Green Monster (by sarah)

A Revue Monster is joining the ranks of the Monsters.

Green Monster reviews science fiction and fantasy with a smattering of horror and hopes you will all appreciate what his veiws.

Snow Catagory (by sarah)

Ok due to the iternet issue at home I'm not getting to put post live when they are written so there are back dated ones appearing which may have been missed.

What I have done is added a Snow catagory - I have only gone through recent posts but will do the rest shortly hopefully.

http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/categories/snow/

I am also thinking of adding in just a caragory for extreme weather to be honest - I think this will be a parent catagory mind!

Of Blizzards and Floods (by sarah)

Last night saw a blizzard, this was proper low visibility, swerlling winds the lot. So I got Al up early this morning to go and take photographs of the village.

We didn't get far not becuase it was impassable though I was up to my knees in some places - no what we had failed to factor in was meeting people who talk to you!

Still we found out some interesting things about last time it was like this 1963 (I think don't quote me on that!) and how the schools hadn't closed etc... The village school is still closed - yesturday it was becuase the snow might fall off the roofs and hit the kids - sigh.

But it turns out the village has several farmers with snow ploughs who have been doing their community duty and clearing the roads! Gloucestershire is out of salt so we haven't had salt bin refills. One of ours has also been 'relocated' which is always interesting.

Last night I was a little concerned about the 'pools' of melt water me and dad abserved - these were icing over at the time but today whilst out on our walk we noticed that once the sun was up it was thawing fast and there is a lot of water locked up in that snow.

I have cleared our drain out and things and tried not to panic when one of the old ladies from the village told us of the dams they built last time to stop it flooding down the valley as it melted. By the time we got back to the bakery the road leading down was already resembling a small stream.

Not that I'm paranoid about flooding these days :/

I will try and add some photos later.

On the Common with the Sledge (by sarah)

Yesturday me and Dad went out to get supplies such as painkillers and the like - plus Barbara had run out of milk. We still have had no post and our last milk delivery they walked too us for quiet a distance.

Al and Jean however went for an exertion to the common with the sledge that belonged to Al's Dad. I made Al take the camera though when we finially climbed out of the village I slightly regretted this as I was presented with fantastic views but I would prefer to have pics of Jean in the long run!

He stopped at the church first though took a landscape and none of the church which was looking very postcard-esk.

Here are his landscapes of the common.

Jean sledging without her hat! (Bad Daddy)

Many of the villagers were out and about with shovels and there was a sense of community which I feel we are slightly missing out on. Still if it continues we will have to get up into the village more.

Al said the common wasn't very good for sledging as the snow was too fluffy and too deep but it was nice anyway - I got a phone call to say we were nearly out of hot chocolate so Jean had her statutory warm drink when they got home 🙂

The only down side to the day was that I started it off by having a painfull fall but I am amazed I got this far in without any misshapse.

Sledging (by sarah)

Yesturday the snow was strangly crunchy were the surface had frozen solid. Barbara also decided that it had been around long enough that we should clear paths - the only trouble with this is that we find where it has been cleared is more icy-slippery that the compacted ice!

The 'shovel' she's using was made by Ron Al's step grandfather and is a pice of board with a handle - its quiet intreging.

Dad spent ages clearing the first bit of the drive and the parking area inorder to be able to get out and get Al so that he wouldn't have to walk down from the Royal William with all his bags etc...

The main activity of the day however was sledging! First off Barbara and Jean were doing Barbaras washing up when Jean decided she wanted to go out and play in the snow. Barbara got ready and then tried to do up the buttons on Jeans coat - Jean got upset and run away - All we knew was a sad Jean turned up for a cuddle followed by a miffed Barbara.

Barbara had decided that she was going sledging anyway and headed off. I was in the middle of writing something up but realised that I should probably get us all ready to go and join Barbara. So I get us dressed and hurried out along the drive to the farmers field only to find that Barbara had already given up and was bringing the sledge back to use in the paddock.

With a few stumbles she climbed back into the garden behind the garage and I took the sledge to the paddock.

Fun then ensued:

Though I was the only one who managed to stay on the sledge! Though when Barbara decided to give me a 'push-off' I did struggle keeping control I have to say.

Poor dad didn't manage it at all:

He tried:

He convinced Jean he had lost his leg after one crash and she had to 'find it'.

He came off the sledge.

He went back for another go

and another

And another

It started to become a challenge to him

But no

He did get a fair way a couple of times

But others he didn't get very far

Determination is sometimes not a good thing

The result

He even ended up in a snow drift

But here's one where he can pretend it was all ok

Of course I have a video of him sledging with Jean and 'squashing her cheek in the snow' and how annoyed she was over this. She refuses to get on the sled with him now! I'm thinking I might have to turn this into a nice web-comic strip!