Tag Archives: Beast from the East

A Few Photos

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Here are some photos from earlier in the week. The year is shaping up nicely, though I’m a little worried that the papers are predicting another Beast from the East with temperatures below freezing. My only comfort is that they’ve been reporting on it all winter and it hasn’t happened yet.

Spring in the Mencap Garden
Spring in the Mencap Garden
Spring in the Mencap Garden

The primulas are doing well. As is the blossom. If only the photography was up to scratch.

Spring in the Mencap Garden
Spring in the Mencap Garden
Spring in the Mencap Garden

Here we have some landscaping features – a newly donated chimney pot, the newly painted table and the newly painted log. There’s a lot of new stuff happening in the garden just at the moment, as you may have guessed from the unimaginative titles.

Chimney Pot at Wilford
Heart on a log
The newly painted table

Finally, I’ve thrown in a magpie. I like magpies, and they sit still long enough for me to get a shot.

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Magpie – so black it’s actually blue in places

Thinking of Snow and Siberia

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Well, we woke up to find a light dusting of snow this morning, which was at least 12 hours before it was forecast.

We then went for breakfast and were interested to see that the snow came back, Some of it was small and speedy, some big and more leisurely. Snow can be quite fascinating and it started me wondering what the study of snow is called.

The Latin for snow starts with a “niv” as I understand it from a superficial knowledge of snowdrops –  Galanthus nivalis. My schoolboy Latin was never much to write home about and forty-odd years of disuse haven’t improved it. This is in contrast to my sporting achievements, which have definitely improved with hindsight – also known as “The older I get, the better I was” syndrome.

Nivology seems a bit dull so it was off to Professor Google for an infusion of knowledge. Snow, nix, nivis, as we Latinists say. Nixology definitely sounds wrong. To snow is, ninguo, ninguere (No, I don’t remember why we have all this multiple choice grammar.) Ningology would be OK – being Latin and sounding quite cheerful.

Unfortunately, despite all this linguistic promise, the study of snow is snow hydrology.  Yes, snow hydrology. Disappointing, isn’t it. There’s a whole world of Ningology out there, and the scientists decided to call it snow hydrology.

The snow continued to fall intermittently and we even had a few minutes of ice pellets. So far “The Beast from the East” hasn’t been too bad, though this just the beginning, and it looks like Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be the worst days. There were snow ploughs out on the A1 as we went visiting, so it looks like we will at least be properly prepared.

So far this winter in the Midlands has been marked by scaremongering headlines, rather than by actual bad weather. I’m hoping the trend may continue in the next few days.