Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Sussex garden snow.
I'm tired.
Partly because I was awake for a long time last night listening to local radio.
They were on air specifically about the weather and for people to know what was going on.
It is hard to understand what was going on really........how come it was taking people 6 hours to get from Crawley to Handcross and then have little hope of getting further before morning?
The weather caused treacherous conditions out of almost nothing.
The snow was not deep but the winds were strong. As fast as any road was cleared snow blew back onto the ice that covered that the roads.
Cars were sliding, into drifts and each other. Lorries jack knifed. Long queues formed and no gritters or emergency services could get through.
I so felt for the people phoning into the radio station, who had been stuck in their cars for hours; there were some pretty awful tales.
And before people start to think that Sussex folk are wimps and/or stupid, let me tell you it was really bad compared with conditions in Surrey - even Horley, just a few miles up the road.
In Dorking today it was just cold - very cold.
But the sun was shining and the sky was a deep vivid blue.
Surprisingly, though, we saw more customers yesterday than today.
This morning I took some photos in our garden.
This was yesterday morning. The daffodils seemed to have lost the will to live.
But this was just the beginning.
The back path and back gate.
The notice on the gate is a French sign, which announces Chasse Interdite.......well, the chasse was difficult.
And roads have been badly affected in Northern France too.
With apologies to the French, I am glad about that. Glad to know that other countries don't get it right either.
Though it is hard to see how anybody could have got things right for the last 24 hours.
You can see how little snow is on the rooves. It has blown off in swirling blizzards.
Looking along the front gardens in our row.
That's the view of our front garden from the window.
You can see that beyond the piled up drifting snow, the grass is quite thinly covered.
Frieda cannot have ventured out of her front door this morning.
Drifting up the garage wall.
Clearing a pathway to the back gate.
Our journey this morning was OK.....soon on the A24 into Surrey.
This evening we risked the lanes for the journey home. It was amazing how, once passed Charlwood, and back into Sussex just how much snow was still lying by the roadsides.
Partly because I was awake for a long time last night listening to local radio.
They were on air specifically about the weather and for people to know what was going on.
It is hard to understand what was going on really........how come it was taking people 6 hours to get from Crawley to Handcross and then have little hope of getting further before morning?
The weather caused treacherous conditions out of almost nothing.
The snow was not deep but the winds were strong. As fast as any road was cleared snow blew back onto the ice that covered that the roads.
Cars were sliding, into drifts and each other. Lorries jack knifed. Long queues formed and no gritters or emergency services could get through.
I so felt for the people phoning into the radio station, who had been stuck in their cars for hours; there were some pretty awful tales.
And before people start to think that Sussex folk are wimps and/or stupid, let me tell you it was really bad compared with conditions in Surrey - even Horley, just a few miles up the road.
In Dorking today it was just cold - very cold.
But the sun was shining and the sky was a deep vivid blue.
Surprisingly, though, we saw more customers yesterday than today.
This morning I took some photos in our garden.
This was yesterday morning. The daffodils seemed to have lost the will to live.
But this was just the beginning.
The back path and back gate.
The notice on the gate is a French sign, which announces Chasse Interdite.......well, the chasse was difficult.
And roads have been badly affected in Northern France too.
With apologies to the French, I am glad about that. Glad to know that other countries don't get it right either.
Though it is hard to see how anybody could have got things right for the last 24 hours.
You can see how little snow is on the rooves. It has blown off in swirling blizzards.
That's the view of our front garden from the window.
You can see that beyond the piled up drifting snow, the grass is quite thinly covered.
Frieda cannot have ventured out of her front door this morning.
Drifting up the garage wall.
Clearing a pathway to the back gate.
Our journey this morning was OK.....soon on the A24 into Surrey.
This evening we risked the lanes for the journey home. It was amazing how, once passed Charlwood, and back into Sussex just how much snow was still lying by the roadsides.
