10 March 2023

Snowman

There was even more snow last night. It was knee-deep this morning. Possibly the deepest we have known in the thirty four years we have lived in this architect-designed bijou house. This of course proves that global warming is a lie created by woke lefties and layabouts like climatologists, the BBC and David Attenborough. 

Anyway, I built a snowman today - especially for Little Phoebe. I hadn't built one since our kids were little. As we didn't have any lumps of coal, I instead used small potatoes for the eyes - applying black marker pen for the eyeballs. He has, I believe,  the look of Marty Feldman about him but Phoebe wanted to call him Bob.

When my creation was finished, the idea of a children's story based upon a snowman came into my mind like a shaft of sunlight in a shadowy pond. Here goes...

After a night of heavy snowfall, a young girl named Phoebe wakes up and plays in the snow, eventually building a large snowman with her kindly grandpa. At the stroke of midnight, Phoebe sneaks downstairs to find the snowman has magically come to life. Phoebe shows the snowman around her grandparents'  house, playing with appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake Phoebe's snoring grandparents. The two find a sheeted-down motorcycle in the house's garden and go for a ride on it through the woods. Its engine heat starts to melt the snowman and he cools off luxuriating in the garage freezer.

Seeing a picture of the Arctic region on a packet in the freezer, the snowman is agitated and takes the little girl  in hand, running through the garden until they take flight. They fly over the Yorkshire Wolds towards the coast, seeing Flamborough Head and Filey Bay, and north along the coast of Norway. They continue through an arctic landscape and into the aurora borealis. They land in a snow-covered forest where they join a party of snowmen. They eventually meet Father Christmas along with his reindeer; he gives the little girl a card and a scarf with a snowman pattern. The snowman returns home with Phoebe before the sun rises and the two bid farewell for the night.

The following morning, Phoebe wakes up to find that the snowman has melted, leaving only his hat, scarf, potato eyes, carrot nose, and stick arms in a pile of melted snow. Phoebe kneels down by the snowman's remains while holding his scarf, mourning the loss of her friend.

That is the core plot but I think that if the show was ever filmed it would require a theme song - sung by a choirboy with an angelic voice. It would begin something like this:-
We're striding through the air
We're floating in the starlit sky
The townsfolk far below are sleeping as we fly...

40 comments:

  1. Bob looks a bit creepy to me.

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    1. He has bought a ferry ticket from Heysham and after disembarking in Douglas he plans to catch a bus up to Ramsey.

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  2. Replies
    1. Don't report me to The Political Correctness Police!

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  3. What an unbelievable amount of snow you got! Colorado is dry as a bone except for the northwestern corner which is definitely not. California coastal regions are flooding and blowing away in the gusts of wind. But little Phebes is having a rip-roaring time with her new buddy, Bob. Now, that's what is important!

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    1. Even though I made Bob, he seems suspicious to me. I wonder if he is on the sex offenders register.

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  4. Where is the traditionally segmented body? Perhaps that is a white muumuu covering it up!

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    1. The good thing about snowmen is that they can be whatever you want them to be. I had to look up muumuu!

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  5. Oh, Bob looks pretty kindly to me although you are right- he does have a bit of the Marty Feldman look about him.
    I think that story's plot may have been used a time or two before but of course, a good story deserves retellings.

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    1. Drat! I though my storyline was 100% original!

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  6. That's better YP. You qualify for Grandad of the Year award.

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    1. I will keep my shady past secret then.

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  7. He looks like a real Yorkshire snowman to me, lol
    Briony
    x

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    1. I couldn't find a flat cap big enough for him.

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  8. I was going to say the story sounds a teeny bit derivative but Ms Moon says it so much better :)
    I think Bob is cute

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    1. I can arrange a date for you if you wish but he is quite cold-hearted.

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  9. Entertaining enough for children. His cap appears to be that of a passenger aircraft pilot.

    My mother wore a muumuu to a country dance once and shocked the local stout and girdled ladies. They'd never seen such a garment. A few male necks snapped as well.

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    1. Sounds like your mummum was a fashionista in her muumuu.

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  10. Well, you warned us yesterday that this was coming! Not bad! I know you had fun! what were the comments?

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    1. The comments were"Fantastic!", "Brilliant!", "Super-Duper!"

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  11. I like your story and your snowman. The undisturbed section of snow looks like melted marshmallow. I wonder if the unusual depth of snow was arranged by guardian angels so that you and Phoebe could make her first snowman?

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    1. What a lovely thought. I could squeeze that notion into my story.

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  12. Phoebe is lucky to have such a kindly grandpa.

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    1. ...and one with chiseled film-star good looks too!

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  13. What a good grandpa you are to build a freezing snowman for your little granddaughter. As I have never seen the film about The Snowman, did you plagiarise it in your story?

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  14. The word plagiarism comes to mind, but I won't tell!!

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  15. It must be cold if Bob needs a scarf!

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    Replies
    1. It also hides the joint between neck and body.

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  16. How tall is he? I imagine Phoebe was very impressed with your ability to make something like that from snow.

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    1. He's about 5 feet 9 inches or as inhabitants of The European Union like to say - 1.75 metres. This morning his head was at a curious angle so I have been out to do some remedial surgery on his neck. I didn't even use anaesthetics!

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  17. The joys of grandkids, most of us haven't built a snowman in decades.

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    1. Next time it snows in DC you should give it a go Travel! Building snowmen is not yet illegal though a segment of the GOP are looking into that.

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  18. Your Phoebe is a brave girl to go flying off with a snowman! Glad she got back safely.

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    1. It was only a story Ellen! Did you think it was real?

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  19. That is a darn nice snowman. Mine is now half the man he once was. My dog decapitated him for his carrot nose.

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    1. I had to fix Bob with emergency surgery to prevent his head from falling off. It was freezing last night but quite mild today so there's a drip-drip-drip outside. Poor Bob! His life is going to be a short one!

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  20. I have a fiction novel by Jo Nesbo titled The Snowman, I haven't read it yet, but the blurb on the back indicates The Snowman is a murderer, with the case being worked on and eventually solved by Detective Harry Hole. It has been made into a film as well.
    It's one of a series about the Detective and set in Oslo, Norway.

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  21. Ha! He DOES look Marty Feldman-ish!

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