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| View from our front door at seven thirty on Boxing Day |
Last night it snowed. Within three hours, a good eight or nine inches fell all over Sheffield. I hobbled down to the pub with my nasty friend Gordon Gout only to find that the landlady had decided to shut up shop half an hour early so I only managed two pints of foaming bitter. Sheffield is an exceptionally hilly city so when snow falls we suffer major traffic disruption. Motor vehicles skid and sometimes slide into each other. It is best to stay put when the snow comes down. And all around the quietness that fresh fallen snow brings - deadening sound, softening the cityscape...
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| View down our street last night |
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| View up our street last night |
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| Beau (left) and Peep (right) braving the winter snow this morning |
It is beautiful. Cold here but no snow at loch level.
ReplyDeleteLoch Level? Is that near Loch Ness?
DeleteHow gorgeous the snow looks YP.
ReplyDeleteHad any in Cairns recently Carol?
DeleteThat is a lot of snow! Much more than we've had so far.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be nice if it could stay that way for a while? Sadly, cars and people make sure that it will soon turn from the fluffy pristine white cover to a brown-grey muddy slush, at least in town.
When it's freshly fallen, snow certainly is lovely - utterly changing familiar scenes - and I so wish that the pain in my foot had disappeared allowing me to get out and about to nail some nice wintry photos this morning.
DeleteMy cousin has occasional bouts with gout also. He claims that alcohol exacerbates his. He says he can live with pain that has a visible cause...for example if a cow stomped on his foot...but having such terrible pain just because his foot is complaining about something his mouth ate is very frustrating. He just wants to take his brain on a vacation and leave the body home to argue with itself. I'm going to go investigate this online now and see if I can find a way to help both of you.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, well beer IS listed as a primary irritant, above all other alcohol. Also, blood pressure and anti-cholesterol drugs can cause gout in people who are genetically susceptible to it. Mostly the list of food to avoid is stuff people don't eat much anyway, except for me: spinach, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms, lentils. Organ meats, sardines and anchovies? Who eats that stuff? Seals, maybe. It does say to eat 20 tart cherries when you have a gout attack. And some bromelain. And drink a lot of water. I'm afraid the beer could be an irritant, but if you're on BP or cholesterol meds (as are most people over 50) that could be the cause. Whatever it is, we need to get you well and back on the trails.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your professional concern Doctor Jan. I know you charge the same for consultations as other rich American doctors so I shall put my house up for sale tomorrow.
DeleteI'm with Dr. Jan - we definitely want you back on the picture taking excursions! LOVE the snow! I am insanely jealous. You must immediately hobble outside and make a snow angel. Then, if it will pack, you must build a snow.....creature. Rarely I make a snowMAN. I've been known to fashion a snowCOW, snow sewing machine and a snow chihuahua. Get busy, you've much to accomplish in your little yard before it all disappears!
ReplyDeleteMistress Hilly, I am not your plaything! The only snow I'll be shifting is the stuff that's stopping my car from being reversed on to the road. By the way our garden at the back (yard) stretches for fifty yards. It is roughly the size of Vermont.
DeleteSnow would be an excellent excuse for me to remain snuggled up inside, just as rain is.
ReplyDeleteIt's raining here and has been for the past 40 or so hours....so, yes...I'm snuggled up inside, having only ventured as far as my driveway yesterday morning and this morning to collect the newspaper.
Now, I'll remain out of sight from the outside world until that water that is falling out of the sky ceases its antics. And as far as I'm concerned...it can stick around as long as it likes. I'm loving it! :)
And the test match between the Aussies and India started on Boxing Day...as well as the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race...so I'm expending enough energy as it is already!!!!
If I might be so bold Lee, you are becoming slightly lazy in your mature years! Neighbourhood kids will be calling you The Reclusive Cat Woman...and later there'll be a film about you starring Abbie Cornish as the younger Lee.
DeleteThere are no kids in my neighbourhood, Yorky...and if there were and they were so bold,I'd soon sort them out! ;)
ReplyDeleteThere are only four houses and my cabin in this short dead-end lane.where I dwell;.and I have no neighbours to the right, to the left or to the front of me...and I just love that!!
And if being lazy is my latest occupation, I can tell you, young fella...it takes lots of hard work and long hours to master it! By day's end, which doesn't end until well after nightfall I can assure you, I'm exhausted!
Forget the kids...the adults are already calling me The Reclusive Cat Woman...at my instigation! :)
Gulp! Well that's me told!
DeleteAnd keep yourself rugged up, and stay inside away from the snow!
DeleteIf you insist on having a drink of the alcoholic kind...lean towards a hot toddy or two or some mead...so take heed! Any more cheek out of you I'll have to sue my furry rascals onto you. (Don't worry...they're harmless (and lazy like me) and would just laugh at me)!
It's still raining here, by the way. And I'm still loving it. And it's true what "they" say...you can see the grass grow...if one is prepared to stand or sit there watching, that is!
Now I've always heard that alcohol was BAD for gout, so you are not helping things at all there. It will therefore do you good to be snowed in for a while drinking tea. As Lee says we are having some lovely rain. Not the usual heavy tropical sort but the soft gentle English sort and immediately our lawn has gone from brown to green. Long may it last.
ReplyDeleteThat's what you doctors always say Dr Helen - cut down your drinking! Before Christmas I bought some cans of beer from "Lidl" and i have a feeling that they may have been the trigger. Them or the beef we had that weekend. UPDATE 28th Dec - pain has dropped down the scale a lot this morning. Let's hope it stays that way as we are off to Hull to watch The Tigers play Lecicester City in The Premier League.
DeleteElder Daughter, also in Sheffield had to abandon her car and all hope of getting into work at Chesterfield hospital yesterday. She's coming to see us today so I hope they manage to get out of Sheffield without too much trouble. Hope your gout will soon be better.
ReplyDeleteSome friends couldn't get back from Manchester on Boxing Day night - Snake Pass and Woodhead both closed. Came via the M62 yesterday but hopefully things are a lot better today. I hope that you have had a nice Xmas at Wrexham-super-Mare.
DeleteSheffield seems to have taken the worst of it. We had a hefty covering down here but nothing like you've had. Hope it's clearing up a bit now for you.
ReplyDeleteHad a lot of trouble getting our car out and down the icy hill - heading for Hull v Leicester City. But we are tough in Yorkshire AJ. Sometimes the snowdrifts are so big that only our chimney and TV aerial peep out.
DeleteTo me the pictures conjure up days here on Lewis in the '80s when we had 'proper' snow with all its consequences. I have a sneaking longing to see snow again. Then I recall the traumas of travel through Scotland in snowstorms and it seems far less appealing.
ReplyDeleteEven up there on Lewis I guess that heavy snow is a rarity living as close as you do to sea level?
DeleteIt's very rare YP. In fact the last Big Snow that I can recall was in the '80s and I'm pretty sure we've had no Big Snows whilst I was sunning it in New Zealand for the last nine years.
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