snow when we wake up in the morning!
Any more showers overnight should add to the existing snow.
I really hope so because then we can try our hands at sledging!
Something I haven't done since 1987!!!
I can't wait and I'm not sure how well any of us boys will sleep knowing that there is an inch of snow already lying on the ground outside.
I reckon we need another 3 to make sledging viable!
Just looked outside right now and the snow has stopped for a while and we do seem to have an inch of lying snow in my garden!
Great stuff! I LOVE IT!!!!
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Sunday 1st February
A nice easy day today.
Didn't get the expected lie in as we hoped as we had to see to our youngest son who woke us up too early for my liking on a Sunday sometime around 8ish.
So once awake, we all thought that we may as well get up and have breakfast and there was a few household jobs to see to,such as washing,etc..
It got to about 11 when I decided it was time to go out.
Until then it had been rather cloudy,the wind was a fresh easterly and you could just tell it was cold out there even though the house was warm..
So we went out for a drive not sure where we were going.
There was talk of not having a football match today,so we didn't bother going up there.
By the time we were in town we realised that it was more or less lunchtime and Mike had to get to his panto at 12.45.
So went went into the co-op and got some sandwiches and had an impromptu lunch in the car parked on the rechabite slipway overlooking the harbour.
At times the sun broke though and it looked great,otherwise it was quite grey,windy and cold.
When the sun was out it was a great time for photography and the light was just great.
I took lots of pics and I think a pic of every boat in the harbour today and I couldn't decide which ones to put on here, so they are all on!
After lunch we dropped Mike at panto and headed home.
On the way back home the waves at the back of my house looked superb in the sunny spells, so Brandon and I went down there and I took some quite atmospheric pics.
It wasn't long before my hands were freezing,so I headed home for a hot drink.
Then I needed to drop off my sister in law and family to the panto.
With that done I was home until panto was finished.
I did a bit of work in the front garden as it was getting a bit full of junk that needed sorting out, and we were spurred on into doing something about it when our rosemary bush fell down in the strong easterly wind.
I was just about down in the garden when father/mother in law turned up for a visit.
I was more than happy to stop and have another hot drink!
While we were chatting, we started talking about the weather as it was feeling very cold.
I have got a neat little weat
h
er stat
ion that tells all 
sorts of weather info.
But it hasn't been working lately so while talking about it.I set to work on fixing it.
Luckily the shop on ebay that I had got it from had sent me replacement parts some time back in November.
Today the batteries had gone in the display that had been working OK, so I replaced the whole lot.
Screen and wireless transmitter were swapped and it was all working again.
We watched intently as the temperature gauge went from the indoor temp right down to 5.5 degrees.
So it was as cold it it felt, and a quick look at the forecast showed it was going to get a lot worse.
It wasn't long after that and I was back into town to pick up Mike and the rest of the family.
Then it was almost time for tea.
By now I was looking at the weather forecast again and it is looking good for some snow.
I am really quite excited about it and really hope we get some.
It hasn't looked this promising for having snow for a long time.
After tea we all just relaxed and watched the footie match.
We were very pleased to see Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 at home and then it was almost time for bed.
It turned out there was a match over here today with the score being 2-0 as well..
By now it was feeling a bit cold in the house so our heater have gone up a notch and my weather station is showing that it is now 2 degrees outside add on windchill and I bet its more like -3!
I really hope it snows, if it does and it settles I will be out like a shot to get pics.
I will also take the boys out of school as if it does settle it will be the first time they have seen snow on the ground since they have been able to walk by themselves.
Last time was back in 2001 and that didn't last past 10 in the morning.
So here's hoping I get my wish!!!
Didn't get the expected lie in as we hoped as we had to see to our youngest son who woke us up too early for my liking on a Sunday sometime around 8ish.
So once awake, we all thought that we may as well get up and have breakfast and there was a few household jobs to see to,such as washing,etc..
It got to about 11 when I decided it was time to go out.
Until then it had been rather cloudy,the wind was a fresh easterly and you could just tell it was cold out there even though the house was warm..
So we went out for a drive not sure where we were going.
There was talk of not having a football match today,so we didn't bother going up there.
By the time we were in town we realised that it was more or less lunchtime and Mike had to get to his panto at 12.45.
So went went into the co-op and got some sandwiches and had an impromptu lunch in the car parked on the rechabite slipway overlooking the harbour.
At times the sun broke though and it looked great,otherwise it was quite grey,windy and cold.
When the sun was out it was a great time for photography and the light was just great.
I took lots of pics and I think a pic of every boat in the harbour today and I couldn't decide which ones to put on here, so they are all on!
After lunch we dropped Mike at panto and headed home.
On the way back home the waves at the back of my house looked superb in the sunny spells, so Brandon and I went down there and I took some quite atmospheric pics.
It wasn't long before my hands were freezing,so I headed home for a hot drink.
Then I needed to drop off my sister in law and family to the panto.
With that done I was home until panto was finished.
I did a bit of work in the front garden as it was getting a bit full of junk that needed sorting out, and we were spurred on into doing something about it when our rosemary bush fell down in the strong easterly wind.
I was just about down in the garden when father/mother in law turned up for a visit.
I was more than happy to stop and have another hot drink!
While we were chatting, we started talking about the weather as it was feeling very cold.
I have got a neat little weat
h
er stat
ion that tells all 
sorts of weather info.
But it hasn't been working lately so while talking about it.I set to work on fixing it.
Luckily the shop on ebay that I had got it from had sent me replacement parts some time back in November.
Today the batteries had gone in the display that had been working OK, so I replaced the whole lot.
Screen and wireless transmitter were swapped and it was all working again.
We watched intently as the temperature gauge went from the indoor temp right down to 5.5 degrees.
So it was as cold it it felt, and a quick look at the forecast showed it was going to get a lot worse.
It wasn't long after that and I was back into town to pick up Mike and the rest of the family.
Then it was almost time for tea.
By now I was looking at the weather forecast again and it is looking good for some snow.
I am really quite excited about it and really hope we get some.
It hasn't looked this promising for having snow for a long time.
After tea we all just relaxed and watched the footie match.
We were very pleased to see Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 at home and then it was almost time for bed.
It turned out there was a match over here today with the score being 2-0 as well..
By now it was feeling a bit cold in the house so our heater have gone up a notch and my weather station is showing that it is now 2 degrees outside add on windchill and I bet its more like -3!
I really hope it snows, if it does and it settles I will be out like a shot to get pics.
I will also take the boys out of school as if it does settle it will be the first time they have seen snow on the ground since they have been able to walk by themselves.
Last time was back in 2001 and that didn't last past 10 in the morning.
So here's hoping I get my wish!!!
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