Snow -

[Anastasius]

Just wondering how everyone's fairing. We stocked up with fresh fruit and veg on Monday but not enough given the circumstances. Twelve inches plus and at the end of a long single-track no-through road there are many other communities needing the snowploughs before us.

Hunker down and listen to Radio 3. Well, maybe not.

[Dave2002]

Just wondering how everyone's fairing. We stocked up with fresh fruit and veg on Monday but not enough given the circumstances. Twelve inches plus and at the end of a long single-track no-through road there are many other communities needing the snowploughs before us.

Hunker down and listen to Radio 3. Well, maybe not.

Sorry to hear that your fresh food stocks may be low, though hope you’ve got other things as well - tins, frozen ... Quite by chance we should be alright for a few days more. I was told to go out and get some basics on Tuesday when I went to see a friend further in towards London, and on the way back I was passing Asda, so decided to go there. In the end I took executive decisions on a selection of fruit, veg and hot cross buns, and almost filled a small trolley for under £30 - including screen wash and de-icer. The hot cross buns will keep us going for another few days!

Also, it is still possible to get out of our road by car - something which isn’t always feasible if things get bad. Good luck with coping. We have some snow, but it’s nothing like as much as in some earlier years so far.

I’m listening to CDs at present - details later.

[Anastasius]

Um...actually we have very little in the way of tinned stuff or frozen. Something that we need to address for the future especially as seeing that we are only two miles away from RAF Spadeadam which has made the national news in the last few days due to the snowfall.

Tinned stuff as an option is not ideal as my wife is severely coeliac.

[Conchis]

Uneventful journey without delays back from Moreton in the Marsh yesterday. I think the Red Warning kept a lot of drivers off the road, and those who did venture out reaped the benefits.

[Dave2002]

Um...actually we have very little in the way of tinned stuff or frozen. Something that we need to address for the future especially as seeing that we are only two miles away from RAF Spadeadam which has made the national news in the last few days due to the snowfall.

Tinned stuff as an option is not ideal as my wife is severely coeliac.

Does canning make things impossible? We don’t use too many tins, but we do have some soup which we like, and vegetables such as chopped tomatoes in cans are very useful in cooking. We hardly ever actually eat ready food from tins, but if the choice is that or starve we would. Re gluten free products the list does include some easy to store food, such as rice and potatoes - https://www.coeliac.org.uk/gluten-fr...style/gf-diet/ and some soups are OK.

We also rely on our freezer a lot, but that assumes that there are no power cuts, which I hesitate to mention. Power cuts can be a real pain, and in the past we’ve had to dispose of several freezer loads - though not specifically because of cuts - but rather other failures. A power cut of less than a day is manageable, but sometimes people experience much longer and worse cuts than that. It’s worth stocking up on some carton food - e.g. UHT milk and orange juice if your diet can stand that, and with milk there’s always the option to eat breakfast cereal. Yoghurt in the fridge is also good, and can also be used in cooking. It the power goes off due to snow etc., put the stuff in a box out in the snow which will keep it fresh enough.
One almost final survival suggestion - porridge is good - a bag of oats (may be a problem for gluten free ..) doesn’t take up much space and is easy to deal with providing cooking is possible, and then there are potatoes.

I don’t think we are quite at the Dr Zhivago level of having to break up the furniture and burn it for heat or to cook.

[greenilex]

In my neck of the woods traffic is pedestrian only (the terrace is long and fairly steep with cars parked both sides and only a narrow central passage). People are going past the front window occasionally and most of them check to see if my light is on and curtains drawn back.
Yesterday I ventured downtown to the art cinema for a repeat showing of the ROH ballet The Winter’s Tale. Most enjoyable. Return journey via shopping centre where I had tea in the bookshop. Caught what I was told was the last Winchester bus but got off long before that. Lots of very tame birds out for crumbs behind the house - also a rat, but it is truce time.

[oddoneout]

I don’t think we are quite at the Dr Zhivago level of having to break up the furniture and burn it for heat or to cook.

My in-laws lived through the Hongerwinter in Holland. Tends to put things in perspective when weather limits my food choices.....

[gradus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHizvdHbmqw

[johncorrigan]

Not as cold out here in Angus today as it was yesterday - car is parked a third of a mile from the house, so walking in and out. Today I set out for work - not much snow overnight but it was blowing. Fortunately met a tractor which cleared a huge drift and I then drove through a few smaller drifts in my wee Panda - these Italian jobs clearly made for a trip into the Dolomites. It was so beautiful out there. Anyway I stocked up at the local Co-op in Alyth, with locals bemoaning that the town was out of milk and bread and the likes; decided it might be prudent to phone in and take a snow day for fear I wouldn't get back into the house - just made it back to my parking place after an exciting drive, as the drifts had started to re-form. Beautiful walk back in...nice. Stay warm out there.

[johncorrigan]

Great bit of work by Edinburgh bus driver.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368

[Bryn]

Great bit of work by Edinburgh bus driver.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368

Quite superb reactions and implementation of her training, I'd say, and only one passenger asked how she was and complemented her on managing the situation.

[DracoM]

Grey skies, and THE most murderous, non-stop easterly.
Couple nearby slept downstairs because they really thought the roof was lifting.
Everyone up here has never seen / felt anything like this since 1963.
Farmers really concerned for lambing.

[Dave2002]

Quite superb reactions and implementation of her training, I'd say, and only one passenger asked how she was and complemented her on managing the situation.

Brilliant driving - amazing that they all got away with that.

Is that train still stuck with the passengers who've been in the cold all night?

https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/926171/UK-snow-travel-latest-South-Western-railway-train-stuck-in-snow-Waterloo-Bournemouth-Poole

Maybe trains should carry survival kit in weather like this - and food and drink.

[Stunsworth]

Great bit of work by Edinburgh bus driver.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368

Difficult to judge, but she seemed to be going faster than I would have expected.

Very little snow here, but cold and windy. Just a few miles away the M62 is closed indefinitely on the trans-Pennine section.

[Bryn]

Difficult to judge, but she seemed to be going faster than I would have expected.

Very little snow here, but cold and windy. Just a few miles away the M62 is closed indefinitely on the trans-Pennine section.

It's difficult indeed. She will have had a schedule to try and keep close to, and the car driver doing a U-turn in road and weather conditions like that was crazy. I recently viewed an extended interview with the bus driver where she mentioned that it looked worse in the footage than it did for her at the time. Having negotiated the obstruction she just carried on as normal. When she got home her husband drew her attention to the clip on the television news. "That was me" was her response, which he was not expecting. All in a day's work, eh? Fortunately I am resting today, as I was yesterday, but tomorrow, Sunday and Monday I will be driving an open top double decker to and around Windsor and Eton as usual. I don't expect to be carrying too many passengers, however, and have a much less stressful schedule to maintain.