Day 41 - The fading.
Its a strange thing, temperature. The experts assured us that it would barely creep above freezing in the little corner of my shire today, and yet when the sun painted its way through the clouds there was melting, fading of the snow that had already shrunk in overnight frosts.
Its patchy, this fading, which makes me wonder even more about temperature. Why will it melt on the stone ground, but not on the stone walls, even when the sun was making it sparkle and glow. Melting in shadows, remaining in the sun….its a curious mystery that I can’t stop myself speculating about.
Day 40, year 2 - The snow goes ever on and on.
It started again around 3am and simply kept on coming all day. Winter reigns supreme and there’s not even a hint of it getting any more than a degree above freezing for days.
It does only take a few days to see through snow and see what its game is. I’m on to you, snow. I know that really you’re just rain in a posh frock….
Day 39, year 2 - The weekend drifts by.
Its been an indoors sort of a weekend, while Jack Frost and his snow ruled outdoors. The sort of weekend for huddling up warm and cosy inside. The sort of weekend to look out at the wind blowing the snow around into all sorts of crazy shapes and forms, or into gravity-defying places on the trees.
I can’t deny it looks beautiful, looking out from the warm indoors. I can’t deny it was great to go out and experience it. I definitely can’t deny that I was very glad to get indoors again and didn’t have to go out anywhere at all this weekend!
Day 37, year 2 - the snow and the ivy.
Sam Gamgee was none too impressed on encountering snow out in the wild on his adventures. Snow is all well and good, he thought, when you’re lying cosy in bed in the morning and its falling outside. He wanted the snow in Eregion to head off to The Shire, where folks might appreciate it……and today he got his wish.
It was most certainly the hobbit-sized folk who appreciated it most, as the tops of garden walls, scraped clean of their snowy burden, can attest. Garden walls are just the perfect height for making easy snowballs, don’t you think? They’ll have plenty of opportunity ahead to redistribute, with the snow set to remain all weekend. Doubtless Sam would approve.
Evergreen plants always seems so incongruous in the snow, I find. Almost embarrassed to be weighed down with it while their deciduous cousins quickly shrug the snow from their bare branches. They shouldn’t be embarrassed though, because the contrast of colours and tones is beautiful. Almost worth having the snow for. Almost….
If you’re somewhere in the shire and huddling inside away from the snow tonight then do keep warm and think extra carefully if you really need to go out anywhere in the ice and snow this weekend. Unless, of course, you’re heading into the garden to make a snow-hobbit or two!
Day 36, year 2 - And a robber button is?
Its been what felt like an age waiting on pre-order, but Mr Baggins button is finally here - and its definitely been worth the wait!!
First reaction on unpacking is that this is beautifully boxed with part of Thror’s map decorating the sturdy carboard box. Second reaction, on opening the box, is that this is BIG for a button! Third reaction, its HEAVY!
This is definitely oversized for the button of a hobbit’s waistcoat, but its a quality, weighty item all the same and if you want a replica from the movie but don’t have a big budget then this is definitely something to look at, especially if you like hobbits more than dwarves as its the only “hobbit-made” replica currently available from An Unexpected Journey. The attention to detail on replicating the button really is excellent.
Its definitely not a pin you can pin to a shirt, it’ll have to be on something big and sturdy to support this weighty piece that is over 3cm wide. The only downside is that the securing pin itself is a little lightweight, with only a bent bit of metal to secure it. The securing pin is also placed at the base of the acorn, so it can only hang securely “upside down” (the same way the acorn button has been depicted on the film tie-in publications as a graphic, and on the Weta pendant bags) rather than the “right way up” of the buttons on Bilbo’s waistcoat.
Its an item I’m very happy to get my hands on at last and one I do recommend taking a look at if you get the chance. And if you get the comedy reference in the post title then well done, help yourself to some cake!
Day 35, year 2 - The yin and yang of winter.
All along the lanes are muddy puddles now, the result of the warm and heavy rain days of winter. Today, though, they were freezing over, muddy brown water being obscured, or perhaps even redeemed, by creeping white ice.
The other side of winter is here now, Jack Frost is dancing and the snows are coming. Balance. Yin and yang. And all in a puddle.
Day 34, year 2 - Frost upon the gate.
Jack Frost had danced his way around before the sun arose this morning. I like to think he then sat back and let the rising sun illuminate his work with a knowing smile of admiration.
Day 33, year 2 - The heavens open once more.
In the east farthing the snow is falling, but with the pennines protecting us in the west we only have….rain. Which makes a change.
How it rained and the wind blew last night and this morning. The sort of weather that makes you want to turn over and pull the covers over your head as it did its worst outdoors.
Worse is certainly what it was when I ventured out. Puddles in fields had become ponds. Everything sounded of drip and squelch. Perhaps that snow might have been better after all…..
There’s a storm brewing…
No idea if this is official or some clever work by some talented fan, but this is a very intriguing sight indeed….
Day 31, year 2 - Its really rather wet out there.
The cold comes in, the cloud remains and everything remains soaking wet. Its painful to look at when you see its effects, but up close it is remarkably beautiful.
