Day 6

It was Wednesday last week - so this is day 6 - that this corner of our green and pleasant land slid to a halt and since then pretty much all of the country has been affected. Englishmen are famously never happier than when they are moaning, so we must all be almost delirious by now. Fortunately, the temperature stayed above freezing for most of yesterday and, by the look of things this morning, for most of the night as well. By midday today the thaw had recommenced and our road is now passable again, largely thanks to the efforts of a few residents who must have spent hours chipping away at the ice.

There have been comments to the effect that other countries - like Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden etc - cope with snowy winters so much better than we do, and why is it that when we have a few inches of snow everything stops? Of course, what those whingers overlook is that the countries they mention suffer these conditions every year, and for weeks or months at a time. Naturally, they will have the tools and equipment to deal with the problem. I see that many Americans have snow blowers which, I assume, they use every winter. Anyone living in Brighton would use such an implement about once in every ten years, which hardly makes a purchase a sensible investment. Not that one can buy snow blowers in England as far as I know. I have never seen one - not even a picture of one - but I imagine they are similar to the leaf blowers one can buy.

Anyway, the snow has certainly slowed the pace of life, which might not be such a bad thing.

There is one thing puzzling me. When I look out of the windows in the front of the house I see icicles hanging from the guttering and water dripping off the end of them. Do icicles melt from the bottom, or does water run down them to drip from the ends? The icicles don't seem to be shrinking, which indicates that they are just acting as conduits for ice-melt from above, but I would have expected the narrow points at the bottom to melt first.